Pro-Police Rally Attracts Hundreds To Downtown Fredericksburg

FREDERICKSBURG, VA — Several hundred people from the city of Fredericksburg and the surrounding area gathered downtown Sunday afternoon to show their support for police officers across the country after weeks of protests calling for major police reforms and racial justice in the wake of the death of George Floyd under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis.

The organizers kicked off the Back the Blue event with a rally in Hurkamp Park in downtown Fredericksburg, where participants were provided instructions in case counter-protesters disrupted the march. As many as 100 bikers lined the march route with the mission to keep the marchers safe.

As it turned out, the event was peaceful, with a couple dozen Black Lives Matter counter-protesters holding signs or chanting along the march route. The parade-like atmosphere of the march reflected the easing of tensions in Fredericksburg over the past two weeks as the city has taken measures in response to demonstrations for racial justice, including the adoption of a plan to address racial inequality and discrimination.

Sunday's march to police headquarters ended without any incidents, including when the pro-police marchers crossed Route 1 and headed up Cowan Boulevard to the police department. Fredericksburg police and sheriff's deputies, together with the bikers, provided an escort for the Sunday rally, with many law enforcement officers shaking the hands of the participants.

It was a different scene on the evening of May 31 when Fredericksburg police fired tear gas to disperse Black Lives Matter protesters at the same intersection of Route 1 and Cowan Boulevard. The Back the Blue march was offering their support to the police, while the May 31 march was one of many protests that popped up across the country in the days after Floyd's death.

Amy Sudbeck of Fredericksburg said she organized the rally and march due to the intense criticism aimed at police in Fredericksburg and across the nation. “They need to know that they have our support,” she said.

After marching in downtown Fredericksburg, the participants headed west, passing Fredericksburg's Confederate Cemetery and the University of Mary Washington. Once the march reached its endpoint at the Fredericksburg police department, Sudbeck thanked the crowd for their attendance and declared the event a success. "We were peaceful and the mission has been accomplished," she told the crowd.

Sudbeck then invited her father-in-law, Tom Sudbeck, to say a prayer in front of the police department. Police officers are "the thin blue line that separates anarchy from a civil society," he said.

On Sunday, Fredericksburg Mayor Mary Katherine Greenlaw and Fredericksburg Police Chief Brian Layton welcomed the marchers when they arrived at the police department. Many of the pro-police demonstrators directed their outrage at Greenlaw for how a police dispatcher handled a 911 call from a driver caught inside a June 13 Black Lives Matter protest. The anger of the pro-police demonstrators created a tense scene, with the crowd getting close to Greenlaw and some yelling for her to resign.

After the first two weeks of protests in Fredericksburg over the death of Floyd, the city changed its policies on protests against police brutality and for racial justice, allowing people to assemble and march in downtown streets.

At the May 31 protest, the anger also was palpable, and the crowd, like the pro-police demonstrators, was peaceful. But instead of allowing the protesters to proceed to police headquarters, officers fired tear gas.

When the protesters arrived at Route 1 on May 31, they blocked northbound and southbound lanes kneeling on one knee and then walked southbound toward Cowan Boulevard. On Sunday, the pro-police demonstrators and bikers blocked northbound and southbound traffic of Route 1 to allow the march to proceed on its way to police headquarters.

On May 31, Fredericksburg police declared the Black Lives Matter protest an unlawful assembly. "At approximately 8:34 p.m., when the protesters arrived at the intersection of Route One and Cowan Boulevard, they made a straight line for Police Headquarters at which time officers deployed gas," the police department said in a May 31 news release.

Last week, Greenlaw offered an apology for the use of tear gas in Fredericksburg against people protesting racial injustice.

“I never thought I would hear the words ‘tear gas’ in the same sentence as Fredericksburg. I am personally sorry,” Greenlaw said at last Tuesday’s City Council meeting. “The people in our streets on the night of May 31 were motivated to protest by righteous anger and genuine pain. I know that the use of tear gas shocked and frightened them. I apologize to those who went through this fearful experience."

In an interview with Patch on Sunday, Greenlaw praised the police and highlighted how the city has made progress in easing tensions. She also emphasized that the protests against police brutality in Fredericksburg were mostly peaceful and were not destructive as in other towns and cities across the country.

"We have one of the finest police departments in the state of Virginia," Greenlaw said. "We are very proud of them. I'm especially proud that during extraordinary difficult situations, in the middle of a pandemic, they have kept this town safe. They have been willing to work with the protesters, listen to them, work with us as leaders — all of us working together to allow peaceful protests and to keep this town safe."

"We haven't had rioting, and we haven't had looting," she said. "And we have a plan going forward to have a community dialogue."

Greenlaw said what is happening in Fredericksburg is part of a national conversation. "It may indeed be the next piece of the Civil Rights movement," she said.

During the pro-police march, participants expressed their support for the police department in Fredericksburg and police officers across the country.

"I respect that they put their lives on the line every day," rally and march participant Susan Weimer of Stafford told Patch. "There are a few bad apples, but the majority are good men and women."

In response to growing calls to "defund the police," Weimer said police officers already don't get paid what they should get paid now. "To defund the department is ridiculous," she said.

Michelle Gruber of Fredericksburg, another rally participant, said she hopes the event creates greater unity in the community in support of the police and offers a counter the "defund the police" narrative. "We need the police. They need to be paid more for what they do," Gruber said.