For a couple of hours Friday night, hundreds of demonstrators gathered despite the heat at the Phoenix Police Department Headquarters, which was barricaded by fences and dozens of officers, shoulder-to-shoulder in riot gear.
Waving “Black Lives Matter” and “Justice 4 Floyd” signs, chanting “F*** the police” and “We will be a riot,” the crowd at first was angry, but nonviolent.
Friday marked the second night of protests in Phoenix. It came against a backdrop of riots across the nation, ignited by a call for justice in the case of George Floyd, an African American man who died after he was filmed pleading for breath, under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer May 25.
Chavez Bell, a 20-year-old pastor at Shekinah Glory Prophetic Voice Ministries, stood in the middle of Washington street on the outskirt of the protests with both his hands in the pockets of his slacks. He watched as every so often, three or four officers would advance on the crowd and push them back.
“They say there are good cops, but where are they? They should be standing up with us, not against us at these protests and rallies,” Bell said.
At a press conference Friday morning, Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams expressed a shared anger about Floyd’s death.
“I, too, like most of the country and other chiefs around the country, are absolutely outraged with what I saw. It does not reflect the values of this noble profession we call policing,” she said.
But like the night before, the demonstration Friday was quickly denounced by Phoenix Police as an unlawful assembly. Through a megaphone, protestors were commanded to disperse.
Few did.
“Until we new laws and real change, the outrage will only continue to grow,” Bell said.
Along the block were innumerable spray-painted slogans, “F*** the police” and “F*** 12” among the most popular. A trash can outside the Sandra Day O’Connor Court House was ignited with a small fire, an apt punctuation to the spray-paint on the neighboring courthouse window: “Burn down the city, tomorrow we will be flames.”
A few people weaved in and out of the crowds with coolers, passing out water bottles to help protesters beat the heat as they demonstrated in masks and goggles. The group showed no signs of leaving.
At 11:35 p.m., above the roar of chanting protestors and the incessant whir of low- flying media helicopters, there was a loud, gun-shot-like pop.
It was followed by a gentle crackling as a neon green and red firework sparkled out from the densest
part of the crowd.
In small waves, groups of protestors peeled off from the herd and ran a few blocks up Washington, wary of the action. But while many people’s first instinct was to duck or run, some cheered, even as officers began to respond with tear gas and flash bangs.
The fireworks continued, illuminating the billowing gas clouds with colored light. Over the course of several minutes, more were ignited, flying just a few feet above the heads of the protestors while on the ground.
The row of officers advanced up the street, pushing protesters away from the police headquarters building. As protestors retreated, the movement spurred spurts of violence, physical altercations which police ended with the use of pepper bullets.
“We do respect all those who want to exercise their First Amendment Rights peacefully and we support that, but we cannot and will not tolerate criminal activity which endangers our community, our officers, and other demonstrators,” Williams said Friday morning.
As they fled from the advance east up Washington and Jefferson streets, protestors damaged several vehicles and smashed in windows to 18 buildings, including the Arizona Federal Theatre and City Hall, according to Williams.
Small units of the police line broke off like branches from a tree, scattering the crowd by advancing in all directions. When the police march reached 7th Street at 12:30 a.m., they halted, reconvening underneath Chase Field.
Few protestors lingered across the street, their numbers thin and dwindling. The main protest was over, but units of four or five police cars patrolled the surrounding blocks throughout the early morning.
Along the quiet walk home, the occasional distant cheer and rapid honking of horns echoed throughout the city.
“People are celebrating tonight,” Bell said of the fireworks. “They’re celebrating because our voices are being heard. The police wouldn’t move unless they’re feeling that this is not going to end. We’re not giving up.”
Contact the reporter a bmfloren@asu.edu.
