Alabama unrest: Huntsville police again gas and scatter protesters; arrests in Birmingham; crowds elsewhere

Police cleared the courthouse square in Huntsville by releasing gas shortly after 8 p.m. Wednesday night, moments after state trooper cars poured into the area. More than a hundred rally holdouts walked, then ran north from the Confederate memorial.

In Birmingham, arrests were made in Linn Park for curfew violations. Among the detained were two AL.com reporters.

Earlier, in Huntsville, protesters were marching in the streets after their permit expired at 6:30 p.m. Police ordered all to leave. Police did not act for more than an hour. Then came the the influx of trooper cars and gas. Some protesters fled into one corner of Big Spring Park. Reporters were kept from the site but helicopters were overhead and more gas was used. Rubber bullets were fired. Armed officers blocked access.

Lt. Michael Johnson told AL.com that police decided to disperse the crowd because of concerns about the protest turning violent. From video and officers on the ground, police saw multiple guns in the crowd and protesters pulling unidentified objects from backpacks, Johnson said.

“What you saw tonight was probably the most extreme patience I’ve ever seen with people who wouldn’t do what we say and were breaking the law,” Johnson said. He said the protesters could have been arrested on charges of unlawful assembly, disorderly conduct or inciting a riot.

Johnson told AL.com one officer on the scene reported minor injury to his head after being hit by an unknown object thrown at him.

Huntsville police officer injury

The Huntsville Police Department released this photo showing minor injury suffered by an officer.

Johnson said 24 arrests were made Wednesday night at the Huntsville protest. One person was arrested on a gun charge, three were charged with receiving stolen property and 21 were charged with disorderly conduct.

There are no official reports of damage, but reporters saw a window broken out at The Kaffeeklastsch in downtown Huntsville at Clinton Avenue and Jefferson Street.

There were also no reports of injuries. Reporters encountered a woman who said she was hit five times by rubber bullets. She was bleeding and given first aid in a parking deck near the park (Twitter video below).

The full protest was captured live on video below. It was peaceful. Police move in at the 1:20 mark in the video. At 1:24 trooper cars speed through and water bottles, the first sign of any offensive action by protesters, fly. At 2:11 a police officer is seen carrying away a child who was in the gassed area near the park.

Earlier:

A week of protests across Alabama continued today with marches in Vestavia Hills, Montgomery, Huntsville and Tuscaloosa.

In Vestavia Hills, about a dozen people carrying signs made their way down U.S. 31. The march ended peacefully, with the officers who had been following them stopping to join the protesters in prayer.

About 50 people gathered this evening in Birmingham’s Linn Park, where a 115-year-old Confederate monument was toppled and a peaceful demonstration turned into a riot. It was rumored white supremacist groups would show up. They did not.

Nevertheless, police began arresting those in the park for curfew violations, including two AL.com reporters. (Media are not subject to the curfew restrictions.)

Here’s what happened at other protests around the state:

Huntsville:

About 1,000 people gathered in Big Spring Park in Huntsville, where a crowd on Monday was dispersed by police using teargas.

“We’re going to rally together, we’re going to march together and we’re going to do it peacefully," a speaker at the Huntsville rally said at the beginning of the demonstration.

"We, as a nation, have changed,” Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle told protesters.

Tuscaloosa:

Led by Charles Steele, the CEO of the SCLC, nearly a thousand people marched at Government Plaza in Tuscaloosa in a peaceful protest Wednesday evening.

The headliner gave a passionate speech on a night that included speakers organized by 18-year old Zyler Wilson. After marching to from the plaza to the federal courthouse nearby, Wilson took the stage calling for justice in the wake of murders like George Floyd’s.

“The president calls us thugs,” he told the crowd, referencing Donald Trump’s tweets about protesters. “This is what the media doesn’t want you to see.”

A parade of dignitaries took turns at the mic including state representative Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa.

“We are here,” England told the crowd, “to make sure your children don’t need to go through this again.”

Tuscaloosa mayor Walt Maddox was in the back of the crowd and was called to the podium unexpectedly to speak. He touched on his 2018 gubernatorial campaign theme of the two Alabama’s and the need for social justice. A few hecklers in the crowd shouted down his nearly two-minute speech.

“Isn’t it great that you can have decent in a country like this,” Maddox said in a brief interview following the event. “We can gather and agree and disagree and we need more of this. There are systematic issues.”

In the diverse crowd was Angela and Aaron Chandler of Northport. They brought their 6- and 8-year old daughters

It was a crowd spanning generations from the elderly to the 8- and 6-year old children of Angela and Aaron Chandler of Northport. The white couple wanted to teach their children to speak out against injustice. Their daughters actually saw the video of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis and they had questions for their parents.

“Why do people kill black people,” their 6-year-old spoke up during the interview before the march.

There was some apprehension to attending the protest after some turned violent but this gathering in Tuscaloosa was peaceful.

“But I figured if we had faith to show up with our kids,” said Angela Chandler, a school counselor, “then they were going to put every effort into making this protest peaceful.”

Steele, a former Tuscaloosa city councilman, is now the CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta. He was encouraged by the diversity of the crowd.

“It makes me feel good,” he said in a brief interview before the march. “Especially being in Tuscaloosa, I feel so good because Tuscaloosa, from today, could be the international center of peace and nonviolence.”

From the podium, he rallied the crowd to follow the lead of Martin Luther King Jr.

“In Tuscaloosa, Alabama, this little country boy is coming to lead the world in the spirit of Dr. King, I know what you can do,” he said. “You can take it right here from Tuscaloosa and make a change of on our whole world. And I’m asking you, will you do it? Will you do it Tuscaloosa? I’m talking about black and white. I’m talking about doing what’s right. Will you do it? We’re going to start right here. And we’re going to be peaceful.”

Montgomery:

The Black Lives Matter protest in Montgomery drew a much larger crowd and started with a march from the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum to the State Capitol. Before starting their march, the protesters heard from Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed.

Police then escorted the marchers, who moved up the sidewalk of Dexter Avenue chanting and holding signs. When they reached the Capitol steps about 20 minutes later, they kneeled and heard a prayer, then listened to more than a dozen speakers during a two-hour rally under a blazing sun with the temperature near 90.

The racially mixed crowd, in T-shirts, shorts, sneakers, and backpacks, with many wearing masks, filled the intersection at the top of Dexter Avenue. Police closed the streets within a block of the event.

Amanda Magnolia Brown, a substitute teacher in Montgomery, was among the first speakers.

Brown, who is white, said she told her white friends it was time for them to “stand and shout” about police brutality and tragedies like the police killing of George Floyd.

“That was an abomination before God,” Brown said. “He was murdered. Where was his due process? Where was his innocent until proven guilty?”

Justyn Johnson of Montgomery, 21, said problems in Montgomery go far deeper than police brutality. He talked about underfunded and dilapidated public schools and the disparities in businesses and recreational and athletic facilities across the city.

Justin McCauley of Prattville, 20, called for the removal of the Jefferson Davis statue by the Capitol steps and other symbols that he said are reminders of racial inequities.

“I’m as sick as the rest of these people out here of the mistreatment of black people across the country,” said McCauley, who is white. “The mismanagement of racial issues from the president of the United States and the governor and any state official that refuses to acknowledge it. It just enrages me that these reminders are out here on our Capitol.”

Dave Yu, 23, of Montgomery, watched part of the rally from a shady spot across the street from the Capitol because he needed to get his dog out of the sun. Yu said he is biracial, Chinese and black, and grew up in a black neighborhood.

“The people I grew up with, they (police) see them differently than they see me because my skin is a little bit lighter than theirs,” Yu said.

Yu said the George Floyd killing, after years of observing other injustices, was a tipping point for him. One of the messages at the rally was the importance of voting, and Yu said he had already participates in every election.

“Some young men my age, 23 and younger, they refuse to vote because they think their vote don’t really matter,” Yu said. “So I’m trying to push the issue and trying to get my friends and everybody else to come vote also.”

Grace Jackson, an 18-year-old resident of Montgomery who will be attending Tuskegee University in the fall, worked with local organizations and city officials to put the march together. She said she dedicated the march to “truth and reconciliation with an emphasis on truth.” Her truth is that she is a direct descendant of the slave system and is tired of the injustice.

Jackson was excited to see that Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed showed up in support of the protest. He kicked it off with a short speech about how color, religion or socioeconomic status should not affect the way people are treated, and then he handed the reins to Jackson.

After explaining the rules – it was a peaceful, lawful protest so they stuck to the sidewalks – Jackson made her way to the front of the crowd. Accompanied by a friend who started the chants with a song, Jackson led the crowd through Montgomery. Police officers stopped traffic to allow the hundreds chanting “No justice, no peace” to make their way to the capitol building.

As they approached the barricade where a line of police officers had faced a loud, angry crowd two nights before, officers approached with their phones out recording the march. The protesters walked straight past the barricade and up to the steps without being stopped.

At the steps, Jackson introduced herself and the goal of the protest. She then invited speakers of any color or background, to come up and share their stories. People came up and shared prayers, songs, pleas to officials, encouragement to vote and stories of sorrow and anger.

Lexi Menefee, 18, and Jordan Stewart, 18, were among the many youth in the crowd. The two friends grew up and went to school in Montgomery. They wanted to come out to “continue the fight” their ancestors started, Menefee said, and make sure their efforts weren’t for nothing.

“We learned about this in our textbooks, yet we're seeing it right here today,” Stewart said. “And if you can be here and you can say something and your voice can be heard together as one, that's something -- if I have the chance to be a part of that, I most definitely am going to be a part of it.”

Police officers and city officials milled around the outskirts. A few protesters approached Montgomery Police Chief Ernest Finley for photos. There were no clashes between officials and protesters for the two hours they sat out there.

The group of protesters was a mix of white, black, Hispanic and Asian as well as a mix of young and old. There were families with small children, young adults and older people standing out there in support. People also came in their cars and parked with signs.

The afternoon wrapped up with two speakers who encouraged those in the crowd to get involved beyond protesting by voting and reaching out to officials to dismantle the system that allows racism to keep going.

Prichard:

A modest group of activists gathered in the small city of Prichard late Wednesday afternoon to protest what they said was a racist grocery store.

The owner of Lil Brian’s Produce Market on St Stephens Road is accused by the community of posting an insensitive image to Facebook showing a truck driving into protesters with the words “all lives splatter” accompanying the image. They also claim that the groceries sold at the Lil Brian’s in Theodore are cheaper than those sold in black-majority Prichard.

Joining the protesters was Chikesia Clemons, the south Alabama woman who was wrestled to the floor by Saraland Police Department Officers. She said the protest wasn’t just about the store but also about all people who are killed and harassed by law enforcement throughout the country.

“How can it be funny to post something like that,” said Clemons. “Black people are dying everyday and he has a store in the heart of a black community. It’s not funny. This is real life for us.”

Around 15 people turned up at the protest, including 82-year old Herschel Wade, who saw the protesters and pulled over to chat.

“I couldn’t see the signs from the road, my eyesight isn’t great,” said Wade. “But back when I had a store here I used to treat people the way I wanted to be treated. We didn’t talk sports or politics. That was my rule and it worked well.”

He added: “I’m not all sure what’s going on in the world right now. I don’t fool with the internet.”

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.