Credit: Photo via Christopher Cann

Credit: Photo via Christopher Cann

Police acted as the barriers between protesters and counter-protesters at Friday’s Peace Walk For Black Lives in Brooksville.

Over the course of the demonstration, which began at 3 p.m., protesters walked from Hernando Park to the 1913-built County Court and back again.

The event ended at 7 p.m., and as demonstrators began leaving, 34-year-old David Howell started an altercation and pulled a machete from his pants, according to a statement released by the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office. 

Officers then tased Howell, who ran and refused to drop the machete, despite orders to do so. He was arrested and is facing charges for resisting arrest without violence and improper exhibition of a deadly weapon. This was the only instance of escalation beyond verbal name-calling that occurred at the peace-walk. 

But Howell, who has a swastika tattooed on his chest, was not alone in his counter-protesting. Under 50 counter-protesters stood across N. Main Street in downtown Brooksville and attempted to drown out speakers that were exchanging stories, experiences and advice over an amplifier placed on the steps of the Beaux-Arts inspired County Court. 

Credit: Photo via Christopher Cann

The peace walk was started by Isaiah Haddon, 20, who was inspired after attending a protest in Tampa; he said he left before things became violent. Haddon worked with local churches, businesses and leaders to create the event aimed to encourage a peaceful dialogue. In addition, he collaborated with local police, especially after posts threatening to kill protesters surfaced online from inside a private Facebook group called “Defend Hernando County.” 

“I didn't think I could promise safety to those in attendance without getting advice from some trusted members of the force,” he wrote in an email to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.

Haddon wrote that before the event started, he and Mitchell Winters, a 23-year-old who helped in the planning of the event, talked with a few of the counter-protesters, one of whom was a musician with a deep love for Johnny Cash.

“It was honestly really nice,” he wrote. But, he wrote when the event started “it was like they never met.” 

“While speaking, we were called the N-word, the phrase 'Only White is Right' was shouted at one point and they quite literally said things about some of our speaker's mothers that I don't wish to repeat. It was a lightswitch moment really that showed how mob mentality changes us,” he wrote.

Planned speakers included Haddon, Hernando County NAACP Chapter President Paul Douglas and Candidate for US Representative of the 11th District of Florida Dana Cottrell. 

An unexpected highlight, which has since been viewed over 9,000 times, came when an unplanned speaker, Florida State University student L’Oréal Meshay, took to the microphone on the steps of the county court and addressed the group of counter-protesters chanting “all lives matter,” by saying “You are right all lives do matter. You are damn right, all lives matter. And when you say that all lives matter, my brown, black life matters just the fucking same.” 

After speakers wrapped up with a moment of silence for George Floyd, a Minnesota man who was killed by an officer that knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, protesters walked silently to Hernando Park. Demonstrators placed signs and flowers at the base of the courthouse steps as they walked away leaving behind phrases in thick ink like “Black Lives Matter,” “I can’t breath,” and “Hopeful for Hernando.”

Once in the park, protesters began to form groups based on where their cars were after being recommended to do so by local officers, who said that counter-protesters were still lingering in the area. Some Hernando County Officers personally escorted groups of demonstrators to their vehicles scattered across downtown Brooksville. 

Haddon, who initiated the peace walk, said that he is running for local government in 2022. In addition, he said a coalition of young, local leaders who want to reshape the county has formed, many of which attended the peace walk.

“We want change,” he said.

Haddon hinted towards the idea of the peace walk as a starting point for change in Hernando County. 

Hernando Country still has deep reminders of its racist past, like lynching a record number of black people according to a report by the Equal Justice Initiative, and physical relics like the “hanging tree” and a Confederate statue—both found on the lawn of the County Court. 

At Friday’s demonstration, the tree rumored to have once been used to hang people provided shelter from the rain to more than 200 protesters below its thick, overarching branches.

Credit: Photo via Christopher Cann

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This article appears in Jun 11-17, 2020.

Christopher is a current journalism student at the University of Florida. His past work can be seen at Ears to Feed, The Independent Florida Alligator and Cigar City Management.