Crowd stays at downtown Fort Worth protest past curfew for second night
About 150 protesters remain in downtown Fort Worth on Tuesday night after the city’s 8 p.m. curfew.
Several hundred people joined in a march that began about 3 p.m. and lasted several hours.
Shortly after 7 p.m., organizers and most of the protesters headed home, but a smaller group stayed behind at the Tarrant County Courthouse and discussed possibly walking to the West 7th District tonight despite the curfew.
Speakers who addressed the larger crowd said they plan to meet at 4 p.m. Wednesday on West 7th Street, the area that police blocked them from going to Sunday night. Protest leaders said they didn’t want to go there tonight.
Asked if he was planning to stay past curfew, a man who gave his name only as Black said, “If the justice comes before the curfew, we’ll leave.”
“Justice would look like convictions — Atatiana Jefferson’s murderer,” he said. “Stop funding the police, get police out of our middle schools. The real end goal is to abolish the police as a whole.”
An organized chant began with the men shouting, “I can’t breathe!” in an echo of the words of George Floyd, a black man who died last week in police custody in Minneapolis.
“Move your knee!” the women answered.
Jordan Conner, 23, said she’s not worried about breaking curfew. “They break the rules of how they’re supposed to protect people. We break the simple rules of curfew,” she said.
Conner stepped up to speak to her fellow protesters. “We are Fort Worth right now,” she said, and thanked everyone for staying, adding that she doesn’t want anyone to get hurt or arrested.
Police were down the block observing the protest. On Monday, the first night of the curfew, a tense standoff started about 8:30 but ended after police Chief Ed Kraus knelt and prayed with protesters.
“I was here last night, too,” Conner said. “Going home shows you’re scared. It shows fear. And I’m fearless. I’m here to stand for what I believe in. Nobody here is rioting. We’re peaceful ... If anything they’re more afraid of us because we’re just standing here.”
Javion Thompson, 16, said, “I’m out here because I have seen police do things they’re not supposed to do. I was in the hood. They want us to riot and do negative things toward the community. It’s a peaceful protest. They want us to do how we do in Atlanta, Minnesota. When we walk, they wanna push us to the middle so we stay in the street.
“I’m planning on staying past curfew,” he said. “Because you can’t let them push you away. You have to push them away. You can’t be scared of them.”
As the crowd remained downtown, a woman who gave her name as Laila, said she didn’t think they should go to West 7th Street “because it’ll be a trap.”
“They’re trying to trap us,” she said. “They’re trying to get us in position. Like they did in Dallas, where they trapped us in the bridge and arrested them.”
It’s a mostly young crowd of people in their 20s. Teena James, a mom of four, said she sees her kids in them and encouraged them not to break curfew.
She doesn’t think police should be able to tell protesters where to go and when, but she “tried to explain the consequences and why they should go home.”
About 8:30 p.m., a few people delivered pizza to the protesters.
About 8:50 p.m., cops on bikes briefly left the area, and protesters took a knee on the courthouse steps.
Shortly after 9, the protesters began marching quickly down Main Street and yelling at the group to stay together as officers on bicycles approached.
They paused in Sundance Square and then continued. There was no movement by police to arrest anyone.
The march continued for about an hour. Shortly before 10 p.m., three police officers on bicycles stopped and knelt in the street to show solidarity with the protesters, some of whom responded by hugging the officers and shaking their hands.
“Not all cops are bad,” Fort Worth Officer Yancey, who is black, said to the protesters. He said he understands the anger they feel.
“I’m black before I’m a cop ... I’m a man too, so understand that. I have kids, too, that’s black. So you don’t think, I take this uniform off, something might not happen to me? No, I’m no different from you.”
Shortly after 10 p.m. about 50 protesters remained in the area — some just to talk with officers, and others saying they might stay out all night.
This story was originally published June 2, 2020 at 8:04 PM.
