When Jesus Karens
Harrison Ayer, right, waits for traffic on Gervais St. next to Tobias Walker Friday, July 10, 2020 in Columbia SC. Photos and words by Sean Rayford
Harrison Ayer regularly dresses as Jesus at local Black Lives Matter protests in Columbia, SC — and Friday morning was no exception. But on the fifth anniversary of the removal of the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds, Jesus also took on the role of Karen.
“I went over to ask who was the officer in charge. And the officer I asked said ‘that would be chief,’ and gestured to the gentleman five feet behind him. That was lucky on my part - that the manager was right there when I wanted to talk to him.”
For the previous few hours, and despite numerous pleas from others, crowd barricades had limited protestors directly in front of the statehouse to a small strip of sidewalk abutting the traffic on Gervais St. The barricade logistics prompted multiple verbal confrontations between police and protestors. “They were about five feet from the road,” says Ayer of the metal barriers, “Any of us trying to get through — and especially non-protest foot traffic trying to get through, it was very dangerous. We had to keep moving out of each other's way. If one person trips on a shoelace they were going to fall straight into the street.”
Shortly after Ayer’s request for the manager, a plainclothes worker assisted by uniformed law enforcement moved the barriers back away from the street. “We’ve got two, maybe three times as much space as we had. It's a lot safer, especially since there's like five people on the inside of the barricade.”
Ayer and others had expected a group re-raising the Confederate flag on the statehouse grounds Friday morning, five years after its removal. Instead, they encountered less than a handful of folks representating the S.C. Monument Honour Guard, wearing period clothes taking turns holding a flag near the base of the Confederate Monument. Protestors plan to return tomorrow morning to confront the Flags Across the South group, responsible for the re-raising of the Confederate flag on the anniversary weekend.
Shortly after the movement of the barriers, around noon, protesters say a man drove by and pointed a gun at them.
Man points gun at Columbia Black Lives Matter demonstration, protestors say
