MADISON (WKOW) -- A GoFundMe to benefit downtown Madison businesses affected by Saturday's protests has already collected over $13,000.
The effort, organized by a combination of private citizens and organizations like Boys and Girls Club of Dane County and Madison365 set itself a goal of raising $50,000.
"We believe that outside Agitators came to our city to cause physical destruction to some of our downtown businesses," organizers wrote. "Therefore we are launching a gofundme to support their relief effort."
A link to the GoFundMe is available here.
Crowds gathered Saturday afternoon on the Capitol square to voice their anger and grief at the death of George Floyd, a man who died while in the custody of Minneapolis police. A video went viral on social media showing an officer kneeling on Floyd's neck for several minutes.
The protests were peaceful and broke up around 4:30 p.m. However a smaller group of peoplemigrated to state street and began to vandalize storefronts. Police intervened.
While most in the crowd simply observed the goings-on or continued peaceful protests, a small subset hurled rocks and bottles at officers. Authorities responded with gas and pepper spray.
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