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Things remained calm on the first night of curfew in Grand Rapids

Posted at 4:50 AM, Jun 01, 2020
and last updated 2020-06-01 05:54:04-04

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WXYZ) — Things in Grand Rapids remained calm on the first night of a curfew, just one day after protests turned violent.

Related: Large crowd defies curfew in downtown Detroit, police fire tear gas in effort to disperse crowd

There were several arrests made after the curfew went into effect at 7 p.m., but those arrests were of people that had been waiting past curfew to get arrested. They were sitting on the ground with duct tape on their mouth.

On Saturday, several fires were set in downtown Grand Rapids with windows smashed out of buildings.

Due to the events of Saturday night, city leaders have enacted a curfew to go into effect Sunday. The curfew for the city is from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. and will remain in effect until Tuesday, when leaders will evaluate if the curfew is necessary to extend.

City leaders say the curfew will in fact be enforced and those who break curfew face up to 90 days in jail and fines up to $500 if arrested.

By Sunday, hundreds of volunteers had converged on the downtown Grand Rapids area to help clean up after the protests.

The curfew will go into effect again at 7 p.m. Monday.