Broken glass, water from broken fire hydrants and tear gas covered the streets of downtown Eugene Friday night as protesters and police faced off in a demonstration against the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis earlier this week.
The peaceful demonstration began around 8 p.m. at the Lane County Courthouse, the Register Guard reported, but moved toward the intersection of 7th Avenue and Washington Street around 10:30 p.m.
Eugene Police described the protest as an “unruly crowd” on social media, advising that motorists avoid the area.
Crowds descended upon the Five Guys, Starbucks and Jimmy John’s, threw objects into windows, lit fires in restaurants and took items from shops. At one point, a fire was briefly lit at the Starbucks but soon extinguished. Protesters entered the store and passed out items like bagels, and bags of coffee and chips from Jimmy John’s were found in the parking lot.
Clea Ibrahim, one of the protesters, told a Register Guard reporter that she “didn’t ask for the fire. I didn’t ask to break those windows.”
“That’s why I was trying to stop them because this needs to be peaceful. Because I don’t think that George would have wanted to have those windows,” she said. “But if I was George, I would have wanted to have my name screamed around the town.”
Another video shows Ibrahim telling protesters to stop while they threw objects through restaurant windows.
Across the street, protesters also smashed the windows of a Sprint store and took merchandise for themselves and members of the crowd. Protesters carried out trays of phones and other electronics and accessories and dumped them onto the parking lot for members of the crowd to grab while alarms rang on both sides of the street and dumpsters burned.
Other businesses were guarded by their owners and supporters — The Stereo Store, Urban Vapors and Growler Guys all had individuals blocking protesters from their doors all night. As of 1:30 a.m. Saturday, those stores hadn’t been broken into.
Some in the crowd — with little success — shouted through megaphones to encourage others not to break windows or loot stores.
Burning dumpsters, road signs and piles of debris blocked several intersections on 7th Avenue. Around midnight, someone had opened a fire hydrant on the corner, and water misted people and the piles of garbage for several hours.
Eugene police remained largely uninvolved in the protest until around 1:30 a.m.
At that time, protesters wheeled dumpsters up Washington Street and made their way into downtown Eugene, eventually meeting police officers who told them to disperse. Police were met by chants of “Fuck the police” and officers fired tear gas while chanted, “I can’t breathe” — the last words of Floyd, who was killed when a Minneapolis police officer pushed his neck into the ground with his knee earlier this week.
That officer has been charged with third degree murder and second degree manslaughter; however, the other officers present at the scene have not yet been charged.
In Eugene, police and protesters stayed head-to-head for the remainder of the night, with rows of police wearing gas masks while holding shields pushing down Broadway Street and firing tear gas.
Protesters responded by smashing downtown windows and lighting fireworks, while slowly moving west.
Police warned protesters, “You are commanded in the name of the State of Oregon to disperse. If you do not immediately disperse, you will be arrested.”
“Fuck the police,” cried protesters. “Fuck the state,” called others.
This story was updated Saturday morning to correct minor typographical errors.
