FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — Hundreds of protesters have gathered in downtown Fort Wayne over the past few days. But when protests turned destructive, restoration companies like Protechs Inc. were called in to help replace broken doors and windows. Protechs Inc. is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so Protechs Operations Manager Bruce Adams said it’s not uncommon to receive calls about boarding up businesses.
But Friday and Saturday night was a first, he said.
“The shock at first was when we were called out to do some of this, there was still a lot of activity downtown,” Adams said. “You are trying to put boards on and cut wood, it’s dark already, and now you have tear gas flying around. You don’t know what people are doing and obviously you got your back to the street and you are trying to secure these properties. It can be very stressful.”
Friday night, crews were busy boarding up broken windows. Then on Saturday and Sunday, crews came back to board up remaining windows and doors on some businesses as a precaution.
“Boarding up the properties in the grand scheme of things is less costly than turning around and trying to replace equipment, or materials or products,” Adams said. “Storefronts and framing is very expensive. When you get down the storefront glass and all that can be very costly.”
Adams said that he stands behind the protest and its message, but damaging buildings and properties should not be a part of it. Adams said he would rather have peaceful protests that don’t result in damage.
“We have a business doing things from regular catastrophes like houses flooding, wind damage to houses, and fires,” Adams said. “All these things we try to do to help out, its counterproductive to what we are doing and something they need to understand is that we are all in it together. This is our community and we need to stand together and do this in the correct way.”
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Poster Comment:
No shit, Sherlock.
Crap like this doesn't happen in FW. The last thing I could find was something called "Occupy Fort Wayne," about eight years ago. I have no idea what that was about.
The last really bad thing I recall was around '82 during the great flood. My buddy Todd got to meet Ronald Reagan when he came here for that wing-ding.
I'm about two miles East of downtown. Saturday night after the wind shifted, I could smell and taste the tear gas.