As protesters retreated from Syracuse’s Public Safety Building Saturday night and into the streets of downtown, sirens wailed as a handful of demonstrators vandalized at least a dozen downtown buildings. M. Lemp Jewelers was among them.
The store’s owner, Don Lemp, received a call from his alarm company Saturday, minutes before midnight. Someone broke the storefront’s window, but nothing was stolen, Lemp said.
“Everything was in the vault. Unless you wanted a couple bottles of hand sanitizer, there wasn’t really anything to take,” Lemp said.
By Sunday morning, plywood covered part of the storefront. Broken glass can be forgiven, Lemp said.
“It was a peaceful demonstration that unfortunately escalated into much more than that,” Lemp said. “It was a little disappointing, but the circumstance that caused [the protest] was much more than unfortunate. That was tragic.”
The death of George Floyd and the demonstrations that have followed will go down as a notable moment in history, Lemp said. One of many the 130-year-old jewelry store has witnessed from its home in downtown Syracuse.
“We went through the Spanish Flu of 1918. We went through multiple world wars. We’ve been through a number of economic and social changes in our country,” Lemp said.
A boarded-up window will be a temporary part of the store’s story, Lemp said. Much like the sneeze guards that will separate his staff and customers when the story reopens Tuesday morning.
