CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- An 18-year-old female activist said a Chicago police officer knocked her teeth out during a protest that turned violent Friday night at the Christopher Columbus statue in Grant Park.
Boyd spoke to BuzzFeed News and said she had finished delivering a speech to a group of protesters in Grant Park and was leaving to go home, when she heard the loud bangs of fireworks being set off. She headed in the direction of the sound and started recording a livestream on Facebook.
"They were beating a white woman with a baton," Boyd said. "They were macing everyone. I was trying to get footage of the police viciously attacking on people."
Boyd's livestream captured police knocking her phone out of her hand while she was recording. A video of the incident from a witness showed that she was backing away from the officer when she was punched.
Boyd said she was "tremendously" in pain.
"I felt that my tooth was gone and I felt like I was going f***ing crazy," she said, especially because she was already conscious that she had a gap between her two front teeth. "This happened in like five minutes — from me saying I'm leaving to me getting my teeth knocked out."
"On the night I was unjustly attacked by a Chicago police officer and had my teeth knocked out, I learned about terrible news. I learned that a civil rights legend had passed away. I admit, I did not know much about Freedom Fighter John Lewis until people started comparing him to me. I didn't understand why I was being talked about in the same breath as the Congressman out of Atlanta, but then I had the opportunity to read about him, his legacy, and what he meant to the movement; how he fought for our civil rights and our right to vote, and be included in the Democratic process to no longer be treated like second-class citizens," Boyd said; "55 years ago, a 25-year-old John Lewis marched across a bridge named after a white supremacist. On March 7, 1965, around 600 people crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in an attempt to begin the Selma Montgomery March. State troopers violently attacked the peaceful demonstrators in an attempt to march for voting rights. Edmund Pettus was a senator, a confederate, and a KKK leader.
"Although Mr. Lewis was not fighting to take down a monument of white supremacy, he was fighting for the movement of black lives. I fight in my community every day to end gun violence. I heard he was passionate about it and held a city to pass legislation to save lives. He was a young civil rights leader and I hope to walk in his path and elevate his path to end white supremacy, and build a just and equitable world for black and Latin, indigent people who want freedom in this country."
Boyd said she was attacked by CPD who "valued a supremacist statue over my life, safety, and well-being."
"Christopher Columbus did not discover America," she said. "In fact, he was a rapist, thief, and colonizer who had the groundwork for indigenous genocide in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade of Africans. Yet, the police protect that statue of a man who died more than 500 years ago. The police are not serving and protecting. There is no way I should have left a protest bruised and battered for exercising my right to speak and freedom to assemble.
"I am disgusted and never would have ever thought I would become a victim to the biggest gang in America," Boyd said. "I put my body on the line protecting friends and strangers..."
She said she has received blame on social media, with people calling her a criminal.
"I take full accountability for my actions, because I will not run. I will not run from the truth or hide behind any friends. I am responsible and will not let my past actions impact my future. I am brave. I am still a freedom fighter, who will not stop fighting for justice for myself, friends, and brothers and sisters of this generation. I will not allow the public to tear me down and humiliate me. I am not a menace, a hood rat, nor a rebel, but a dedicated freedom fighter," Boyd said.
She said she is calling for the officer who attacked her to be relieved of his duties.
Boyd told BuzzFeed News she has been involved in activism for the past three years, from protesting gun violence to advocating for more funding for schools in black and brown neighborhoods in Chicago.
She graduated from high school last month, and had been offered an internship with state Sen. Robert Peters' office just last week.
Peters joined other local and state officials on Saturday calling for justice.
"[An> 18-year-old who fights every day for gun violence prevention, who fights for a safe community, and what did she face? Abuse," he said.
Sheila Bedi, one of Boyd's lawyers, said what the video showed was "emblematic of the Chicago police department: racist, lawless, targeting Miracle with lethal use of force under CPD policy. Let me be very clear about that. Under the consent decree, under CPD policy, head strikes are a lethal use of force. What this officer did was target Miracle, because she was expressing her opinion of the police department with lethal force. Unfortunately, Miracle is not the only protester with whom this has happened...
"And despite the fact that this officer used lethal force against this young black woman, what she is calling for, right now, is a restorative process. She is saying that that officer has got to get off the street, but she is not trying to convict him...and if that isn't leadership - that is more leadership than you will receive from City Hall, so it is an incredible honor to be here with Miracle."
A GoFundMe campaign has been created to support the cost of Boyd's medical expenses has raised more than $80,000 so far.
Boyd told BuzzFeed News she's grateful for the help, but she doesn't want the focus to be on her.
"I don't want this to be about me because this is a fight we're all fighting and I'm not doing this alone," she said. "There is seriously things wrong within the Black and brown community that needs to change and I'm going to do everything in power to make sure my people are good."
Chicago police said so far, 12 individuals have been arrested and 18 officers were injured.
Several items like rocks, frozen water bottles, and fireworks were thrown at officers, police said, as protesters tried to topple the statue of Christopher Columbus in Grant Park. The protesters reportedly were met with with batons and pepper spray.
Mayor Lightfoot, who has said she does not support taking down the statue, took to Twitter to condemn the violence that erupted from both sides Friday night.
She said she does not tolerate violence to police or by police to protesters, but said she has spoken to the director of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability to ensure every complaint filed will be investigated.
Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said the department in investigating the incident.
The attempt to pull down the statue of Columbus comes as demonstrators across the country have targeted monuments to historical figures now considered racist. The movement gained traction following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.