With all the headlines this week about protests across the country in honor of a black man killed recently by police in Minnesota, we’d like to see more cities take some lessons from Chattanooga.
Most of our police leadership continues to be careful to forge a peace-seeking way during tough moments. The same has been true of many protest organizers.
Early Tuesday morning, despite some very tense moments of standoff, what began five hours before on Monday as a peaceful protest by about 200 activists in Miller Park, ended peacefully, too – no matter an effort to literally blow up that peace.
Organizers tried to end the event with a call for activists to stay motivated. But someone threw a firecracker onto Market Street, spurring an argument among those gathered when organizer Brie Stevens told the thrower not to disrupt the peaceful event.
The crowd then gathered at the end of the park near M.L. King Boulevard and Georgia Avenue in a standoff with the Chattanooga police. While organizers begged them to be peaceful, many activists verbally antagonized the police – shouting insults and mocking them. When state troopers arrived, they and Chattanooga Police Department officers formed a line on the park lawn and protesters formed a line, this time about 10 feet across from each other. Speakers played music as some activists chanted and a handful of organizers tried to keep the peace.