Police say the fight in Montgomery, Ala., last week doesn’t meet the criteria for hate crime charges. But video clearly shows how the violence broke down on racial lines, historian Derryn Moten says.
Warning: This story contains profanity and a racial slur.
Police in Montgomery, Ala., say that they have not found evidence that last weekend’s riverfront brawl — in which a large number of people squared off against each along racial lines — rises to the level of a hate crime.
However, a week later, people who have seen videos of the fight, including experts, pundits and social media users, remain divided: Some are saying race had nothing to do with the incident, while others say the footage clearly shows how groups divided by race.
What’s certain is that the incident has reignited conversations about race across the U.S. What Montgomery officials are saying
Montgomery Police Chief Darryl Albert told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday that the brawl doesn’t meet the criteria for hate crime charges under federal law. He said that he also understands why people are raising the issue of race.
“That’s why this department went above and beyond and looked under every stone for answers,” Albert said, adding that the charges that were brought accurately reflect the evidence available at the time. Investigations are ongoing.
Steven L. Reed, Montgomery’s first Black mayor, has promised to hold the people responsible for fight accountable. He says he has two different perspectives on the incident, one as a public servant and one as Black man.
“At this point in the investigation, the FBI has not classified these attacks as a hate crime. As a former judge and as an elected official, I understand that and will trust this process and the integrity of our justice system,” Reed said in a statement to NPR on Thursday.
“However, my perspective as a Black man in Montgomery differs from my perspective as mayor. From what we’ve seen from the history of our city — a place tied to both the pain and the progress of this nation – it seems to meet the moral definition, and this kind of violence cannot go unchecked.”
He also says that as more information becomes available, his office will work with the U.S. Justice Department to “thoroughly vet whether new evidence reclassifies the incident as a hate crime per FBI protocol.”How the brawl unfolded
Dozens of videos of the incident last Saturday began surfacing earlier this week, including one from Alabama political reporter Josh Moon, who shared a video of the fight on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. It shows that the incident at Montgomery’s Riverfront Park appears to have started after a group of people docked their pontoon boat in a space reserved for the city’s riverboat, the Harriott II.
