Protesters remained around the Austin Police headquarters through much of the night Saturday but also marched up neighboring streets, spray-painted graffiti across swathes of the downtown, smashed windows and looted a store on E. 6th Street.
Austin Police in riot gear controlled the approaches to I-35 near the police headquarters, which is elevated above the street level in that area. Protesters taunted them from below and screamed in rage when officers sporadically used rubber bullets to keep clear the streets below.
White, black, and latino protesters milled about in small groups, gathered to chant at police, and rushed back and forth to snap photos as more active provocateurs in the crowd set fireworks or small fires. Around midnight a car went up in flames in the underpass beneath the highway. Austin Fire put out flaming debris in the road and a dumpster fire at a nearby gas station.
Groups of protesters drifted into the partially boarded-up 6th Street bar area after midnight. The area, already strewn with debris and graffiti from earlier in the day, soon turned chaotic as some protesters attacked local shops while others tried to prevent them from doing so.
Someone ripped out a sidewalk bench and threw it in the street. Others looted a gift shop called Private Stock, and smashed the window of an historic building that had belonged to Austin’s first black property owner. A few doors down, looters broke into the Lone Star Souvenir and Food Mart.
In front of a tattoo parlor, an employee stood guard with a baseball bat, flanked by companions. Scores of officers responded in riot gear, but it took them some time to get control of the situation. Protesters then faced off with police along streets in the area, taunting, dancing, holding signs and sitting down in the streets.
Looting does not appear to have been widespread. Shops and restaurants on Congress, Brazos, and, other downtown areas weren’t affected, apart from widespread graffiti with anti-police messages. Farther down 7th Street, patrons oblivious to the scene just blocks away queued up at a club that remained open.
The Police Department said on social media that officers made about a dozen arrests Saturday, adding, “While most of the demonstrations have been peaceful, some people have thrown rocks, bricks, eggs, water bottles and Molotov cocktails…” Some graffiti expressly called for violence against police; the APD headquarters was spray-painted with the words “Kill Cops,” and “Dead Cops Save Lives.”
Graffiti appeared on the sides of Austin City Hall, on the plaza area in front of it, and on security boulders around building.
Protesters are angry over the April killing of an Austin man, Mike Ramos, and George Floyd, killed in Minneapolis by an officer who kneeled on his neck for over eight minutes. The officer involved in Floyd’s case has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
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