Protesters rally outside home of Miami-Dade state attorney
For months, protesters decrying police brutality marched on the streets of downtown Miami, near jails and courthouses and outside the office of the county’s top prosecutor, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.
On Tuesday night, with election night one week away, a small group of protesters chose a new spot: outside Fernandez Rundle’s Coconut Grove home.
“Katherine Rundle, for past 27 years, has been living right here, off of the people’s dime, off the people’s dollars,” protest leader Francois Alexandre yelled on a bullhorn, to the crowd standing on a sidewalk across from a row of Miami police officers guarding the gate to the town home complex where she lives. “She has not been held accountable for anything!”
The rally took place Tuesday night as part of ongoing protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The protests have also come during a heated campaign in which protesters have increasingly focused on the longtime state attorney, who is running against reform candidate Melba Pearson.
Voters go to the polls on Aug. 16. Pearson, a former prosecutor under Fernandez Rundle and a deputy director at Florida’s American Civil Liberties Union, is running on a platform of reforming the criminaljustice system. Both are Democrats.
The rally on Tuesday was organized by Justice for Miami, an advocacy group that say it’s part of an ongoing campaign to highlight 27 stories of injustice, one for each of the prosecutor’s 27 years in office.
“We want to bring awareness to her neighbors,” said protester Deborah Gomez, 40, of Miami Shores.
Protesters marched from Miami City Hall in Coconut Grove to the outside of the luxury town home and villa complex on Bayshore Drive. The rally ended peacefully.
The protesters also demanded the State Attorney’s Office drop criminal charges on people arrested while protesting. Prosecutors dropped scores of cases of people arrested for violating curfews in May and June. But during protests in July, Miami police began taking a more aggressive approach, arresting people who obstructed traffic while marching.
In all, the State Attorney’s Office said on Tuesday night, it had already dismissed 54 protest-related cases, including those for 9 people charge with obstructing a roadway.