News for North Texas
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

City Of Dallas Lifts Curfew As Protests Continue

Bret Jaspers
/
KERA News
Protesters gather outside a press conference with Gov. Abbott on June 2.

A curfew for downtown Dallas has been lifted, effective immediately. City manager T. C. Broadnax signed the order Saturday and it has been published on the city’s website.

“We’ve seen many moving and peaceful protests over the last few days, some of which I joined,” Broadnax said in a statement. “We heard feedback from residents ready to open and conduct business in central Dallas and we agree it’s time. The City of Dallas and the Dallas Police Department continue to respect and protect the rights of peaceful demonstrators. We must also remember we are still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and Dallas residents are safest at home.”

Dallas imposed a curfew on the city’s downtown and other central neighborhoods on May 31. It was a response to violence and vandalism in the wake of protests against police brutality spurred by the death of George Floyd. The city expanded the curfew on June 2 to cover a larger geographic area. 

The decision to lift the curfew follows criticism of the city's handling of the past week's protests. During an eight-hour city council meeting on Friday, as KERA reported earlier, "Dallasites demanded the firing of Police Chief Renee Hall, called on the City Council to defund the Police Department, questioned the use of tear gas and so-called- less-than-lethal-weapons and requested the citywide curfew be lifted."

Several more protests are expected through the weekend and a couple for the upcoming week. A protest on Saturday in downtown attracted thousands of people.

Bret Jaspers is a reporter for KERA. His stories have aired nationally on the BBC, NPR’s newsmagazines, and APM’s Marketplace. He collaborated on the series Cash Flows, which won a 2020 Sigma Delta Chi award for Radio Investigative Reporting. He's a member of Actors' Equity, the professional stage actors union.