On May 30, 2020, a peaceful protest event named "A National Day of Action — Justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and lives cut short by Raleigh and Durham police departments" began in downtown Raleigh, NC as outrage over the death of George Floyd spread to cities in North Carolina. What began as peaceful marches with more than 1000 protesters, ended in violence, with clashes between protesters and police, fires set, windows smashed and looting.
But these are the stories that ALSO need to be told. The “morning after” I was in downtown Raleigh making images of the aftermath of night of anger, I was headed to my car when I passed a woman scraping paint off a window. A man pulled up at a red light and I heard him yell, "HEY LADY! You're going to need some window cleaner to get that off!" I immediately thought this was a passing troll who would hit the gas and take off without a second thought. At that moment, my jaded heart from the previous night got the best of me. What happened next was almost shocking. The man quickly pulled over, jumped out of his car and retrieving some window cleaner from his trunk, he proceeded to help the woman clean the defaced window. Minutes later, A Wake County Sheriff's Officer joined in with her own bottle of cleaner.
It's easy to get jaded by headlines, but sometimes there are rays of light, if you look. Or, if you just happen to be at the right place at the right time.
