On a hot, muggy June evening in the small town of Brooksville, Florida about 250 people gathered under the canopy of two large Oak Trees, on the steps of the county courthouse. They gathered peacefully to protest the killing of George Floyd, a man who died while in police custody in Minneapolis Minnesota just over a week earlier.
As I walked up a barricaded Main Street and watched the scene unfold, I observed a group of about two dozen counter-protestors. They were gathered in the street, armed with sheath knives, and one specifically was draped in a confederate flag. I listened to them shout “All Lives Matter” and “White Is Right”! They waved the confederate flag, yelled obscenities at the crowd of protestors, and taunted them, daring them to cross the police line.
Uniformed deputy sheriffs lined the sidewalk between the protestors and counter-protestors. They ordered the counter-protestors to stay behind the double yellow line on Main Street, and not to approach the sidewalk. A few of the protestors attempted to engage the group lining Main Street in words of love, but they continued to taunt the frustrated protestors to cross the police line and “talk” with them.
This peaceful protest was made up of a diverse crowd of men, women, and children. As each speaker addressed the crowd, the counter-protestors were persistent with their jeering. Shouting from Main Street across the courthouse lawn, a counter-protestor threatened a white speaker with violence. He threatened, not only the speaker with violence, but also threatened his mother. He threatened him because, in his words, he was a traitor for “switching sides”.
After the event, one of the counter-protestors was arrested for resisting arrest without violence and exhibition of a dangerous weapon. He allegedly pulled a machete from his pants and threatened a protestor with it.
I spent a lifelong career as a law enforcement officer and I’ve seen some pretty horrific scenes, but never have I witnessed such absolute hate, because of the color of someone’s skin, like I witnessed on Friday, June 5, 2020.
