Black Lives Matter group, counter protesters trade obscenities, insults in Highland
A Black Lives Matter protest in Highland was met with counter protesters Sunday. Over more than three hours, the two groups flung obscenities and personal attacks at each other, separated by several feet of marked up space where police officers stood.
While the original protest was explicitly about Black Lives Matter, the counter protesters had a less specific focus. Signs and chants expressed support for the police, a desire to re-elect President Donald Trump in November, support for the pro-life cause, and calling Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden a pedophile.
Before either the protest or counter protest formally began, several cars circled the first protesters trickling in at Highland Square. Off the back of their cars, they flew American flags, Trump 2020 flags, the Confederate flag and the Thin Blue Line flags, which expresses support for law enforcement. A drone flew above with a billowing Trump 2020 flag attached.
“Go home you worthless bastards,” one driver yelled at the protesters. He drove past again, telling them to “go to work.”
Mike Ball, who organized the counter protest, declined an interview before the event, saying he didn’t find the media trustworthy. Several other counter protesters declined to share their names with the Belleville News-Democrat.
At the peak of the protests, there were 50 protesters for Black Lives Matter and around 80 counter protesters.
As one of the only Black people present, protester Alonzo Bernard, 30, of Collinsville, was the target of many of the counter protesters’ comments. He was called names like “Slim Jim” and “Rasta,” asked how many children he had fathered, and how many babies he had killed with abortions.
At one point early during the confrontation, Bernard was pulled away from the front of the group after threatening counter protesters.
“I feel like I need to match their energy and intentions,” Bernard said a few hours after the altercation. “I want people to acknowledge the pain we feel in this nation.”
Highland Police Chief Chris Conrad said no arrests were made, and nothing happened after protesters dispersed.
Black Lives Matter protests against police violence have been held in cities large and small throughout the summer, after George Floyd died after Officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis held a knee across his neck for nearly nine minutes. There has been an additional surge in protests since a Kentucky grand jury Thursday declined to charge any officers for the death of Breonna Taylor. Taylor was killed in her apartment by police during execution of a no-knock warrant.
When Black Lives Matter protesters started chanting “I can’t breathe,” echoing the final words of Floyd, a counter protester yelled back “take your mask off,” a reference to the face coverings most were wearing as protection from coronavirus. Few counter protesters wore masks.
After one verbal altercation, a middle-aged man standing among the counter protesters pantomimed a lewd sexual act toward one of the young protesters.
Daniel Michael, of Highland, said Monday he left the counter protest early, but didn’t approve of some of the behavior on either side.
“Neither side should be disrespectful of the other side,” he said. “We should be respectful of both sides. That stuff’s uncalled for.”
Michael said he thought Black Lives Matter was a hypocritical organization that wasn’t helping the Black community.
When asked if he thought the counter protesters were doing anything to help the Black community, he admitted that “some of them don’t, but some of them do.”
Highland is part of Illinois’ seven-county Region 4, which remains under tighter restrictions in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Restore Illinois plan because testing positivity rates for COVID-19 have been among the highest in the state.
While protesters and counter protesters faced off, others gathered on the sidelines as observers. Across the street, people watched the protests from the second story of A Special Touch Florist shop.
Gordon Davis, of Highland, came to the protest to photograph it. He said he was there purely as an observer, talking to people on both sides and taking pictures.
“Everyone’s got their own reasons for coming out,” he said.
Kelly Sarrano and her mother, Mary Eberle, both of Trenton, sat back from the curb where most of the protest participants were gathered.
“We’re just observers, but we’re definitely Trump 2020,” Sarrano said. “I like that we can actually see both sides.”
As the numbers on both sides dwindled around 7 p.m., the remaining Black Lives Matter crowd skewed young.
Evan Summers, 18, of St. Jacob said he was a radical and wants to abolish the police and replace it with a community-led model. That was not the majority opinion of the Black Lives Matter protesters in Highland, though, he said.
“I feel like there’s three sides,” Summers said.
This story was originally published September 28, 2020 at 10:44 AM.
