Embrace And Dance Between Cop, Protester Conquer California Crowd

TEMECULA, CA — Most days, you’ll find her working at the local Target; a job she took after retirement to be around people. But over the weekend, Betty Williams was the “voice of reason” in a crowd of hundreds gathered in Southern California in the “Justice For George Floyd” protest.

It was on Saturday near The Duck Pond park in Temecula, where the group gathered to demonstrate against police brutality. It was mostly peaceful, as organizers of the event had hoped, but there was little interaction between the law enforcement officers and community members. That is, until two people made a huge impact.

The police held their line, the protesters held theirs. Then things started to turn tense.

In the street near the park “it was very, very close to becoming violent,” recalls Riverside County Sheriff’s Lt. Chris Durham.

Some began to throw items, voices got louder.

“The scrimmage line was taking rocks and bottles, and we were about ready to move a crowd of 200 to 300 people to give them a final dispersal order,” Durham said of the scene. “During that time, a woman showed up … she was the voice of reason to calm some of the more vocal agitators.”

That woman was 66-year-old Betty Williams of Murrieta, who told Patch she was in the crowd and heard some of the protesters getting rowdy.

And as Durham broke through the crowd, he noticed Williams working to keep the assembly peaceful. He asked for help.

“I took my helmet off and I walked through the lines and I spoke with her and some of the leaders of the protest,” he said. “I saw a small window of opportunity before it got violent.”

Together, the two ushered the crowds out of the street and into the park.

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But, not before a quick chat about dancing, a little show and then a hug.

Williams said she joked about her notorious lack of rhythm and asked the sheriff’s lieutenant to dance after some hecklers had shouted out insults about how white people were appropriating black dances.

“I said, ‘Well, let’s show him how well we can dance,'” she told Patch. “When I asked him to step up … he danced really well.”

Not Just A Dance

Why the dancing? Well, the spirited grandmother says it was a way to not only break the ice but to show others that it was time to talk, not fight.

“How do you break what this mean, vicious person has said?” she said of the hecklers. “How do you overcome that in a crowd, when they are angry and they don’t know how to control their anger? And [the dancing] just kind of happened.”

“We spoke right there, and we gave each other a hug,” Durham said. “And together we were the voice of reason to get those people to move into the park and to peacefully assemble.”

That moment will live on forever in the photograph above.

“We just hugged — it was really spontaneous,” Williams said. “It was like, thank you for helping break this down to where the young people can understand why they are out here.”

Durham spoke with Williams and also took questions from the crowd in the park about his thoughts on what happened in Minneapolis.

“There were people who were still agitated, but to their surprise, I agreed with the majority of their views that [what happened to Floyd] was a tragedy … completely avoidable and it shouldn’t have happened.”

Williams, who was surprised to learn her photo with Durham has gone viral, said she learned about it only when her daughter called asking,”Have you seen yourself?!”

She credits part of her passion on Saturday to her son, who “saw color, but was proud to have friends of any color.” Saturday was the four-year anniversary of his death.

“I know it sounds crazy, but it might have been him inside me on Saturday, because normally I wouldn’t have gotten involved …. I would have seen that it was out of control and left, but something passionately inside me made me go.”

Becoming Part Of The Solution

Williams said she was proud of the local youth who showed up at the demonstration, particularly two teens — “whoever raised them, raised them well” — who helped her get the crowd’s attention.

She said she’s saddened to see some of the other protests around the nation turn violent.

“When is this going to come to a stop?” she said. “I can’t imagine what Floyd’s family is feeling, and I hope our country comes to an understanding that this is not how we’re going to get what we want and we need to be peaceful.”

To Williams, the best thing people can do is get involved.