Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina said on Wednesday that while there are people who want to peacefully protest, there are people who simply want to create chaos.
“They’re the ones that end up creating that mob mentality that we’ll see in many places," Colina told “Fox & Friends.” "Some of the folks have come out, probably, really intended to protest peacefully and they’re going to get caught up in that nonsense."
Colina said that the people who are creating destruction do not care about George Floyd or justice.
“They just want to create destruction and divide us further,” he said.
Not all protests demanding justice for Floyd have ended in violence and riots.
Protesters gathered outside of the Coral Gables station house in Miami-Dade County on Saturday. Instead of escalating the situation, police and protesters came together, taking a knee to join in a moment of peace and prayer.
Miami-Dade Corrections spokesman Juan Diasgranados was among those who gathered at the protest.
“As leaders of this profession, we (chiefs and community) must all do better at improving on our training and protocols so that our efforts towards building and maintaining community trust are not lost or overshadowed,” Diasgranados wrote in a statement, as Fox 29 WFLX reported.
“Transparency during this time is key to demonstrating law enforcement’s commitment to serving and protecting our residents with dignity, humanity, and respect.”
In contrast to the display in Coral Gables, parts of downtown Miami ended the night in flames as rioting broke out across the city. In Jacksonville, a deputy was injured by a sharp object in the neck.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
Colina said that it is also "horrific" that people want to "target a police officer and shoot them just because they are out there serving and protecting."He called Black Lives Matters' calls for defunding the police are "naive."