A billboard outside CNN Center in Atlanta after a night of violent protests and riots on Friday. (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

The downtown Atlanta headquarters of the State Bar of Georgia was defaced with graffiti and broken windows after a peaceful demonstration against police brutality devolved into riots that spread across the city Friday night.

Bar president Darrell Sutton reported in a letter to members Saturday, "As the crowds around CNN Center and Centennial Olympic Park were dispersed, some were driven up Marietta Street toward the Bar Center. Some of them threw rocks, trash cans and other objects at the building, breaking glass in the windows and doors of the Marietta Street entrance, as well as other street-level windows along that side of the building. There was also graffiti spray-painted along one of the walls adjacent to the Marietta Street entrance."

Sutton reported that the security guard on duty "had a harrowing experience, but there were no intruders and he is safe."

"Early today, many of your colleagues joined hundreds of others in downtown Atlanta to aid in clean-up efforts. That included the boarding of the Bar Center's damaged windows and doors, and the building remains secure," he added. "Please take some time today to reflect and pray for our city, state and country; for the identification of the common ground where we can stand together and begin to find change and healing."

The remains of a grand piano in the lobby of the Omni Hotel in downtown Atlanta after a night of violent protests, rioting and looting on Friday. (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

The lobby of the Peachtree Street building housing the Daily Report's editorial department, a bank and a host of law firms and other offices also suffered broken windows. Our space on the 19th floor was untouched, but the city's pain from the riots and what caused them reaches far beyond the shards of glass.

Atlanta's mayor, a practicing lawyer before she entered public service, showed how black mothers fear for their sons while railing against "chaos' that disgraced the legacy of hometown hero Martin Luther King Jr.

The building lobby where the Daily Report and ALM's offices are located, at 260 Peachtree Street N.E. in Atlanta, were damaged from the rioting in Atlanta Friday night. (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

A former chief justice of the state Supreme Court expressed via social media African Americans' exhaustion and frustration with racism.

Two white lawyers running offices near riot sites downtown noted no damage to their offices, and they empathized with the protesters who stayed peaceful.

'Black boys shouldn't be out today.'

Friday's riots capped a week when a video spread showing a white police officer in Minneapolis—now charged with third-degree murder—pressing his knee into the neck of a black man, George Floyd, who cries out, "I can't breathe" before he died.

In Atlanta, demonstrators prompted by Floyd's death marched from Centennial Olympic Park to the State Capitol and back. An Atlanta police spokesman reported it was peaceful before devolving into at least three officers being injured and multiple people being arrested.

Police endured "nearly constant assault, including protesters shooting BB guns at them, throwing bricks, bottles, rocks and knives at them as they continue their efforts to protect property and lives," he reported.

Destruction and looting occurred downtown, at the College Football Hall of Fame, a FedEx office, a Starbucks and then in Buckhead at Phipps Plaza, a Target store and an AT&T store, according to the police. News photos showed burning police cars and broken windows at CNN Center.

On Friday night, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms urged violent demonstrators to go home.

"I am a mother to four black children in America, one of whom is 18 years old," she told a press conference. "And when I saw the murder of George Floyd, I hurt like a mother would hurt. And yesterday, when I heard there were rumors about violent protests in Atlanta, I did what a mother would do. I called my son and I said, 'Where are you?' I said, 'I cannot protect you,' and black boys shouldn't be out today. So you're not going to out-concern me and out-care me about where we are in America."

"This is not a protest. This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. This is chaos," she added. "A protest has purpose. When Dr. King was assassinated, we didn't do this to our city. So if you love this city—his city that has had a legacy of black mayors and black police chiefs and people who care about this city, where more than 50% of the business owners in metro Atlanta are minority business owners—if you care about this city, then go home. And pray that somebody like Rev. (Joe) Beasley will come and talk to you and give you some instructions on what a protest should look like and how you effectuate change in America."

'Painful but true'

Former Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears, the second black member of the Supreme Court of Georgia in history, posted on social media a passage from an article that she described as "painful but true."

Damage to an entrance of the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta that happened Friday. (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

"So while you navigate this pandemic which has ravaged our way of life— and prematurely taken the lives of so many no matter what race—acknowledge that burden is falling on your Black colleagues disproportionately," wrote Danielle Cadet on the site Refinery 29. "And know that they'll never show it. They've learned to navigate their worlds too well for that. And although we were told the degrees and the jobs and the accomplishments would somehow protect us from being treated like second-class citizens; although we were made to believe that working hard and contributing to society would mean society would treat us like human beings, we've learned the painful truth—that's a lie."

Sears, a Smith, Gambrell & Russell partner reached Saturday by email, said she decided to post the article "because after Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd" and the incident in which a white woman claimed a black man in Central Park was threatening her, "to name just a few recent events, I found myself having to comfort a number of black friends, family members and colleagues.

"[F]rankly," Sears added, "we're exhausted and depressed by the abuse we have to endure on account of our race. And it was clear to me how very few of my white colleagues and friends understood how we were feeling."

Sears' views echo a LinkedIn post by a partner in the Chicago office of Barnes & Thornburg, Lindsey Dates. He wrote in the wake of the Central Park incident, "Naively, I used to think that becoming a lawyer, living in a nice neighborhood, or getting older might make me immune from such acts."

"Nope," he added. "One of my 'neighbors' in my condo building called the police on me while I was sitting in my building lobby. Many others have asked what I am doing in the building. That conversation usually starts with: 'Are you looking for someone?' I've been asked to show my drivers license, demanded to leave, and followed … at my own residence."

"I am now quarantining at my mother's house as her caregiver. I wasn't here for a week before the police were called on me. As the police questioned me, all I could think about was not waking up my mother. … As soon as they left, I jumped on a conference call. Couldn't explain why I was late to my client."

"I just wish you all knew how much this happens to your colleagues and friends," he concluded.

Avoid 'a bigger tragedy'

Randy Kessler, whose office at Kessler & Solomiany overlooks CNN Center and Centennial Olympic Park, said the Friday riots were "terrible deja vu for me."

He recalled watching, from the same office, rioting in 1992 after California officers were acquitted of their beating of motorist Rodney King.

Kessler, who was not aware of damage at his office building, said, "The riots are terrible, and I am certain the large majority in our city, like our mayor, disapprove and are heartbroken, but I hope that doesn't take the focus off of what triggered them."

"That would be a bigger tragedy," he said.

Sharon Gay, who runs the Atlanta office of Dentons near the Daily Report's building that was damaged, said her workplace was unscathed.

"This has been a sad week," said Gay, a former top lawyer and adviser in City Hall.

"We started with the news that over 100,000 fellow citizens had died of COVID-19. Then we watched as a black man was murdered in slow motion on a public street by a white officer. And last night, a peaceful protest in downtown Atlanta suddenly turned violent.  I understand the sadness, anger and frustration. However, violence and destruction are not the answer. As the birthplace of nonviolent civil rights protest and advocacy, Atlanta must find a better way to respond to and act on the pain."