For the fourth consecutive night on Wednesday, protesters gathered in Portland and marched down city streets to demonstrate against the Minneapolis police officer, who killed a black man by kneeling on his neck for about nine minutes.
While most of the protests in Portland have been peaceful, there have been a total of 33 arrests and officers have used pepper spray on some protesters.
Wednesday’s event which began on the steps of Portland City Hall was organized by activist Hamdia Ahmed, who in a post on her Facebook page explained the reasons behind the unrest, “We are leading a peaceful protest in front of City Hall. We are responding to the systemic oppression of black people in this country. It’s not about police officers or police departments. This is a systemic issue that needs to be addressed.”
Mayor Kate Snyder, center, stands in front of Portland City Hall alongside city councilors, including Spencer Thibodeau and Jill Duson to her left and Pious Ali to her right, at a protest against police brutality and in solidarity with black Americans, on Wednesday. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer
“We want the people in positions of power to create laws in support of those who they are governing,” Ahmed wrote. “We want you, as in America, to fix the issues you’ve caused in the past and recent years. Systemic oppression is real and the protests are just responding to the oppression.”
“Once again, this (is intended) to be a peaceful protest. We do not have control over individual people’s actions,” Ahmed said.
Activist Devin Moore of Bath, who organized Tuesday’s protest, told News Center Maine that Tuesday’s protest was supposed to be peaceful. He wants everyone to be treated equally, police and people of color.
“It just kills me when the violence drowns out the message,” Moore said. “It’s not a fight against the police, it’s a fight against racism.”
“We’re here to be unified, we’re here to bring peace to all of us, its our home,” Moore said.
This story will be updated.
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