Tag: Linn Park
Fencing Erected Around Downtown Parks to Discourage Gatherings
Fencing has been placed around Birmingham’s Linn Park “to ensure unregistered gatherings do not occur,” Mayor Randall Woodfin’s office announced Thursday, and fencing is going up around Kelly Ingram Park.
Linn Park, which lies between City Hall and the Jefferson County Courthouse, was the location of violent protests Sunday night over the police killing of Minneapolis man George Floyd, which led to the city taking down a Confederal monument there.
Meanwhile, rumors have been rampant that violence is expected in downtown today, but whether that is based in fact is unclear.
Woodfin’s office earlier today denied that there were plans to “shut down” the city Thursday afternoon “due to potential unrest.”
Read more.
Woodfin Adds Exception to Demonstration Ban
Mayor Randall Woodfin has walked back his total ban on public gatherings and demonstrations in Birmingham, allowing permitted demonstrations in one park in the North Avondale neighborhood. In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Woodfin said his office would allow permitted demonstrations to take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in W.C. Patton Park, at 1200 Sipsey Street. “We want to balance the right to assembly with the absolute need for public safety,” Woodfin said in the statement. Read more.
More stories on the protests in Birmingham:
Curfews Imposed Across Birmingham Area Over Protests
Jefferson County Sets Curfew to Curb Violence
Confederate Monument Taken Down in Linn Park
Cleanup Begins After Looting Damages Downtown Birmingham Businesses
Birmingham Protestors Vandalize Downtown Buildings, Try to Take Down Confederate Monument
Mayor Says Confederate Monument Will Be Removed From Linn Park
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin has vowed to remove a controversial Confederate monument from Linn Park “as soon as possible.”
That decision, which results from violent protests that erupted in downtown Birmingham Sunday night, would violate state law and likely trigger a lawsuit from the State of Alabama. That’s a cost Woodfin said he is “willing to accept… because that is a lower cost than civil unrest in our city.”
On Sunday night, demonstrators protesting the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis began defacing the monument, chipping away at its base with shovels and unsuccessfully attempting to pull it down with a rope and a pickup truck. By end of the night, it had been covered in spray-painted slogans; its engraved quote from Jefferson Davis was painted over with a scrawled “Black Lives Matter.”
Read more.
Birmingham Protestors Vandalize Downtown Buildings, Try to Take Down Confederate Monument
Protestors who gathered for a demonstration in Linn Park on Sunday night defaced monuments in the park and, as they left, smashed windows and vandalized buildings along downtown streets and set several fires.
Police, who had taken a hands-off stance even as the protestors defaced monuments in Linn Park, moved in after the crowd began its destructive trek through downtown. It was unclear after midnight how many people were still downtown or the extent of the damage.
Several hundred demonstrators had gone to Linn Park after an earlier, peaceful protest in Kelly Ingram Park.¬ Jermaine “FunnyMaine” Johnson, a local comedian, during the first rally, dubbed “Birmingham the World is Watching Rally for Justice and Peace,” had told the crowd he was going to
Linn Park to topple the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument there.
That’s what the crowd attempted to do, using a truck and cords. That was after they had defaced it by spray painting messages and taking out chunks with implements such as shovels. But the monument still stood.
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin later gave the crowd his word that the statue would be gone in 24 hours. Read more.
Birmingham Protestors Turn on Confederate Monument
UPDATING — Protestors as they were leaving a protest in Linn Park have begun vandalizing downtown buildings and have set fire to buildings at and near the People’s Bank.
Fox6 News was showing video of protestors setting fires, smashing windows of the Wells Fargo building, and looting the Alabama Power Co. museum. Police are moving into the area in force.
A crowd of several hundred protestors attacked the Confederate monument in Linn Park on Sunday night. The protestors tried to topple the monument using a truck and chains, and earlier they defaced it by spray painting messages and taking out chunks with implements such as shovels.
As the crowd became more rowdy, defacing or toppling three other monuments in the park, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin arrived and asked people to peacefully disperse, but the crowd shouted him down.
After Woodfin talked with protest organizer Jermaine “FunnyMaine” Johnson, a comedian, and Jefferson County Commissioner Sheila Tyson, who also was leading the protest, Johnson asked people to disperse and the mayor said the crowd to give the city 24 hours to remove the monument itself. Johnson said that if the monument isn’t removed by Tuesday morning, protestors will return at noon.
Taking down that monument could be tricky since the state has a law banning the removal of historic monuments. Read more.
