Protesters gathered in Philadelphia on Thursday. Some citizens have stepped up to help keep the peace in crowds.
Photo: Steven M. Falk/Associated PressFootage from recent protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd has highlighted moments of conflict between protesters and the police.
But alongside the tension, protesters and police leaders report that a new dynamic of cooperation has emerged, one designed to prevent conflicts, vandalism and looting.
A flurry of viral videos show protesters forming lines to block the looting of a Target store in Brooklyn, a Nike store in Spokane, Wash., and a Walgreen’s in Los Angeles.
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At a protest in Philadelphia on Wednesday, Mahcaiyah Wearing-Gooden put herself between a handful of people taunting National Guard troops and city police officers. “We don’t need hate,” said Ms. Wearing-Gooden, a 28-year-old line cook. “These people have a job to do.”
She said she told the would-be agitators that the way to help would be to sit with the group of about 100 people and hold a sign or wave a fist. “You do not disrupt a peaceful protest,” she said.
The cooperation, which has emerged in cities across the country, is aimed both at ratcheting down tensions that might mar an otherwise peaceful protest and keeping away criminal behavior, like looting and property destruction, that could undermine the message conveyed by the peaceful protesters.
When protesters in Raleigh, N.C., were out more than an hour after the 8 p.m. curfew Wednesday, Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown met with a group and agreed to minimize arrests if the crowd dispersed by a deadline.
“It’s 9:23,” she said. “If I meet you part of the way, can you meet me part of the way? Can you end your march by 9:45?” she said, to a chorus of “yes!” There were no arrests, property damage or injuries Wednesday, according to the city.
In Portland, Ore., there was widespread damage downtown on the first nights of protesting, including a fire set inside the Multnomah County Justice Center, which houses courts and the jail. Daryl Turner, president of the Portland Police Association, said there is now a working arrangement between police and protesters.
“What the protest organizers are doing at the very beginning is they’re telling people, ‘If you’re in our crowd and you’re here to cause damage, we’re going to cast you out and we’re going to point you out, so when the police come, they’ll know who to arrest,’ ” said Mr. Turner, whose association represents 900 officers and dispatchers, the vast majority of the force.
Increased coordination has helped officers who feel outnumbered and overworked, after the department canceled all days off for a second week. “You have police officers who are out there, working long hours, tired, and a lot of them don’t disagree with the message,” he said. “All the help we’re getting from the people in the protest is really helping.”
National Guardsmen patrolled a neighborhood in Philadelphia on Wednesday.
Photo: Bastiaan Slabbers/Zuma PressAs looting in Philadelphia over the weekend has yielded way to three back-to-back days of largely nonviolent assembly in the city, a few citizens have stepped up in ad hoc leadership roles to essentially self-police the crowds and keep the peace.
On Tuesday, as hundreds of people descended downtown to protest, 22-year-old Sam Barton was trying to keep people in order. He was giving an impassioned pep talk to at least a hundred protesters asking them to stay peaceful as they started to march from City Hall to the Philadelphia Art Museum.
That is when a police lieutenant pulled Mr. Barton aside. “She wanted to know where we were going so she could stop traffic so everybody could stay safe,” said Mr. Barton, a 22-year-old plumber’s apprentice, adding that she was very helpful in making sure people safely demonstrated. “They were very, very helpful to me. They understood.”
Write to Valerie Bauerlein at valerie.bauerlein@wsj.com and Joshua Jamerson at joshua.jamerson@wsj.com
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