Lang
6/5/20
The fourth straight night of protests in downtown Iowa City went much more smoothly than the previous night.
The Iowa City protests began Monday night, a week after George Floyd was killed at the hands of Minneapolis Police. Other racial justice protests erupted nationwide in the days following Floyd’s death.
Wednesday night police used flash bangs and tear gas to break up a group of hundreds of protesters who were walking to Interstate 80 on North Dubuque Street. Thursday night an even larger crowd, estimated at over 1,000 people, again made their way north on Dubuque Street after marching through downtown Iowa City. This time, the Iowa State Patrol blocked off I-80 between the Coralville 1st Avenue and North Dodge Street exits. Other law enforcement officers allowed the group to advance to the bridge over the Interstate, although it appears as if no protesters actually entered the Interstate itself.
After about an hour the protesters walked back down Dubuque Street toward downtown and dispersed. There was minimal new spray-painting on buildings, cars and sidewalks, although the University of Iowa president’s residence on Church Street was hit hard with Black Lives Matter tags.
Johnson County Supervisor Rod Sullivan wrote on Facebook that city and county leaders met with protest leaders early Thursday afternoon. Sullivan says the leaders asked for paramedics from the Johnson County Ambulance Service to be available for Thursday night’s protest, as the night before some demonstrators needed medical attention for pepper spray exposure and heat-related issues. The leaders said they trusted the ambulance service, but not police.
JCAS agreed to supply three teams of two paramedics each to follow protesters as they marched.
There were reports of three or four trucks filled with white supremacists who planned to disrupt the rally, but there were no reported skirmishes.