For the fourth time in five nights, protesters took to the streets of New Orleans in protest of the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. And for the most part, all of those marches have been peaceful.

However, for the first time, the New Orleans Police Department was forced to use tear gas last night to disperse the crowd.

The crowd of hundreds, or perhaps thousands, marched to the Crescent City Connection, the city's main traffic connection between the city's east and west banks. Their night ended a bit early though.

"The NOPD deployed teargas tonight to disperse protesters after the crowd refused to comply with three orders not to attempt to walk across the CCC," said the NOPD in a Tweet. "NOPD is committed to our residents' First Amendment rights. However, tonight we were compelled to deploy gas on the CCC in response to escalating physical confrontation with our officers."

There were some protestors that claimed they did not receive any warning from NOPD before the gas was thrown into the crowd, while others interviewed by local media said they had an idea of what was coming.

"All of a sudden it was like three canisters, they were just throwing," one woman who was on the CCC told WWLTV. "Immediately I couldn't see anything. I could barely breathe...They told us to wet our masks (the other protesters) right before they teargassed us...so that the water would hold the powder and everything."

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell sent out a tweet last night that did not mention the tear gas, but rather appeared to show support for NOPD's actions.

The protest on Wednesday evening was in contrast to Tuesday evening's march on I-10 in which NOPD officers met protestors and then took a knee in apparent solidarity.

Weird Louisiana Laws

 

More From 97.3 The Dawg