NC police share images of officers kneeling with protesters, removing gas masks

Protests across North Carolina over the death of 46-year-old George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis have been at times violent as riot officers and demonstrators trade blows with tear gas, rubber bullets, water bottles and rocks.



But there have been moments of solidarity amid the chaos, images and video shared by police departments show.

In Fayetteville, where Floyd was born, a video viewed thousands of times on social media shows more than 60 officers kneeling before protesters during a demonstration Monday, McClatchy News reported.

“These are moments that will go down into history and will be taught to future generations,” Mimamo Monika posted on Facebook in response.

Something similar happened in a community of 11,000 residents east of Raleigh.

The Knightdale Police Department shared a picture Tuesday of officers kneeling and praying with protesters during what they initially feared could become a riot.

“Fortunately, we had none of that,” police said in the post. “What we did have was a sign about the generation to come. We learned of a group of young adults wanting to gather, to express their First Amendment Rights and protest in honor of Mr. Floyd.”

Police said the group was able to march safely with no reports of violence while officers controlled traffic.

Interim-police Chief Donny Williams also took a knee during a protest in Wilmington on May 31 — prompting other officers to follow suit, according to a video shared on the department’s Facebook page.

When a woman asked officers to remove their gas masks so they could talk with protesters face-to-face, they did, the video shows.

“As an African-American and a law enforcement officer with more than 28 years of service to this community, I understand your anger and frustration,” Williams said in the post. “However, we can only bring about positive change through peaceful actions.”

One protester commented on the post saying he got to to speak with Williams “in the middle of the chaos.”

“I’d like to tip my hat to him for being willing to have constructive communication with those who were there on a peaceful mission,” he said.

Burlington Police Chief J. Jeffrey Smythe was handed a sign during a peaceful protest Sunday that read “End Police Brutality,” according to a post on the department’s Facebook page.

“He carried it proudly,” the department said.

Smythe then brought the sign to police headquarters, where more than 15 officers took a picture with it to “express their solidarity with those who protest the killing of George Floyd and all police brutality,” the post states.

Video from a Greenville protest shared by the police department showed Sgt. Richie Williams greeting demonstrators and ensuring their safety as officers escorted them along their route.

“This is what I’m going to encourage you all to do,” he says to protesters in the video. “We do a lot of community outreach stuff — it’s that y’all come and sit down at the table and figure out what we can do here in Greenville that we may not be doing, or that we can do better.”

Greenville police captioned the video “When words don’t come easy.”

One protester said she was there when it was peaceful, before Williams’ car got damaged later in the night, according to police.

“The beginning of the protest, when he was talking to us, communicating and loving our existence was beautiful,” she wrote in the comments. “He didn’t deserve the damage, but I am so grateful he greeted peaceful protesters with a smile and love. I will never forget that.”

In the absence of protests, some departments have shared moments of community building since Floyd’s death.

Mooresville Police Department, roughly 30 minutes north of Charlotte, posted a video Tuesday showing a young black man handily outrunning one of its officers in a friendly foot race.

“Thank you Officer Manzano, Officer Novelli and the residents of Stonecreek Apartments for showing the world what it means to be a community,” the post said.

In Oakboro, a town of less than 2,000 people in Stanly County, a series of images taken by a Charlotte photographer and shared by the police department captured officers praying with residents in recent days.

Another shows a white police officer speaking with a black man.

“I won’t even pretend to know what these two were talking about when I got this shot,” the photographer said. “Neither knew I had captured them, so they’re not posed by any means; however, this image gives me chills.”

On Monday, police in Cary shared a Facebook message they received from a resident who encountered one of their officers at a gas station.

“(A) police officer walked up to me (and) not knowing what he wanted, I was puzzled,” the message reads. “He said ‘hey brother, I’m sorry about what happened in Minnesota.”

The sender said it was “encouraging” to see the officer had “really poured his heart out.”