More than a hundred protesters marched in downtown Minneapolis Thursday, upset that former MPD officer Derek Chauvin was ever released from police custody.
Chauvin, charged with murdering George Floyd May 25, made $1 million bond Wednesday. Fifty-one people in Minneapolis were arrested Thursday night after a couple hundred protested his release.
Activists, speakers and marchers like Amenah Sage said it was an indictment on the entire criminal justice system from the culture of police to prosecution.
"A Black person who committed the same crime, he definitely would not have been let out or or had been issued bail," she said. "It just feel like this continuous cycle. A cycle of violence, essentially."
Cortez Rice, 31, of Minneapolis, a friend of Floyd's so close he and his children called Floyd "uncle," said when he heard Chauvin was released he was shocked and "broke down crying."
"Everybody should have felt that pain that day, man. Everybody should still feel that pain right now," Rice told the crowd holding back tears. "The fact that he's at home chilling, eating, relaxing and not in the cell where he should be at is ridiculous."
Rice appealed to the crowd to not damage the city further, arguing it could be used by the defense to move the trial from Hennepin County if it's deemed too hostile for a fair trial.
"We're going to do this the right way," he said. "We demand justice. We're not asking anymore."
A large group of protesters also marched in St. Paul Thursday.
