Kanye West joined students in his hometown of Chicago to protest the city’s public schools’ contract with the police department.
“We are here today to tell [Chicago Police Department] we don’t need them in our schools no more,” one protester said, according to a local ABC affiliate.
West, who marched Thursday on the city’s South Side, also donated $2 million to support the families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, his representative told CNN.
Kanye West joins protest in Chicago @nbcchicago pic.twitter.com/xO3MvBw1Kc
— Trina Orlando (@TrinaOrlando) June 5, 2020
The donation will help pay for legal fees for Arbery and Taylor’s families, along with black-owned businesses in crisis in Chicago and other cities. The rapper’s representative said he established a 529 education savings plan to cover college tuition for Gianna Floyd, the 6-year-old daughter of Floyd.
Floyd, an unarmed black man, died last week after a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt his on his neck for more than eight minutes as Floyd pleaded for his life. Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder and third-degree manslaughter. Three other officers who helped detain Floyd have been charged with aiding and abetting murder.
Arbery, a black man, was chased down by white men and fatally shot while he was jogging near Brunswick, Georgia, in February. Three white men have been accused of killing Arbery and will now stand for trial.
Taylor, a black EMT in Louisville, Kentucky, was shot numerous times in March when three officers mistakenly barged into her home while executing a drug warrant.
Large-scale demonstrations erupted across the nation after Floyd’s death to protest police brutality and racial injustice.
President Trump, who has praised West for his past support, has been widely criticized for the removal of protesters outside the White House on Monday before a photo opportunity at a nearby church.
