Hundreds of Athens residents and others took to the streets downtown Sunday to join in nationwide protests regarding the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. ACC Mayor Kelly Girtz was among those showing support at that gathering.
“I don’t think that the organizers, including Commissioner Parker, knew that I was there, but I wanted to be there to participate in solidarity of anger around the killing of George Floyd in the wake of so many other similar killings of Black Americans at the hands of police officers,” Girtz said. “I think that someone observed me there and called me to the front and I spoke for just a few seconds.”
A curfew was implemented for crowd control after that protest. Girtz says there were some arrests of protestors who did not follow orders to disperse.
“The manager’s office, with the assistance of the police department, implemented a State of Emergency and a one-night curfew from 9 pm until 5 am; and they began to ask individuals to clear the area. Not everybody cleared the area by midnight and so ultimately the department, in conjunction with state authorities, elected to use tear gas to clear the area and there were somewhere along the lines of 10 arrests.”
A media release with more details from Police Chief Cleveland Spruill and County Manager Blaine Williams will be released later.