MIAMI, Fla. – The protesters walked the streets of Miami starting at 3 p.m. before heading to Interstate 95 where, around 5:45 p.m. Saturday, they entered the interstate and stopped traffic. The crowd became so large as people joined in that they began to spill onto Interstate 95.
The protest began around 3 p.m. at the Torch of Friendship on Biscayne Boulevard and was scheduled to end at 6 p.m. Some people have left, but many remain.
There were scattered acts of vandalism. Protesters defaced some City of Miami police cars that were parked blocking the interstate, marking them with spray paint. Two protesters climbed up and tagged a highway sign at NW 2nd Street on I-95 with black spray paint, writing Don’t Shoot. A windshield was smashed on a Florida Highway Patrol car.
Then a few hours into the protest, agitators began throwing rocks and stomping on police cars. Then the burning of police vehicles started, tear gas was thrown into the crowd, and some people walked to Biscayne Boulevard where they began to loot, breaking glass at stores and taking merchandise.
The hundreds of people of all different races and ages packed Miami streets in what was supposed to be a protest over the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police, more than a thousand miles away in Minneapolis last Monday.
“I think this helps to show how many people are outraged by this senseless murder,” one protester said.
With tensions mounting across the country, city of Miami leaders joined forces earlier Saturday with the faith-based community to issue a message of calm.
“What you saw on that video was hate," Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina said regarding the video that has been widely circulated of the white Minneapolis police officer with his knee in Floyd’s neck. Colina pleaded with Miami protesters to not vandalize the city.
“I want to urge our citizens to please demonstrate peacefully, we want you to exercise your first amendment right. We want you to get whatever pains and anguish you’re feeling inside, out but we want you to do it in an appropriate manner,” Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said during a morning meeting with pastors and Colina.
The Miami protest was organized at the last minute. It swelled from social media and from word of mouth.
One woman told Local 10: “We heard the chanting from our apartment and we instantly came downstairs. We had to be a part of it. Right is right.”