MLK’s Daughter Urges Protesters to Demonstrate Peacefully: ‘Violence Creates More Problems’

Protesters should demonstrate only in a nonviolent manner over the death of George Floyd, Dr. Bernice King said in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday.

“As I stand here in this moment and look at my journey, I have to make an appeal to my brothers and sisters, because I realized that the only way to get constructive change is through nonviolent means,” she said during a city briefing.

Demonstrating peacefully is the only way to bring change to America, according to King.

“It is a proven method. It did not fail my father… It did not fail them. Because when you really understand it and really practice it, it brings about the results,” she noted.

Anyone who used violent tactics was not honoring her father’s legacy or that of Floyd, who died May 25 while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Monday on Twitter, King wrote that “Contrary to common misconceptions, nonviolent protest is not passive or weak”:

Protest matters.

Contrary to common misconceptions, nonviolent protest is not passive or weak.

Nonviolence does not cooperate with evil. It puts a demand on systems & on consciences.

It establishes goals & pursues them with true peace, which includes justice, as the outcome. pic.twitter.com/3ywH0cDu5w

— Be A King (@BerniceKing) June 1, 2020

Last week, demonstrations in Atlanta started out on a peaceful note, Georgia State Rep. Vernon Jones (D) said Monday on Fox & Friends.

“However, that was hijacked by looters, and thugs and hoodlums who did not in any way honor the gentleman’s life and those other lives that were lost in unfortunate situations,” he explained.

Jones added that he was glad President Donald Trump planned to designate Antifa as a terrorist group.

“I appreciate the leadership shown by the president to provide and support state and local levels again,” he said.

“The federal government is going to have to target this group with technology, now doing facial recognition and other things. We can track these hoodlums down and we can bring an end to this,” Jones concluded.

In a statement following the president’s declaration, U.S. Attorney General William Barr said it was time to stop watching the violence and confront it.

“The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated accordingly,” the statement concluded.