PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - A racially diverse crowd of about 300 in the largest city in the nation’s whitest state marched, blocked traffic and vandalized police headquarters Sunday to protest George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis.
The demonstrators, most of them young people, marched to Portland City Hall, the Police Department and the Cumberland County Jail, chanting “Black lives matter!” and “I can’t breathe,” echoing a phrase uttered by Floyd, an African America man, as a white officer knelt on his neck. At one point, the group blocked Congress Street by lying down on the pavement.
At the police station, the group demanded to meet with the chief but left without meeting him. Several people spray-painted graffiti on the building’s brick exterior and garage door.
It was one of many demonstrations across the nation decrying the deaths of Floyd and other African Americans at the hands of police.
Portland Police Chief Frank Clark issued an open letter Friday saying his department “has policies and strategies in place in order to prevent such a tragedy from happening here.”
Maine as a whole is about 95% white, according to census data. Portland is slightly more diverse, with African Americans and other minorities making up about 15% of the city of 66,000.
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