About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (June 3, 2020)
LOCAL The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com Midweek Edition - June 3-4, 2020 9A Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times People take to downtown Gainesville Sunday, May 31, on the second night of protests in Gainesville that blocked traffic and resulted in vandalism on the square. Newtown Florist Club executive director Rose Johnson leads a crowd gathered Monday, June 1, in song as hundreds gather in Gainesville in reaction to the death of George Floyd and the issues of police brutality and systemic racism. PROTESTS ■ Continued from 1A ‘If we want to move something, it takes everybody. When we’re all together, it’s better. It’s better together. It takes everybody sitting at the table so we can understand each other. It’s beautiful. It’s beautiful. And this is how we fight.’ Earlier that day Hol brook, other officers and Chief Jay Parrish had joined wiih Gainesville’s longtime civil rights group, the Newtown Florist Club, for a rally on the grassy end of the pedestrian bridge over Jesse Jewell. Commu nity leaders, including some elected officials and pastors, spoke along with members of the crowd of roughly 200. The club and its execu tive director, the Rev. Rose Johnson, held the gathering to give a platform for the younger generation to orga nize their efforts and move forward to effect change. “The thing that I want everyone to keep in mind is that this was just really kind of a next step in a long path way of many steps, because we still have a long way to go,” Johnson said Tuesday. In the anatomy of a strug gle borne out of a national movement, the process will take time, Johnson said. “As the movement evolves, then you’ll have peaks and you’ll have lows and then you’ll have another peak,” Johnson said. “If everyone is just commit ted to hang in there until we get to the other side of this storm, then I think we’ll come out as a better commu nity, a more united commu nity and a community that really can stand together in what this notion of real love for all of the people in the community is all about. That’s really the place where we need to get to, in truth.” A candlelight vigil to honor Floyd and other vic tims of police violence is set for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 6, in the same spot as Mon day’s rally, the hill on Jesse Jewell Parkway at the end of the pedestrian bridge. Parrish told those gath ered Monday that an event is still in the planning stages to initiate more dialogue between him and the resi dents. He called on the audi ence to take their energy to work together for making a better world for us and “all these little kids.” “What I want to see is real anger turn into real action, because I want to be the chief in a town where a young black man can take his trash to the edge of the road and not be scared,” Parrish said. The protests started Sat urday evening, beginning peacefully and escalating later in the night. The Hall County Sheriff’s Office and Gainesville Police made 10 arrests ranging from disor- Michael Thurmond pastor at Free Chapel derly conduct to obstruction mostly late Saturday into Sunday and one second- degree criminal damage to property arrest Sunday night involving vandalism of the Old Joe Confederate statue in the Gainesville square. More arrests were made overnight Monday after a police car was set on fire at a private residence. Each night, chants could be heard in the streets of “I can’t breathe” and “No justice, no peace.” Some moments were tense as pro testers stood nearly face- to-face with officers in the middle of Jesse Jewell’s intersection at Main Street, but there have been no inju ries and limited damage. “We can’t tear down our own city,” said Irene Lip scomb, director with the Newtown Florist Club,, on Saturday before the arrests. “We need to be heard,” she said, and police brutality and racial profiling must stop. About 50 people were chanting peacefully at about 8:45 p.m. Sunday on either side of the downtown Gainesville roads before moving out onto Jesse Jewell Parkway, blocking traffic. Police began arriving shortly after 9 p.m. ordering the demonstrators out of the road. “I feel like it’s important for me to stand up for what I believe in,” said Shyderica Young, one of the protest ers The Times spoke with Sunday evening. “There has to be an end somewhere — the cycle has got to stop and needs to stop.” Johnson said Tuesday that people have called, emailed and stopped by the office to learn how they can get involved. A number of younger people had already approached her about it being the first time they had attended an event like Mon day’s rally. “One young person had already tried to start a nonprofit organization but didn’t know where to go and how to get started. We had a mom bring her son by the office today, and both the mom and the son want to be involved,” said John son, adding another man stopped by wanting to help with social media outreach. Live-streamed feeds of the protests following the pedestrian bridge gather ing Monday showed groups in the downtown area con tinuing to protest peacefully into the late hours. Johnson said it will be vital to look out for and safeguard this younger generation who will continue protesting for this cause. “Parents need to make sure that they do their part in looking out for their kids who are standing on the front lines. We need to be diligent and vigilant about that,” she said. A smaller group was gath ered along the road Tuesday night. Some of the projects men tioned during the Monday rally included a letter-writ ing campaign to the pros ecutors in Minneapolis and encouraging legislators to pass a hate crime bill in the Georgia General Assembly. Wearing a red shirt read ing “I can’t breathe,” Kas- huna Storey said at the rally Monday she has lived in Hall County her entire life and feels “there is a need for change.” “We can’t expect change if we don’t get out and vote. That’s the No.l thing. We elect these officials, and if you don’t vote and you don’t like what they do, it’s our own fault,” she said. The mother of a 21-year- old son, Storey worries about his safety every time he leaves the house. “All of those things that are happening elsewhere could easily happen here,” she said. “I think it’s just a message of unity, that this commu nity, we need each other. We need each other,” said Michael Thurmond, a pas tor at Free Chapel, during the rally. Thurmond led a prayer before the event began Mon day and assisted with the megaphone. “If we want to move some thing, it takes everybody. When we’re all together, it’s better. It’s better together. It takes everybody sitting at the table so we can under stand each other. It’s beauti ful. It’s beautiful. And this is how we fight,” he said. Jeff Gill contributed to this report. Old Joe vandalism over weekend is part of long, divisive history SCOn ROGERS I The Times Downtown Gainesville’s Old Joe statue is clean of graffiti Monday, June 1, after vandals painted the base of the monument the night before during protests downtown. BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com A symbol of a bygone era, Gainesville’s Old Joe was again thrust into modern-day protests Sun day night. At about 9:40 p.m., “KKK” was spray painted on the statue, which sits in the middle of the down town square. The statue is that of a Spanish-Amer- ican War soldier that was modified and placed as a Confederate monument in 1909. Hall County Sheriff’s Office deputies took a man into custody after the incident. Tyler Dalton Moye, 24, of Gainesville, is charged with interference with government property, second-degree criminal damage to property and obstruction, according to the Sheriff’s Office, which reported Moye tried to run from deputies. Sheriff’s Office spokes man Derreck Booth said Moye had some sort of medical episode following his arrest. “At the request of deputies, a Hall County Fire Services med unit responded and assessed him before he was trans ported to jail,” Booth said. Moye remains at the Hall County Jail on $14,350 bond as of Mon day afternoon, June 1. The statue was cleaned by county crews before 3 a.m., according to the Sheriff’s Office. The incident was part of May 31 protests being held nationwide against police treatment of George Floyd, a black man who died last week after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into his neck for sev eral minutes. Local demonstrations mainly took place off Jesse Jewell Parkway at Main Street. At one point, the group streamed to the square. After the vandal ism took place, depu ties quickly arrived and arrested Moye. The group then returned to Jesse Jewell, where there was little police presence. The deputies, however, remained in place near Old Joe. The statue has a long, polarizing history. According to The Times’ records, the Con federate monument has been a target for reloca tion for one reason or another every couple of decades going back to at least the 1950s. The issue most recently flared up in 2017, as Civil War monuments across the South were removed amid protests that they were lingering symbols of racism. An August 2017 protest was held at Old Joe. “We want to stand up against symbols of white supremacy in our commu nity,” protest organizer Adam Staudacher said at the time. Defenders of Old Joe specifically argue that the statue’s history in Gaines ville, especially its sur vival of the 1936 tornado that obliterated much of the town, warrant his protection. SMOKY MOUNTAIN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS POWER HOUSE PRODIGIES PERFORM AMERIC CLASSICS 0F»M SAWYER 1028 Georgia Rd • Franklin, NC 28734 Toll-Free 877.310.8202 Tickets: GreatMountainMusic.com JULY 24 JULY 25-26 4 ofi Sand. 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