As the death of George Floyd has led to many protests in cities across the county, especially Minnesota.
“I said ‘hope you’re safe’. And he said, ‘we don’t care about being safe anymore, we are all dying for this cause,'" said Riley Bringhurst.
Bringhurst is a Salt Lake City resident who learned news of the protest in Minnesota and contacted a friend who lived there. After hearing more about the issue, Bringhurst made the decision to fly in and be a part of the protest.
Once he arrived, Bringhurst said he quickly joined in marches and protests, and there were also speakers from the Black Lives Matter movement.
“We kneeled in front of this government building for nine minutes looking at the police officers, a story above us looking down, and they did not look us in the face," he said.
Bringhurst said although most people were peaceful, emotions were running high for everyone involved in the protest and he got arrested along with a large group of protesters under the Washington Bridge.
“We all got arrested peacefully. We eventually all got out. We were cited with unlawful assembly," he said.
Bringhurst was also part of a march made up of around 5,000 people that shut down both sides of the Hennepin Avenue Bridge as well as one direction of a federal highway.
According to Bringhurst, although most protesters were peaceful, he did see many acts of violence including people smashing windows and holding batons.
