As protests over police shooting continue, Elizabeth City pushes back curfew to midnight

After more than a week of peaceful protests, the nightly curfew in Elizabeth City was pushed back to midnight on Friday.

People have taken to the streets daily to protest the shooting of Andrew Brown Jr. by Pasquotank County deputies and the delay in the release of bodycam video of the incident.

Brown, 42, was shot five times by deputies trying to serve a warrant to search his home and car on April 21 as part of a drug investigation. Authorities said he had a history of resisting arrest, so several deputies went to his home.

Fearing the violence that has erupted in the wake of other police shootings, Elizabeth City officials declared a state of emergency on Monday and on Tuesday imposed a curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

"Something happened Monday night after the regular protesters left," Mayor Bettie Parker said Friday, noting that a group of people threw rocks and eggs at a police officer

"We thought we needed to be a whole lot more proactive than just letting them be out there and letting them leave on their own," Parker said.

Since Monday, City Manager Montre Freeman said, officials have monitored the protests, and they told demonstrators on Thursday that they would relax the curfew if protesters didn't block main roads after 8 p.m. Demonstrators complied, though there were still tense moments and a couple of arrests.

"There's enough intel to make sure we keep enough officers on," Parker said of the later curfew. "The reality is, everybody didn't come here to peacefully protest."

The 8 p.m. curfew also had downtown business owners grumbling.

Jan Mills said she didn't even bother opening The Mills Bistro downtown over the past week.

"If we're not having any guests coming in, there's no need to open," Mills said. "For the dinner service, from 5 to 6:30, it's not even worth our time."

With a later curfew, she said she would reopen Friday night.

"We are so happy that the mayor did this. It was really killing downtown businesses," she said. "For us, it was tough to have our guests out and home by the 8 o'clock curfew."

Mills said the protesters haven't bothered businesses and have respected property.

But Freeman countered: "There's this narrative that no buildings have burned and there's been no Molotov cocktails and things of that nature. Well, guess what? If you wait until that happens to make a decision, you're too late."

Elizabeth City also has started requiring organizers of the protests to obtain permits from the city, although the permit process for demonstrations isn't new.

Organizers are supposed to get permits at least 15 days before an event, but the city suspended the requirement in the wake of Brown's shooting, knowing that protests would go on regardless.

On Friday afternoon, two organizers filled out paperwork for protests over the next two weeks, including one Friday night.

The state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups sent a letter to Parker, Freeman and other local officials on Friday, charging that the permit requirement and ongoing curfew are unconstitutional and the state of emergency is unnecessary.

"The city’s blanket permit requirement, which is imposed on all gatherings and protests without regard to the size of the gathering or the nature of protestors’ activities, clearly violates the First Amendment," the letter states. "By covering a large swath of lawful conduct, this curfew is overbroad and also violates the fundamental rights to free movement and access to public spaces."

Brown's funeral will be private, at noon Monday at Fountain of Life Church in Elizabeth City.

A public visitation will be from 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday at The Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City.