A Minneapolis man has rallied his community together to clean up city streets that were left littered and damaged after the violent protests over the death of George Floyd.
As Fox Carolina reported, Marvin Applewhite is leading a group of residents in a massive cleanup effort and has raised nearly $40,000 to go towards furthering their tireless work.
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The protests, which began on May 26, left the city of Minneapolis positively destroyed.
As MPR News reported, protesters gathered near the city’s 3rd Precinct station early on Wednesday following the death of 46-year-old Floyd at the hands of an officer, but things quickly escalated and violence broke out.
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Streams of rioters looted local businesses and even set the police station on fire, prompting local law enforcement to use tear gas and, at one point, arrest a CNN reporter .
The day after the peaceful protests turned violent in the streets of Minneapolis, a Facebook post about Applewhite went viral.
On May 28, user Stephen Richards uploaded a photo of the man holding a garbage bag, and shared some of the conversation the two had together.
“The news crews focus on black people looting, but there are many of us here also trying to clean up,” Applewhite said, as per the post. “They don’t focus on that.”
Richards then promised to share the photo of Applewhite “to show people what you’re doing.” As of writing, the Facebook post has nearly 200,000 shares and more than 42,000 reactions.
That same day, Marvin himself shared a series of photos to his own Facebook showing the group of volunteers working hard to clean up their city.
In the photos, people can be seen on the sidewalk out front of a local strip mall that had been looted during the previous day’s protests. Together they swept up broken glass, debris, and other pieces of trash that now litter their city.
“Helping cleaning up,” Applewhite captioned the Facebook post . “Being a service in Minneapolis, Minnesota.”
He has since started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for even more cleanup efforts around the city.
As Applewhite wrote,
“I’ve started cleaning up after taking pictures and noticed a lot needs to be done far as cleaning. I’m in need of brooms, bags etc. I want to be able to give the one’s who help food, water and hopefully a little stipend. It’s lots of work needs to be done and I’m willing to lead and get it done. So if there’s anything you can give for this cause will be appreciated.”
As of writing, the GoFundMe has raised just over $39,500, far surpassing its initial goal of $5,000.
On Saturday, cleaning efforts continued as residents awoke to even more destruction following another night of rioting.
According to Fox9 , the Minnesota National Guard activated 1,000 more service members to respond to the violence, as crowds set fire to a local auto repair shop, a post office, and damaged a Wells Fargo branch and a Family Dollar store.
h/t: MPR , Fox Carolina , CNN , Facebook | Marvin El , GoFundMe , Fox9
