What began as a peaceful demonstration Sunday afternoon in Birmingham to protest the death of George Floyd, a man killed by a Minneapolis police officer last week, led to a state of emergency for the city and a mandatory curfew beginning tonight.
“What started out with the best intentions turned into something that none of us deserve, none of our small business owners, none of our corporate community, the people in the media that were physically hurt, no one deserved what happened last night in this city we call home,” Woodfin said.
On Sunday, 24 people were arrested, 14 businesses burglarized, 12 businesses with significant damage and 22 fire calls to Birmingham Fire and Rescue responded, five of which were commercial, the city said.
“We decided to declare it [state of emergency] last night and announce it today . . . what we’re seeing across the nation are a lot of people engaging in civil unrest and we need to make sure our citizens know in advance and [that there will be a] curfew,” he said.
“Regretfully, the natural anger and frustration of Mr. Floyd’s death has now spread to our state and what started out as peaceful protests in some of our cities yesterday afternoon turned ugly last night,” she said in a statement.
