After two days of peaceful protests that devolved into violent confrontations between South Florida police and demonstrators, Fort Lauderdale awoke on Monday to find National Guard troops standing watch on city streets as cleanup crews swept sidewalks and scrubbed graffiti from buildings.
In Miami, there were more signs that businesses vandalized and looted during the weekend will reopen and return to some semblance of normal after local demonstrators participated in nationwide protests over the death of a handcuffed and unarmed black man at the hands of police in Minneapolis.
The demonstrations in Miami and Fort Lauderdale — and similar protests in almost every major metropolitan area of the state — appeared to avoid the level of widespread violence reported in cities such as Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Atlanta. There were no deaths or serious injuries reported in South Florida.
Read more at the Miami Herald.
