[BREAKING NEWS] Raleigh Mayor Issues Curfew For Friday & Saturday Due To Planned Protests

Raleigh, NC – Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin announced on Thursday that there will be a curfew in effect downtown for Friday and Saturday nights due to a planned social justice demonstration, ABC11 reports.

According to a flier for the event, demonstrators plan to “march for Jacob Blake” as well as those killed by Raleigh police.

The event is scheduled to start at 7 pm. The demonstrators plan to demand an end to police brutality.

The curfew will be in effect from 10 pm Friday until 5 am Saturday and from 10 pm Saturday to 5 am Sunday.

“By setting a curfew, it is my hope that we can allow those assembled the opportunity to exercise their right to free speech in a peaceful way, without violence or destruction from opportunists who don’t share the goals of peaceful protesters,” Baldwin said in a news release.

Business owners were seen on Thursday putting up boards on the windows of buildings on Hargett Street in preparation for the demonstrations.

Blake’s father has said that his son was shot eight times during his Sunday evening confrontation with police in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

The southeastern Wisconsin city became the nation’s latest flashpoint in a summer of racial unrest after cellphone footage of police shooting Blake – apparently in the back as he leaned into his SUV while his three children sat in the vehicle – circulated widely on social media. The 29-year-old was hospitalized in serious condition.

The man who said he made the cellphone video said he saw Blake scuffling with three officers and heard them yell, “Drop the knife! Drop the knife!” before the gunfire erupted. He said he didn’t see a knife in Blake’s hands.

The governor said he has seen no information to suggest Blake had a knife or other weapon, but that the case is still being investigated by the state Justice Department.

The officers were placed on administrative leave, which is standard practice in a shooting by police. Authorities released no details about the officers and did not immediately respond to requests for their service records.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers was quick to condemn the bloodshed, saying that while not all details were known, “what we know for certain is that he is not the first Black man or person to have been shot or injured or mercilessly killed at the hands of individuals in law enforcement in our state or our country.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.