Until recently, you would have been surprised to learn that two opposing groups of Eritrean nationals had clashed violently in a Southern city like Charlotte, North Carolina. Certainly, such groups would have existed in such paltry numbers in Charlotte that they would have been challenged to clash with anyone, much less to have enough to clash with each other.
Yet that is what happened over the weekend, at an Eritrean “cultural event” taking place at a business in the city. On Saturday morning, two groups with very different agendas gathered for the “event.” One group consisted of supporters of the existing government of the tiny country in the Horn of Africa, a spinoff of Ethiopia. They came to “celebrate” the nation’s culture and were largely confined indoors. Outside was gathered a counter-group, which opposes the Eritrean government and its supporters. They apparently came to display Eritrean culture, by fighting their kinsmen (Eritrea has a long tradition of civil war).
Consisting of about 200, that counter-group gathered in the parking lot of the event’s venue and soon spilled out onto the street. Charlotte police arrived about 11:30 am and closed off the street from traffic. Throughout the afternoon, they repeatedly and ineffectually ordered the protestors to clear the streets, in both English and — for some reason — Spanish. (Spanish is not a national language in Eritrea, but nowadays in America, even police orders to Africans have to be bilingual in some way. The CMPD should probably hire some Tigrinya interpreters.)
Around 3:00, the protest had degenerated into a riot, and police began using pepper spray to clear the street of protestors. One officer said later:
They were refusing to disperse and became increasingly more hostile towards officers. They began to throw things, sticks, rocks, bottles of water.
Sometime in the early evening the rioters set fire to a tractor-trailer parked nearby, and the fire department had to be called. Before the festivities ended, eight protestors had been arrested, all for Impeding Traffic and Failure to Disperse. One woman was charged with inciting a riot, Injury to Personal Property, and Assault on a Government Official. Police confiscated a gun in her possession as well. By 9:30 pm, conditions had returned to “normal.”
US Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC), who represents the local Congressional district, tweeted:
Congress has no data on the distribution of illegal aliens around the country as the result of Biden’s open borders program. But it’s long been clear that Charlotte is a big destination. How’s it working out, Democrats?
Not very well, by the looks of things.
For more, see the Charlotte Observer.