Following a Saturday battle near the city’s waterfront, police in Montgomery, Alabama, made a number of arrests. Videos of the brawl rapidly went viral online.
According to a statement from the Montgomery Police Department, police responded to an incident near Riverfront Park and “at the scene, they found a large group of people engaged in a physical altercation.” The police reported that multiple persons had been detained and that four warrants were currently in effect, with the potential for additional ones following the evaluation of additional video. Unspecified charges, according to the police.
In a written statement, Montgomery Mayor Steven L. Reed praised the police action and promised that “justice will be served.”
“This was a regrettable situation that should never have happened. We shouldn’t become numb to violence of any type in our neighborhood as our police agency looks into these disgusting acts, Reed said. “Our criminal justice system will hold accountable those who choose to engage in violent behavior.”
There was an all out brawl in Montgomery yesterday. This is the beginning of it. The man in the white shirt is a dock worker for the city. According to several people present, the white guys had been told to move their pontoon so the city's riverboat could park. Then this…. pic.twitter.com/BVkgXID8JX
— Josh Moon 🇺🇸 (@Josh_Moon) August 6, 2023
Josh Moon, a political reporter for Alabama, posted a video of the altercation on X, a social media website that replaced Twitter. It demonstrates that a party of boaters who docked their pontoon boat in a spot designated for the city’s riverboat, Harriott II, are thought to be the ones that began the disturbance. Videos depict a Black man who looks to be a dock attendant attempting to untie the pontoon boat before being challenged by a group of white males who appear to be in charge of the boat.
An inquiry for comment was not immediately answered by the riverboat’s captain.
One of the white males grows obviously irritated before punching the attendant as he pointed to the riverboat approaching the port. A single person can be seen making an attempt to stop the attack, but additional young white men quickly joined in and continued the attack after dragging the Black man to the ground.
Several witnesses joined in on the mayhem as the attack swiftly got out of hand.
After Donald Trump, the former president, joined his supporters at the Republican Party’s annual summer dinner in Montgomery, which is regarded as the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement, the incident broke out just a few hours later.