Richmond police say more than 200 people were arrested Sunday night, most for violating the citywide curfew, but also for vandalism and burglary.
“Across the city our citizens were in fear, we will not allow that to happen and we will continue to be ever vigilant to protect our city,” said Chief William Smith during a press conference Monday morning.
According to WRIC television, Smith says everyone taken into custody was treated with respect. But that doesn’t match accounts from protestors.
Early Monday morning the parking lot of Richmond City Jail was full of family and friends waiting for loved ones still being held. One woman, who prefers to go by Cat, walked out around 7 a.m.
She had been protesting the night before and says around 8:15, just after curfew went into effect, her group was met by cops near the capitol.
“They started like beating us backwards and then they started throwing tear gas,” she described. She says cops directed them down a certain street in order to get out and go home. But when they followed those orders there were more officers waiting.
“We are cornered, guns drawn, we are told to get on the ground, start throwing mace again,” Cat said. “It was really powerful though when we were all forced on the ground we all started holding hands with each other.”
She says cops stepped on their toes, told them to separate hands, and then zip tied them. “People were having like panic attacks,” she added.
Cat spent hours waiting to be processed and then in a cell. She says her requests for a phone call, water and the bathroom were laughed aside.
She did add that Richmond city officers were mostly courteous, and that it was primarily state troopers she felt disrespected by.
Attorney Charlie Schmidt says those details, of how protestors were rounded up, match accounts from other clients of his who also felt belittled. Schmidt, a former ACLU employee, has been doing legal observation at demonstrations for more than ten years.
“Once those state troopers are called out the situation escalates to a point of police violence and brutality by the state troopers,” he says. “They’re so militarized and because they’re deployed as support services... they don’t have to answer to the community after.”
Two of Schmidt’s clients were singled out and strip searched. He says one woman was forced to remove her burka. As of late Monday afternoon Schmidt was waiting for more clients to still be released.
Cat thinks the delay is meant to deter protestors from going out again. “But I hope people get angrier,” she says. Despite there still being a curfew in place, there is another march already scheduled for Monday evening.
