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SALT LAKE CITY – Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall tonight issued an emergency proclamation enacting a curfew to take effect at 8:00 p.m. This curfew will apply to the whole of Salt Lake City and last through 6 a.m. Monday morning.
“The safe space we offered for today’s protest is no longer safe for anybody,” Mayor Mendenhall said. “Please, if you are on Salt Lake City’s streets right now and do not meet those exceptions, go home.”
During the hours of curfew, people may not be on a public street or in any public place, including for the purpose of travel, with the following exceptions:
· law enforcement, fire, paramedics or other medical personnel,
· news media
· People traveling to work; attending religious services; obtaining food; caring for a family member, friend, or animal; traveling to the airport; patronizing private businesses; seeking medical care; fleeing dangerous circumstances; or experiencing homelessness.
· Private businesses may remain open, but people may not be out on the streets or in a public place for reasons other than these.
Mayor Mendenhall and Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown will hold a press conference at 9 p.m. this evening to update media on the status of the curfew:
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Mayor Mendenhall announced the curfew following the below statement on today’s protest in Salt Lake City:
“As a City we’ve been through a lot together since I became your Mayor, and through it all I’ve asked that we have grace and patience with one another. I feel the pain, and the anger from the atrocious murder of George Floyd by rogue police in Minneapolis this week and throughout our nation’s history. I am angry and heartbroken with you. But violence, looting, and destruction of property is only causing more pain.
What’s happening on our streets right now is not justice.
Today, Salt Lake City wanted to give people the space they needed to express the anger, hurt, and frustration felt by so many in our community. The right to protest is legitimate and critical to democracy.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people in Salt Lake City did just that – peacefully protest. We join with those who demand change and are ready to work together.
The unfortunate choice of some to inflict destruction and chaos does nothing to right past wrongs or rebuild a system that is unjust.
Salt Lake City police made a calculated decision today to allow protest, vandalism and even the loss of a police vehicle instead of ratcheting up the likelihood of a violent confrontation with aggressive police action. Salt Lake City police are extensively trained in de-escalation and their restraint today, even now, is evidence of that.
As we’ve seen in cities across the country, these protests have drawn some individuals that are less interested in racial justice than they are in wonton destruction. This is not acceptable and it undermines the message these peaceful demonstrators marched for today.
The safe space we offered for today’s protest is no longer safe for anybody, so with my support, the Salt Lake City police department has been mobilized to stop the violence, destruction, and looting in our city. Our police department is being supported right now by the Utah National Guard, Utah Highway Patrol and police departments valley wide.
Please, if you are on Salt Lake City’s streets right now and do not meet those exceptions, go home.
This city belongs to all of us.
We have worked hard to build this place and must work just as hard to protect it and do the productive work of fixing what is broken in our city, and our systems.
Violence is not helping. As Killer Mike said to the city of Atlanta and our nation last night, have Strength, empathy, determination. It is okay to feel anger. It is okay to demonstrate. Violence and destruction only make the problems worse.
And tonight I ask you, Stop destroying our city.”
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