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Community comes together to repair downtown Raleigh

For the second morning in a row, community members gathered in downtown Raleigh early Monday morning to clean up the damage from another night of protests and riots.

Posted Updated

By
Brett Knese
and
Nia Harden, WRAL reporters
RALEIGH, N.C. — For the second morning in a row, community members gathered in downtown Raleigh on Monday to clean up the damage from another night of protests and riots.

Evelyn, a downtown Raleigh business owner, woke up early to start cleaning downtown streets before 6 a.m. She was joined by dozens of other volunteers.

Shards of broken glass from the windows of businesses covered the street, which was littered with trash. "The pieces of glass are really small, so it's a slow process," she said, adding that she hopes her work will prevent the glass from piercing car tires as people head to work Monday morning.

"Once we saw what happened last night, we were really concerned about the businesses in downtown," she said. "After such a beautiful day of solidarity yesterday we were just heartbroken to see that this happened once again."

Multiple businesses in City Plaza, including Happy and Hale and Jimmy Johns, had shattered windows. The state archives and state Department of Transportation buildings also had windows smashed, and the downtown YMCA was damaged.

The violence in downtown Raleigh and other shopping centers, including North Hills and Triangle Town Center, got so out of hand that Gov. Roy Cooper asked the National Guard to send 450 officers to North Carolina.

The National Guard was stationed at North Hills on Monday morning and assisted in other communities across North Carolina as well, which saw both peaceful and violent protests Saturday and Sunday.

A curfew was in place in Fayetteville Sunday night, and many wondered why Raleigh didn't take the same actions.

Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said it was too late to issue a curfew on Sunday but issued one on Monday, which will be in effect between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. During that time, only essential workers and people with emergencies will be allowed to travel.

The curfew will be in effect until the mayor declares it's over.

"There is truth in the call for justice," Baldwin said. "For those who have protested peacefully, your voices are being heard and will always be welcome. The call for change can’t be answered, however, if we continue to allow destruction of our property and attacks on our small businesses that have already been hurt by this as well as the impacts of COVID-19."

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