No arrests reported in Miami on third day of protests against police brutality

On the third straight day of protests against police brutality in Miami, marchers gathered downtown Monday afternoon before making their way through Overtown, a historically black, low-income neighborhood. The crowd grew as protesters walked down Northwest Sixth Street, with young children emerging from their homes with fists in the air.

“Black lives matter!” they said, echoing the protesters.

Rose McFarlane, who has lived in Overtown for 35 years, said she is outraged by the death in police custody of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which set off mass civil unrest across the United States. Hearing Floyd scream “mama” on video as a police officer knelt on his neck had her in tears, she said.

“We’re all supposed to be brothers and sisters,” McFarlane said, leaning against her fence as she watched protesters and a large group of police on bicycles pass by. “If it was you, you’d feel real bad.”

The march of over 100 people was smaller than similar gatherings over the weekend, when protesters shut down Interstate 95 on back-to-back days, police launched tear gas and rubber bullets to try to disperse crowds, and some protesters set police cars ablaze and looted stores on Saturday.

A handful of protesters remained downtown around 8:30 p.m. Monday as police in riot gear reminded them that they would be subject to arrest if they broke a 9 p.m. countywide curfew order. But the crowd dispersed without incident, and just before 9:30 p.m., Miami-Dade police said on Twitter that they had not made any arrests.

County police also said they hadn’t received any reports of damage to police vehicles, PortMiami or Government Center downtown. Police had made dozens of arrests Saturday and Sunday, many for violations of the curfew order.

After marching through Overtown Monday evening, the protesters made their way to the office of State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, who has been criticized by activists for her handling of complaints of police brutality in Miami-Dade County.

Elaine Williams, whose son, Labrant Dennis, is housed at the Miami-Dade County Pre-Trial Detention Center across the street, pointed at the building and started to cry. Dennis was convicted of murder in 1999.

“My son is up there,” said Williams, 62, of Liberty City.

“We hear you, mama,” protesters said.

Earlier in the evening, protesters stood in front of Miami’s iconic Freedom Tower building, singing Bob Marley’s “Is This Love” while others gave media interviews.

Joseph Martinez, an activist with Dream Defenders Miami, reinforced that the protests would be peaceful.

“Here in Dade County we move in a certain fashion to protect the most vulnerable,” said Overtown activist Dahmec Denson.

Around 5:30 p.m., the crowd marched away from a line of police in riot gear that stood across the street in front of AmericanAirlines Arena.

Many of the participants said this was their first time protesting after the long weekend of peaceful demonstrations that ended in tense confrontations with police. Even though the crowd was smaller, protesters like Jasmine Valentine said it was meaningful to hear people honking their horns in support.

“I see more unity right now than I’ve experienced in a long time,” said Valentine, 30, of Miami. “I feel a lot of love.”

As protesters looped back downtown from Overtown, Martinez asked the crowd to kneel briefly for a special announcement. He told the crowd that protesters had been shot with rubber bullets in Washington, D.C., while President Donald Trump was speaking in the Rose Garden nearby and threatening to deploy the military to quash civil unrest.

“His speech was a war [declaration] on protesters,” said Martinez. “We gotta keep us safe tonight, but we have to stay together.”

The protest ended peacefully and without incident at the Freedom Tower, which was lit up in blue. About 200 protesters gathered to hear organizers speak. Across the street at the AmericanAirlines Arena, police lined the streets and blocked the Port Miami Bridge.

“Police don’t keep us safe,” Martinez said. “We keep us safe. The police are looking for reasons to be violent.”

Organizers congratulated protesters on a peaceful demonstration, and closed by saying they will protest Tuesday and every day, whether publicly or in their private lives.

“If we are going to destroy, we are going to destroy organized,” said Denson, the Overtown activist. “We all need to stay in contact so we can organize with each other, for each other.”

Two South Florida malls close due to protest fears

The Aventura Mall in Miami-Dade County and the Sawgrass Mills mall in Sunrise, the two largest malls in South Florida, both closed their doors early Monday due to rumors about potential protesting and looting that never materialized.

Aventura Mall shut down at 2 p.m. Monday, five hours before it usually does. Sgt. Hans Maestre, a spokesman for the Aventura police department, said police received information about a potential protest but wouldn’t provide details.

“We went ahead and made notifications and prepared ourselves logistically to address any issues that could occur like they have been occurring over the last two to three days,” Maestre said. “We do not expect the same incidents but are taking every precaution.”

Maestre later said no protesters showed up in the area.

“While we welcome protests, there was no activity tonight,” he said. “There have been no incidents.”

The situation was similar at Sawgrass Mills, which shut its doors at 4 p.m. Sunrise police replied to someone on Twitter saying they were aware of a rumor circulating on Snapchat about “a riot and looting at the Target” at the mall.

But there were no reports of any such activity at the mall Monday evening.

“There were reports of possible protests and potentially some unrest in the area but nothing happened,” a Sunrise police spokesman said.

Autopsy says Floyd was asphyxiated

An autopsy commissioned for George Floyd’s family found that he died of asphyxiation due to neck and back compression when a Minneapolis police officer held his knee on Floyd’s neck for several minutes and ignored his cries of distress, the Associated Press reported on Monday.

The autopsy by a doctor who also examined the body of Eric Garner, who died in a police chokehold in New York in 2014, found the compression cut off blood to Floyd’s brain, and weight on his back made it hard to breathe, said Ben Crump, an attorney for Floyd’s family. He called for the third-degree murder charge against Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to be upgraded to first-degree murder and for three other officers to be charged.

The family’s autopsy differs from the official autopsy as described in a criminal complaint against the officer. That autopsy included the effects of being restrained, along with underlying health issues and potential intoxicants in Floyd’s system, but also said it found nothing “to support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation.”

DOJ reportedly sends riot teams to Miami

Attorney General William Barr is reportedly directing the Federal Bureau of Prisons to deploy riot teams to Washington, D.C., and Miami as part of the Trump administration’s response to protests, according to reports in USA Today and The Washington Post.

The federal prison riot team arrived Sunday in Miami, where protests had turned violent on Saturday night as vandals burned police cars and threw rocks and bottles at police in riot gear, including helmets and shields.

According to USA Today, a federal official said every FBI field office is setting up command posts and will work with local police to bring charges against persons who traveled from out of state to incite violence and participate in rioting. The FBI also will review whether those in custody committed any federal crimes.

In Miami-Dade and Broward, police and politicians have blamed the flare-ups on outside agitators unaffiliated with organized marches, although initial data showed that the vast majority of arrests in Miami-Dade were of South Florida residents.

The Justice Department did not immediately reply to a request for comment from the Herald.

The news caught the county’s mayor and police director by surprise. Asked about Barr’s announced deployment Monday, Mayor Carlos Gimenez turned the question over to Freddy Ramirez, the county’s police director. Ramirez said the arrival of a federal anti-riot team would be news to him.

“I haven’t been briefed on that,” he said. “There may be investigators that may be coming ... to look at any federal violations for inciting riots.”

Miami gave marchers ‘free range,’ mayor says

At Bayside Marketplace Monday afternoon, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said the three-decade-old shopping court downtown remains open for business after five stores sustained damage during weekend protests.

Suarez said that three arrests were made during Sunday’s demonstration, compared with 57 Saturday, and that two of those three individuals “came from out of state.”

He said he did not agree with language reportedly used by President Trump calling on governors to “dominate” demonstrators, saying the city had given marchers “a lot of free range” over the weekend.

Pamela Weller Garcia-Serra, the senior general manager at Bayside Marketplace, said she was optimistic about Bayside’s short-term prospects, saying July was usually one if its strongest months thanks to July 4 events. She also said 50 tenants had received Paycheck Protection Program loans.

Fort Lauderdale cleans up after ugly night

Fort Lauderdale awoke on Monday to find National Guard troops standing watch on city streets as cleanup crews swept sidewalks and scrubbed graffiti from buildings after more than 1,000 people gathered at Huizenga Park on East Las Olas Boulevard on Sunday for a demonstration.

The gathering began peacefully but later turned violent. On Monday, Fort Lauderdale police suspended an officer after video showed he pushed a kneeling woman to the ground during Sunday’s demonstration. Other police officers pushed him away from the woman and down the street after the incident.

Fort Lauderdale declared a state of emergency and Broward County officials ordered a curfew after the confrontation between police and protesters.

On Monday morning, National Guard Members stood watch over the stretch of street with the most damage. Many of the restaurants and bars on Southwest Second Street had at least one broken window, as did a Broward County government building and the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale in downtown.

City cleanup crews were busy power washing graffiti off buildings and sweeping sidewalks of the leftover protest signs.

Windows were blown out at the county government center and a few shops on Las Olas Boulevard were looted. Some protesters said they were fired upon outside the Broward County library without warning.

Fort Lauderdale police reported two arrests from Sunday’s demonstrations and unspecified damage to “a couple of police cars,” said spokeswoman Casey Liening.

Hundreds hold memorial in Key West

In Key West, several hundred turned out at Nelson English Park in the Bahama Village neighborhood for a memorial march for George Floyd.

The crowd gathered at the park before walking through downtown, including down Duval Street, with signs that read, “Black lives matter” and “I can’t breathe.”

They listened to a series of speeches from county and city leaders, including Key West Police Chief Sean Brandenburg and Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay, who both denounced the police officers’ actions that preceded Floyd’s death.

Brandenburg said Floyd’s death hurts the relationships between residents and police officers who have dedicated their lives to service.

“It means we must work harder to retain your trust,” Brandenburg said.

Ramsay drew cheers by saying the other three officers involved in the Floyd incident deserve to be in jail.

“It was despicable, it was horrendous,” Ramsay said of the video that captured a police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck.

Roundup of weekend protests around Florida

Gainesville

Days: Saturday

Any violence? Man drove his car through a crowd of protestors and brandished a small gun.

Tallahassee

Days: Saturday, Sunday, Monday

Any violence? A red pickup truck with Georgia plates accelerated through a crowd of protesters, bouncing one protester, Will Crowley, onto the hood of the vehicle. No one was seriously hurt and the driver was taken into custody.

Tampa

Days: Saturday, Sunday

Any violence? A Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office deputy was injured when he was struck by a firework and another deputy was sent to the hospital after being hit in the back of the head by a hard object. Tampa police fired rubber bullets at someone setting off fireworks.

Protesters pulled trash cans into the street and threw water bottles at police vehicles. One protester used a baseball bat. Officers then fired tear gas and rubber bullets.

Forty-one were arrested.

St. Petersburg

Days: Saturday, Sunday

Any violence? St. Petersburg police used rubber bullets and flash grenades against a large group of protesters demonstrating in front of police headquarters. A 30-year-old man who would not disclose his name showed Tampa Bay Times reporters his right side covered in powder and a right welt on his hip. He said a deputy fired something at him.

Fourteen people were arrested.

Orlando

Days: Saturday, Sunday

Any violence? Volleys of tear gas as protesters tried to walk onto I-4. Protesters threw concrete rocks from I-4 construction at police officers, who fired rubber bullets back.

Seventeen people were arrested Saturday.

Lakeland

Days: Sunday

Any violence? Lakeland Police Department and Polk County Sheriff’s Office SWAT teams deployed tear gas and used rubber bullets to disperse the crowds.

Bradenton

Days? Sunday

Any violence? No.

Sarasota

Days? Sunday

Any violence? No.

Jacksonville

Days? Saturday, Sunday

Any violence? Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said an unnamed deputy was either stabbed or slashed in the neck and was taken to a hospital for treatment.

West Palm/ Palm Beach

Days? Sunday

Any violence? Demonstrators blocked traffic on I-95, marched over the Royal Park Bridge toward Palm Beach and came face-to-face with police who at one point fired tear gas and rubber bullets.

Stuart

Days? Sunday

Any violence? No.

Pensacola

Days? Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Any violence? No.

Fort Myers

Days? Saturday, Sunday

Any violence? No.

Miami Herald staff writers Rob Wile, Alex Harris, Douglas Hanks and Gwen Filosa contributed to this report.