It started off as one of the most extraordinary demonstrations ever staged at Omahas busiest, most visible intersection, long a gathering place for those looking to make their voices heard.
An estimated 2,000 people crowded around all four corners of 72nd and Dodge on Friday night, May 29. The diverse, mostly white crowd held aloft Black Lives Matter signs and chanted to decry the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Omaha showed up in peace! exclaimed Peyton Zyla as he streamed the event live on his Facebook page. We stand in solidarity! This is beautiful!
But things were about to get very ugly.
After an incident in which aggressive protesterssurrounded an occupied State Patrol cruiser one man climbing on top and another appearing to try to smash out a window Omaha police officers suddenly descended on the scene in force.
They donned riot gear. Soon pepper balls, flash grenades and tear gas canisters were flying in what mushroomed into the most violent street clashes seen in Omaha in half a century. The images over the next few days were stark:
Omaha police fire tear gas as they approach protesters sit in the eastbound lane of Dodge Street just west of 72nd Street on May 29.
Lines of armored police officers advancing in lock step.
Protesters standing their ground, hurling taunts, plastic water bottles, rocks and whatever else they could find.
People choking on tear gas and injured by pepper balls, including at least one man struck in the eye.
Vandals shattering windows, first near 72nd and Dodge and eventually along blocks-long swaths of downtown businesses.
A protester shot dead in a fight with a downtown bar owner.
A state of emergency in Omaha, along with a rare citywide curfew imposed over four nights.
And in the wake of it all, lots of finger pointing and questions left hanging in the air like a haze of tear gas: How did what started as a peaceful protest devolve into several nights of mayhem, vandalism and arrests in Omaha? And could it all have been avoided?
Many protesters blame the Omaha Police Department for the violent outcome, accusing officers of escalating non-violent incidents into full-fledged conflict. When police suddenly appeared in riot gear and began firing pepper balls and tear gas, they said, it shocked, antagonized and angered many protesters and some fought back.
Everything that happened was 100% on them, said Morgann Freeman, who helped organize the Friday night demonstration. A peaceful protest against police brutality was met with police brutality. If they dont see the irony in that, theres no saving them.
Police Chief Todd Schmaderer defended law enforcement actions as necessary to control a significant number of agitators who were bent on fomenting trouble. He said it was unfortunate that behavior overshadowed and undermined the message of the majority, who were there peacefully calling for police accountability.
Police and protesters clash during arally in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis near 72nd and Dodge Streets on May 29.
There appeared to be a concerted effort to turn it unruly, Schmaderer said. Out of all the people that came, most were darn good people exercising their right to free speech amessage that was very important. I don't think you will find a police officer around that doesn't say that.
To try to discern why the situation turned so violent, The World-Herald interviewed police officials and more than a dozen protesters, watched hours of video and consulted national experts on policing protests. The newspaper focused particularly on the critical minutes around 8 p.m. when police and protesters first clashed directly.
The examination revealed the dynamics of the forces that came together at the citys crossroads that night. Both police and protesters had very different motives, mindsets and imperatives, and some in each group had an uneasy mistrust of the other.
And they reacted to each other in very predictable ways. Police officers showed up in force when one of their own was seen as endangered by protesters. And protesters who had come out to decry police excesses reacted to what they saw as overbearing force with defiance and resolve.
In the end, pinning down just who was responsible for lighting the fuse is difficult, as police and protesters have vastly different interpretations of the level of provocation and danger that officers were facing. But other points are more clear.
Theres little doubt that a group of young, mostly white people joining the crowd that night were intent on instigating conflict with police. That showed early on when they began repeatedly occupying islands at the intersection in defiance of police orders. Its unclear whether those same people were involved in later escalations such as the one involving the state troopers.
Police communications with the crowd were insufficient for the large scale of the event. That gap sowed confusion among peaceful protesters and still contributes today to a widely held belief among many that police actions werent justified.
The police decision to deploy officers in riot gear bears scrutiny, and questions surround the circumstances in which officers first resorted to firing chemical agents for crowd control. Once police launched those steps, the chances of preserving a peaceful protest may have been doomed.
Studies have shown that the mere deployment of riot police and agents like tear gas in mass protests escalate tensions and can spark violent responses. That means that police must walk a fine line, ensuring that their response is proportional to the actions and mood of the crowd while at the same time protecting officers, the public and property.
Live-streamed video that night clearly shows the volume of protester defiance rose exponentially after street officers fired the first pepper balls and riot police moved in.
Edward Maguire, an Arizona State University professor who authored a recent U.S. Justice Department-funded policy paper on best practices for policing protests, said its difficult to judge whether the tactics deployed were warranted without knowing all the circumstances the Omaha officers faced.
"The question is, was the event sufficient enough to call it a riot? he asked rhetorically. If you approach a largely peaceful event as a riot, you will create a riot. You will get what you seek to prevent.
* * *
Thousands of protesters rally in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis near 72nd and Dodge Streets on May 29.
Once the video of George Floyd dying at the hands of Minneapolis police went viral showing a white officer kneeling on Floyd's neck for some eight minutes despite the black mans pleas that he couldnt breathe it sparked outrage across the country.
Protests calling out the history of police brutality against African-Americans were held from coast to coast, including in Omaha. Some smaller ones were held in the city during that week. But the biggest protest to date billed on social media as the Stand Against Injustice was planned for May 29 near the Crossroads Mall. Organizers made it clear in their event post that they wanted a peaceful gathering.
Not only were planners making preparations for Friday night, but Omaha police were, too.
After learning of the planned protest that morning, Capt. Laurie Scott began to reach out to organizers in an effort to work with them. She also met with Freeman at the scene just before the event started.
The way law enforcement agencies attempt to police protests has changed much in the last 50 years.
Back in the 1960s, Omaha and many other cities saw devastating race riots, the scars of which remain in the city today. The typical police strategy then was to show up in riot gear and put up a dominant show of force to deter any lawbreaking. Studies would later show that harsh police posture only escalated tensions and promoted conflict.
Now best practices call for uniformed officers to work with protesters, helping them peacefully exercise their First Amendment rights while also protecting public safety. Officers control traffic and, if there is unlawful activity, best practices call for enforcement efforts to sharply focus on the lawbreakers, not the entire crowd.
Police need to strike the right tone and balance, said Justin Nix, a University of Nebraska at Omaha criminal justice professor who studies police tactics.
We know from five years ago in Ferguson that police simply by showing up dressed in riot gear and showing that force can escalate things, Nix said, referring to the riots in Missouri in 2014 and 2015 that followed the shooting of a black man by a police officer.
But while working to ensure a peaceful protest, Omaha police also prepared for the worst. They had already seen the massive rioting, looting, arson and property destruction that had occurred in Minneapolis and other cities.
So 18 officers dressed in riot gear Omaha police call them RDF, for Rapid Deployment Force were staged beforehand inside the Crossroads parking garage. The idea was to keep them out of sight to avoid inflaming the crowd, but to have them ready quickly if needed.
Police hold a man on the ground as tear gas is deployed and thousands of protesters rally in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis near 72nd and Dodge Streets in Omaha on May 29.
By 6 p.m. when the event was set to start, hundreds of protesters already occupied all four corners of 72nd and Dodge.
Xavier Carr showed up early and marveled when he saw the size and diversity of the growing crowd, which was mostly white and young, but included people of all ages and races. They held signs aloft and chanted slogans like Black Lives Matter, No Justice, No Peace, and I Cant Breathe George Floyds last words.
Carr said it was fitting they planted themselves beneath the familiar Crossroads sign. He said it felt like a crossroads, a transformational moment for the city. Through the night, the crowd would swell to 2,000 or more.
It wasnt even a protest, it was a rally, said Freeman, a 29-year-old communications and diversity consultant who had helped organize big demonstrations before, including the Omaha Womens March. It was just this beautiful moment of community.
It was more a celebratory crowd of unity, not an angry crowd, agreed Daemon Donigan, a white, 45-year-old state public health worker who said he went to the protest to show support for people of color disproportionately impacted by police violence.
Thousands of protestersrally in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis near 72nd and Dodge Streets on May 29.
But the crowd also included conspicuous, smaller pockets of young white protesters who struck a more hostile tone from the start, chanting F--- the police or F--- 12, slang for the same thing.
Zyla, a 21-year-old community organizer in North Omaha, had arrived just after 6 p.m. and was providing a running commentary to an audience of thousands through his Facebook Live feed. Early on, he walked by a group of a dozen young white men and women who were standing atop a garbage dumpster chanting F--- 12. He also passed someone carrying a sign reading "ACAB" short for "All Cops Are Bastards" whose head and face were completely covered by a green ski mask.
Carr, a 31-year-old who calls himself a big black dude, said such sentiments were definitely in the minority.
Some people were trying to chant that stuff, but we would shout them down, he said.
Donigan, too, heard the young white protesters and their chants. He said they put my radar up as them not necessarily being there for the right purposes.
Such offensive words are, of course, protected by the First Amendment. But they could suggest that some protesters had a bellicose intent. Schmaderer has said hes convinced there were anarchists determined to create conflict with police that night.
Omaha Deputy Police Chief Scott Gray noted that with protests today being largely promoted through social media, event organizers have no idea who is going to show up.
Its certainly conceivable there may have been police officers present that night with negative attitudes toward the protesters. After all, the crowd was there to speak out against actions by police.
You can have 1,000 protesters and two are jerks, and you can have 100 cops and two are jerks, and thats all it takes to inflame conflict, said ASUs Maquire, familiar with that 72nd and Dodge intersection as he began his criminal justice academic career at UNO. It can spin out of control so rapidly.
As they had planned, police officers initially kept a low profile, with officers largely set back from the street corners. Some observers were stationed on the roof of the Do Space building on the southwest corner. Scott, who was overseeing the operation, was at a command center set up in a nearby Nebraska Furniture Mart parking lot.
Almost from the beginning, police and organizers had to deal with protesters who illegally stood amid traffic on the medians of the busy intersection.
Police hold a man on the ground as thousands of protestersrally in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis near 72nd and Dodge Streets on May 29.
Freeman said police had told her earlier they needed to keep people off the medians or the event would be shut down, so she personally got involved. We were hurrying and rushing and trying to keep people off, she said.
But she said a group of young, mostly white males seemed intent on occupying the medians under any circumstances.
I literally told them the police will shut down the protest, you may get arrested, please move because I dont want to put everyone else at risk, she recalled. They said they were all right with that.
Police say at some point around 7 p.m., the median occupiers started crossing from median to median to stay ahead of officers attempting to shoo them off. Police said the group was large enough at one point to stretch an entire block along one median.
Then at 7:24 p.m., 40 to 50 protesters blocked traffic on Dodge just west of 72nd, trapping several vehicles in westbound traffic. Some protesters sat in the street. An OPD cruiser responded in minutes and the crowd scattered.
Gray later called it a huge safety concern. There have been cases in other cities of drivers caught in a mob of people panicking and running over protesters, he said.
At 7:35 p.m., a large number of protesters who had been occupying the center median again entered westbound traffic, blocking all three lanes and stalling more than a dozen cars. Thats when police decided to shut down traffic in all four directions heading into Omahas busiest intersection.
Weve lost the street, one officer said over the scanner. There is nothing we can do at this point.
Why were police shutting off traffic? Most demonstrators didnt know. Any police efforts to give a reason to the crowd, which was dispersed over a wide area, became lost in the din of the protest. And that caused much confusion.
There was no communication to us on what they were doing, said Donigan. Police basically gave us the intersection.
Indeed, he and many protesters took the police action as an invitation to move into the streets, and hundreds did so now that there were no traffic concerns. Donigan likened it to when police close off streets to facilitate parades. And a parade was exactly what next ensued.
Organically, a group of 300 people or more began marching east about 7:40 p.m. in the vacant westbound traffic lanes. Zyla joined in.
Im not sure exactly why police have shut down Dodge, but it has encouraged people to start moving east, he said on his stream. The entire intersection of 72nd and Dodge is technically ours.
Thousands of protestersrally in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis near 72nd and Dodge Streets on May 29.
The group paraded east up the hill to 68th Streetbefore turning and coming back down toward 72nd. Police would later report as the group reached 69th, protesters pushed aside barricades, and someone threw a water bottle at a cruiser.
Zyla trailed the group, and as he neared 72nd, a woman walking by can be heard calling out, Theyre putting on gas masks.
Zyla told his audience he saw no sign of police officers putting on masks. Its unclear whether there was anything to the woman's report or whether it was itself a provocation.
It was now approaching 8 p.m., an hour before the protest was scheduled to end with a solemn moment of silence for Floyd lasting eight minutes and 46 seconds the length of time commonly cited for how long the officer was kneeling on him.But that moment would never arrive.
Many of the marchers continued east past 74th Street. It was there, on eastbound Dodge just west of the Olive Garden restaurant, that two state troopers who had helped Omaha police close down and reroute Dodge Street traffic were sitting in their cruiser.
Lt. Greg Miller, a 21-year patrol veteran in the cars passenger seat, had heard on the radio the group was coming and watched it approach. He and Trooper Jake Arnold were soon enveloped by a crowd estimated at 100.
Some protesters then became hostile, giving the troopers hand gestures, yelling obscenities and things like Dont shoot me and F--- the police. As a cop, Miller was pretty used to such treatment.
But things only escalated from there. A water bottle was thrown. Someone jumped up on the hood, and others started pounding on the car.
Then protesters got the idea of putting signs over the windows, blinding the officers to what was happening around them.
Most ominously to Miller, someone placed a piece of cardboard over his window and hammered hard against it several times. It appeared to Miller the person was trying to break the glass, using the cardboard to protect his hand.
Miller pressed his own hands hard against the window, trying to blunt the force and keep the window from shattering.
Said Miller last week: Ive been in a lot of situations in 21 years. Ive been on the SWAT team for 14 years. What was going on in that car was very near the top of my list of uncomfortable situations.
Feeling the threat but not able to see or respond to it, Miller urgently said to Arnold: We need to get more people here now.
Arnold tried to get on the radio, but over the din of car-pounding and shouting even Miller couldnt hear what he was saying.
Police and protesters clash during arally in response to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis near 72nd and Dodge Streets on May 29.
At the Omaha police command post, Scott was observing it all via video and standing with a state patrol commander, who attempted to contact the troopers by radio to check on their condition.
When the commander failed to reach them, Scott at 7:58 p.m. put out a help an officer call. The decision was also made to deploy the RDF squads in an effort to determine the condition of the troopers and free up their vehicle, Gray said.
Deploying riot police was clearly a significant move, and Schmaderer said it wasnt taken lightly. Police officials were conscious of stirring the crowd, the reason the riot officers had been held in reserve. But in this situation, the chief said, safety has already been compromised.
Said Scott of her decision: You are looking at an officer rescue at that point.
The surrounding of the troopers and the "help an officer" call profoundly changed the entire nature of the protest that night. As Allie Curttright, who was serving as a legal observer for the ACLU, would later put it, it really went from zero to 100 really quick.
Its part of the code of police officers to protect each other. The call for help sent dozens of police officers racing toward 74th and Dodge.
Officer safety is kind of a prime directive of police its deeply woven in their culture, ASUs Maguire said. Once you send out that call, all bets are off. They are going to race to the scene and do what they need to do.
Indeed, officers converged at the Crossroads from all parts of the city and from other agencies, too. Within seconds, a police helicopter was circling over 74th and Dodge. Before the night was out, there were officers on horseback, officers with dogs, and even officers manning a military-style vehicle.
Donigan said he saw the heavy surge of officers arriving. He didn't know why and became uneasy.
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What went wrong at 72nd and Dodge? The anatomy of Omaha's May 29 street conflict - Omaha World-Herald