Athens protesters unite for Black lives, diverge on path forward

This past week, Athens residents took to the streets to demand justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the many other victims of racist police violence.

Protests have swept the country following the police killing of Floyd¹ on May 25 in Minneapolis, and our quiet corner of Ohio is no exception. Public outrage has been swift and intense, prompting many people to get involved in the struggle for the first time,² and inspiring demonstrations in smaller communities many might not expect, like Gallipolis³ and Nelsonville⁴ — an exciting new development over previous waves of protest.

On Tuesday June 2, several hundred people gathered at the Athens County Courthouse. This event followed on the heels of several smaller gatherings that had sprung up in support of the cause throughout the weekend. Demonstrators filled the steps, the sidewalk, and eventually surrounded the intersection of Court St. and W. Washington St. completely. Passing motorists honked, raised fists, and pressed signs to their windows. Eventually, the crowd moved onto Court St. itself, marching to College Green and back twice.

Converging Currents

Many chants, signs, and gestures (kneeling, raising fists, etc.) were shared, though individual demonstrators held diverse goals, strategic preferences, and attitudes towards policing as an institution.

Some emphasized official channels and favored relatively non-disruptive tactics. Others highlighted the utility of civil disobedience and expressed a desire for the defunding or abolition of policing and its replacement with new social programs and approaches to community justice.

Kathy Berry, 86, was inspired by local and national gestures of support on the part of police and located the blame for (and solution to) racist police violence at the level of federal politics. “We need a new president, a new cabinet,” she said. “It’s crucial. It’s not just the president, it’s all the officials.” Likewise, chants to “Vote him out!” reflected a desire to combat police brutality with the ballot.

One protestor, Aloysius, 26, gave one of the more militant speeches of the day. Black, queer, and trans, and identifying politically as Marxist-Leninist, they were more critical of the idea that policing can be voted or reformed into a less violent institution. “Last time I checked, we don’t vote for cops, and Joe Biden recently suggested that cops should shoot us in the legs in order to reduce fatalities,” Aloysius said. “How ridiculous! I hope people start to realize that we can live in a world without police, and that there is power in direct action, like gathering in the streets today.”

Others, like Stephen Bell, 26, occupied a middle ground. Holding his “Defund the Police” sign up to traffic, he expressed that funds should be redirected from policing to social programs. “I think it’s a redefined world recently,” Bell said. “I can see the need, a need for an armed person in certain emergencies, like during a school shooting. But the routine patrols, they’re not preventing violence, they’re instigating violence.”

Bell and Aloysius shared a concern that protests might suffer from a lack of coordination and specific, actionable demands. For Aloysius specifically, coordination also entailed a commitment to mutual aid.

“I’d really like to imagine mass planning between organizations, or even coalition development,” they said. “Not to forget about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, I think we also need to consider ways of directly supporting one another on a mass scale as well. I know it sounds daunting, but a lot of this starts locally, even individually. If you can look out for your neighbor, they can also look out for someone else, and on and on.”

Tense, But Unified

Disagreement between political visions did not fragment Tuesday’s protest, but it did produce tension in a few instances. When a couple protestors initially tried to take the street, there was clear and verbal disagreement from the crowd over whether or not this was an acceptable tactic, including criticism from the courthouse steps by megaphone.

Not long after that, though, the mood shifted and the crowd adopted this very method, marching down Court St. and around the block. The police on duty, perhaps wanting to avoid a scene, seemingly accepted this change of plans, even briefly blocking off some of the traffic with their cruisers. Verbal confrontation between demonstrators and police seemed to be rare, and was discouraged by other protestors when it occurred.

These moments of friction reflected safety concerns and divergent beliefs. Some feared too much militancy could invite the kind of police violence witnessed in various urban centers. Some hesitancy also stemmed from a popular perception that the local police departments (APD and OUPD) are largely benign.

For Aloysius, though, demands that protest remain peaceful place an undue burden on those disproportionately affected by police violence.

“That’s not to say that we need chaos, but after seeing the rightful anger of the people in Minneapolis, along with the ever-increasing brutality of police across this country, I believe we need to challenge ideas of ‘peace’ and question whether or not we, the masses, are responsible for remaining peaceful,” they said. “This time is anything but peaceful for Black people, and we shouldn’t feel the need to put a dampener on our emotions at a time like this.”

Many attendees emphasized the responsibility of white Americans to challenge police abuses, as evinced by the chant “white silence is violence” and points made in many protest speeches.

Deja, 20, hoped that white protestors would continue to turn out in the weeks to come. “People of non-color, keep standing up for people of color,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting so many people to show up today. Non-black people for Black people.”

Another attendee, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “I wasn’t going to come today because I also believe we as Black identifying people should also prioritize our personal mental health. It’s time to start tag-teaming our white friends. We didn’t start racism. That being said, I know how small the POC population is here, so I came out thinking hopefully my body in and of itself is enough of a statement of resistance.”

Marching On

On June 5, three days after the courthouse protest, demonstrators lined State Street for over half a mile withstanding the hot sun and 90 degree temperatures to express solidarity with Black lives.

As on Tuesday, passing motorists were generally supportive. “We’re getting a lot of support from people driving by. I invited a lot of people who were like, ‘I don’t think I can stand outside in the heat and the sun, but I’ll try to drive by,’” said Jessica Hayes, one of many protest attendees, and a supporter of police demilitarization.

While enthused by the outpouring of public support, multiple attendees noted that the city is far from perfect, despite its reputation as a liberal oasis. Several shared stories of racist discrimination.

“You can hear from the honks that we’ve got a lot of support but there’s still been just from the short time I’ve been here a handful of people who’ve drove by cussing at us or cussing us out,” Hayes said. “I’m a white-passing person of color, but I know a lot of people who have suffered some sort of racial discrimination, not necessarily from police, but also in general. Even a liberal town like us, we aren’t immune to it.”

Another protester, Rhys Carr, 18, similarly expressed that Athens is not exempt from racism. “There’s verbal violence, and also physical violence that I have personally never experienced, but I know it happens,” he said.

Notably, attendees of both protests identified a need for broader challenges to white supremacy, with the struggle against racist police violence constituting only one front.

“There needs to be more education about the role of people of color, and less white-washing,” said Brooklyn Stallworth, the organizer of the State Street event. “You know, Black history month – it’s all Black history, you know? So there’s a lot of reform, not just with the police – defunding them, demilitarizing them – but also with education.”

The anonymous interviewee from Tuesday’s protest also gestured at the need for radical changes to education.

“Things that I have personally internalized, like Anti Black Philosophies, is because there wasn’t enough POC to watch over me in the American educational system,” he said. “Black and brown students are twice as likely to be suspended from school, again these numbers have a direct connection to criminalization in America. So educators, you must not sit back and think this is far from your liberal institution when those institutions are often consciously or unconsciously nurturing anti blackness.”

Police (Non-)Response?

In contrast to some of the departments catching national attention, local police seemed to take an ostensibly hands-off approach in responding to the demonstrations.

Carr noted that this seemed to be a pattern with their approach to protests. “They haven’t really taken a stance against any of the protests we’ve had – there was a gun protest that we had my junior year of high school and they were all for having it on, but I think it takes more than just letting it happen.”

While other departments may take a more outwardly adversarial stance, it’s true APD has taken steps to project a kinder, gentler image for itself, despite arrests of protesters in the past.⁵

At the West Side Community Association meeting last September, for example, APD Police Chief Tom Pyle asserted that he goes out of his way to filter out racist applicants, and doesn’t hesitate to fire any officers who exhibit discriminatory attitudes.

These sorts of policies on the part of APD may account for some of the difference, though demographics likely also play a role. Whereas police forces in poorer and more segregated neighborhoods tend to operate more like an occupying army⁶ tasked with controlling a hyperexploited population,⁷ departments in wealthier communities can instead emphasize protecting the property of the more well-off residents and businesses from supposed “outsiders.” As a largely white community and one of the higher income cities in the county, Athens may seem to be well-positioned for the latter approach.

But, Friday’s protesters reminded us that experience with local police is not uniformly rosy.

“I did see a video last night that was taken in September, 2019, of the APD or OUPD uptown tackling a Black male,” said Stallworth, presumably referencing APD’s forceful arrest⁸ that caught headlines last Fall.

Hayes also highlighted this unresolved controversy, and APD’s unresponsiveness. “I did hear that there was a police officer hired from Logan who had a known history of aggressive behaviors and complaints against him,” she said, likely referring to APD officer Ethan Doerr,⁹ the police officer responsible for the assault mentioned above. “I believe that even when it was brought up a couple years ago, Mayor Patterson and others did defend him and try to justify it. It’s hard for me to speak to, but there is always a problem with accountability and even though something was reported, nothing is still being done about it.”

On the Horizon

While we may not be seeing the kind of militant, confrontational demonstrations that have been winning concessions from city governments in cities like Minneapolis¹⁰ or Los Angeles,¹¹ the uptick in local action is an encouraging development. Disagreements over direction will likely continue, but the size of local actions and the emergence of demonstrations in surrounding towns suggest an increased level of support for the fight for racial justice — a qualitative change in public consciousness.

“Every single protest has gotten larger and larger. That to me shows so much dedication to fixing this problem that we have in this country, and it’s just great,” Stallworth noted, also indicating that another event is already in the works. “We just need to work out some details.”

Danny Kalister contributed reporting for this article.

Aaron L

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Aaron L is a contributor based in Athens County for Athens Left Field.

Andi Cass