GREENSBORO, N. C. — Clean up is underway in downtown Greensboro after some protestors broke off from the rally and damaged downtown businesses overnight. Community members and small businesses are working to board up broken windows and make repairs together. “I’m heartbroken for the business owners downtown. I think for many hours the protest was done […]
by: FOX8 Digital Desk
GREENSBORO, N. C. — Clean up is underway in downtown Greensboro after some protestors broke off from the rally and damaged downtown businesses overnight.
Community members and small businesses are working to board up broken windows and make repairs together.
“I’m heartbroken for the business owners downtown. I think for many hours the protest was done peacefully. People came here to talk about George Floyd and other incidents of police abuse, and they were having their first amendments heard, and the event was just getting ready to break up, and we had a couple of bad actors decide to break out windows,” Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan told FOX8. “I think our police department acted exceedingly well yesterday. It was a long event, so now we just have to see about picking up the pieces, and what we can do moving forward so something like this doesn’t happen again.”
The Crooked Tail Cat Cafe says no cats were present when a window was busted in.
Broken windows were also seen at the Mellow Mushroom on South Elm Street.
“Right now our focus is on how we can assist these small businesses,” Mayor Vaughan said.
A group of mayors in North Carolina, including Durham Mayor Steve Schewel, Raleigh Mayor Mary Ann Baldwin, Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan and Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines, have released the following statement about the death of George Floyd and the protests in NC:
“As mayors of cities in North Carolina, we have come together to express our abhorrence of the horrific murder of George Floyd, an act of unspeakable violence, cold inhumanity, and racism. The photographic evidence of this act speaks for itself. Mr. Floyd was suffocated to death by a Minneapolis police officer while pleading for his life as three other officers knelt or stood by and did nothing to help him, even as he called out, “I can’t breathe.” As a society, we cannot tolerate this kind of police violence rooted in systemic racism.
