Batavia to have curfew Wednesday night

Batavia will have a curfew Wednesday night, several hours after a planned sit-in to protest racism and police brutality is scheduled to end.

The curfew will run from 7 p.m. Wednesday to 6 a.m. Thursday.

People have planned a sit-in from noon to 3 p.m. at the Peg Bond Center on the Riverwalk, across from the Batavia Government Center.

City Administrator Laura Newman said organizers have said they do not plan to march anywhere, and intend to disband and leave at 3.

"Unfortunately, in neighboring communities, we have seen some opportunistic groups take advantage of the situation ... to engage in lawless and illegal behavior," Newman told aldermen at a committee meeting Tuesday.

The city encouraged downtown businesses to consider closing during the protest. Tuesday night, several businesses already had announced they would be closed all day Wednesday, including a Walgreens, an ice-cream shop and a laundry. Several had placed plywood over their windows.

Aldermen Alan Wolff and Marty Callahan also spoke out against some people who, they said, posted personal threats on Facebook against the protest's organizers.