South Fla. joins protests against police
A week after a cop shot and killed Daunte Wright in Minnesota, protesters in Miami gathered Sunday to demand police reform and accountability after the death of yet another Black man at the hands of law enforcement.
South Floridians descended Sunday on the Torch of Friendship on Biscayne Blvd. in downtown Miami, banging pots and pans and holding up signs emblazoned with messages like “Black Lives Matter,” “RIP [George] Floyd” and “Abolish the Police.”
“One of the things that got us out here today is the police murder of Daunte Wright who was shot and killed, but there’s also so many other names we’ve learned about in the past few days as well,” said 21-year-old organizer Alexandra, a Miami woman who did not want to give her last name.
Wright, 20, died on April 11 after being pulled over by police in Brooklyn Center, a Minneapolis suburb.
Kim Potter, the officer who pulled the trigger, resigned after the shooting. Potter, who said she thought she was firing her Taser and not her gun, has been arrested and charged in Wright’s death.
In the days since the shooting, protesters across the country have taken to the streets demanding justice for Wright.
Organizers of Sunday’s Miami rally included Miami Dade Antifa and the Youth Liberation Front.
“Stand in solidarity with our komrades in Minnesota,” a poster for the event said. “Abolish the system that continues to murder and kidnap our families.”
Alexandra, the Miami protest organizer, said she was also disturbed by the fatal police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo in Chicago and 17-year-old Anthony Thompson Jr. in Knoxville.
“So what brought us out here is the continual murder of Black
individuals at the hands of the police and white supremacy in general,” she said.
One man led a call-andresponse chant shouting, “Black lives,” to which the crowd responded, “Matter!”
By 3 p.m., the crowd grew from a few dozen to about 100 people.
A few police cars were parked nearby as others drove by the protest, but the officers kept their distance.
As of Sunday, more than 255,000 people had signed a Change.org petition entitled “Justice For Daunte Wright.”
Wright’s funeral will be held Thursday, with the Rev. Al Sharpton delivering the eulogy.
Last week’s killing of Wright is the second high-profile police-involved killing of a Black man in the past year in the Minneapolis area, following the death of George Floyd last year.
The trial of Derek Chauvin, the officer accused of kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, is currently underway.