Anti-Gentrification Protest Turns Violent In East Austin

EAST AUSTIN, TX — A anti-gentrification protest on Sunday turned violent after supporters of the store being protested clashed with those decrying its presence where a piñata store once stood.

The clash occurred outside the Blue Cat Café in East Austin, where protesters decrying gentrification have gathered regularly since its October 2015 opening. The store is located on property once occupied by the Jumpolin piñata and party supplies store that was improperly razed in February 2015 seeking to capitalize on their then-newly purchased land acquisition with another property use.

Wearing bandannas to ensure their anonymity, protesters decrying gentrification have descended on the site at Navasota and Cesar Chavez streets to protest gentrification, targeting the business doubling as an eatery and cat adoption site. But on Sunday, the confrontation turned violent when protesters clashed with friends of the business owner, Rebecca Gray, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

While the Blue Cat Café had nothing to do with the demolition of Jumpolin, anti-gentrification protesters view it as a symbol of the gentrification that has swept over their East Austin neighborhoods. Those tensions came to a head on Sunday when members of both sides of the confrontation clashed, leaving one participant bloodied, the newspaper reported.

According to the report an arriving police officer used a stun gun during an arrest of a female protester, heightening tensions further. Two of the protesters were charged with aggravated assault, evading arrest and interfering, police told the Statesman.

Since the abrupt razing of Jumpolin, its owners have been compensated as part of a confidential agreement with the landowners and have relocated to a larger site at 2605 E. Cesar Chavez — less than a mile from their original location. But those developments have done nothing to quell the ire of anti-gentrification activists, who descend upon the site regularly where the Blue Cat Café now stands to recite chants and spew vitriol toward its owner in protest.

Related story: Jumpolin Piñata Store Making Triumphant Return To East Austin

>>> Read the full story at Austin American-Statesman

Image via Shutterstock