WLKM Radio 95.9 FM
Police officers in Kalamazoo were outnumbered 50-to-1 before using tear gas and chemical spray in the wee hours Tuesday to get rid of protesters and stop damage at downtown businesses, authorities said.
“It was not our community’s finest hour,” said Karianne Thomas, chief of public safety.
She said peaceful protests Monday over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis turned violent at night as officers and vehicles were pelted with rocks and bottles.
More than 25 downtown businesses and two patrol cars were damaged, an officer was injured and six people were arrested, Thomas said.
“We hear you. Black lives matter,” City Manager Jim Ritsema said, speaking outdoors to reporters and the public. “I haven’t experienced your pain but I feel it.”
Assistant Chief Vernon Coakley said Kalamazoo was swarmed with hundreds of vehicles, many of them speeding or ignoring one-way street signs. He said there was “credible intel” that people from outside the region had targeted Kalamazoo.
“Those groups began to outnumber law enforcement 50 to 1,” he said.
“We’re at a fork in the road, and it’s a big fork. Let’s continue to work together,” Coakley, who is black, said in a plea to the community “Mr. Floyd needs to be the last one. I’m angry. … That’s not what a million and one officers do every day.” (AP)
