Recently someone described me as a “longtime columnist for the Smoky Mountain News,” which made me realize I’ve been sharing personal stories, revelations and anecdotes with this audience for quite a while.

If anyone thought that the political polarization of 2020 died with President Donald Trump’s election loss that year, they’d need only look to a noisy pair of competing actions in Haywood County last Sunday. 

By Tom Fiedler

AVL Watchdog

The legendary Miami Beach police chief Rocky Pomerance was asked in an interview with People magazine why he so passionately believed in the importance of police work.  “Because,” he said, “we are the only social-service agency you can call on for help after 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.”

For the second week in a row, many small Western North Carolina communities have seen demonstrations in response to the killing of North Carolina-born Minneapolis resident George Floyd at the hands of the city’s police force. 

By Boyd Allsbrook • Contributing writer | Type “George Floyd Protests, Police” into your Google images search bar. What comes up? Picture after picture of menacing police dressed in riot gear facing down angry protestors. Brawling. Calls to abolish the police force. Cruisers engulfed in flames. Police stations graffitied with ACAB — “All Cops Are Bastards.” Riots. Looting. Arson. Tear gas. Rubber bullets. Cops shot in drive-bys. Protestors gone the same way. Storeowners beaten to a pulp. 

By Sara Frazier

AVL Watchdog

One by one, they arrived at their downtown businesses this week to find shattered storefronts and graffiti-stained walls. The damage could not have come at a worse time, following a two-month closure from a pandemic and a sluggish reopening. But these Asheville business owners chose not to cast blame or demand justice from the vandals. They joined the cause.

Western Carolina University Chancellor Kelli R. Brown and Bryant Kinney, chair of the WCU Board of Trustees, set aside the business of the university to address the business of the nation in the wake of days of civil unrest across the U.S. following the death of George Floyd and other high-profile racial incidents.

Let’s take a look at fanatics, particularly political fanatics. Heaven knows there are enough of them around these days, most recently evidenced in the mobs that have looted, burned, and vandalized scores of American cities in the last couple of weeks in reaction to George Floyd’s killing by a Minneapolis policeman. 

Waynesville. Sylva. Murphy. Canton. Bryson City. Franklin. Demonstrations associated with the death of George Floyd aren’t solely a big-city phenomenon, nor are they all destructive. Since June 1, more than a thousand Western North Carolina residents have taken part in a series of actions in small, rural mountain towns without any of the violence and vandalism associated with protests in larger cities. 

By Mark MacNamara

AVL Watchdog

June 1st. Night. A few minutes before the first explosion a black woman stopped to say, “It’s nice to see another older person.” She patted my arm. “You too,” I replied. Such kind eyes, I thought and reached out to touch back but she was gone. I was standing just up from the police station, under the sign that reads, “Young Men’s Institution. Established 1892 as center of social, moral, religious influence for blacks working at Biltmore.”