Little Rock Curfew To Begin Tonight

From the City of Little Rock:

June 1, 2020

On Monday, June 1, Mayor Frank Scott, Jr. signed an executive order to reinstitute a nighttime curfew to begin Monday and occur nightly from ten p.m. to five a.m. It will exempt individuals who are traveling to or from work. Those found violating the curfew on first occurrence will be issued a warning. Further violations will result in a citation.

Heightened concerns over COVID-19 cases increasing during large gatherings led to the decision to issue this most recent curfew order; social distancing is not occurring, and some protesters are not wearing face coverings. In addition, the City of Little Rock has received intelligence, including information from U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District Cody Hiland, that professional, out-of-state antagonists, posing as protesters, intend to be destructive during future protests and strategically instigate acts of violence. These actions, if carried out, would put in harm’s way peaceful Little Rock protesters who are exercising their First Amendment rights.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we are putting in place this curfew to protect our residents from outside forces who seek to do harm to our City and to continue to slow the spread of COVID-19,” Mayor Frank Scott, Jr. said. “We respect the rights of residents to peacefully protest and fully expect that they will. We’ll continue to monitor what is happening to determine when the curfew should be lifted.”

This press release was produced by the City of Little Rock. The views expressed here are the author’s own.