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Hundreds peacefully protest George Floyd's death and racial turmoil in downtown Boise: 'Racism needs to stop. Period.'

"I know what bad police look like and I can honestly say, we are lucky to live here because the police here do treat us right," one protester said.

BOISE, Idaho — Several hundred people gathered on the steps of the Idaho State Capitol Building in downtown Boise on Sunday morning as part of peaceful protest in response to George Floyd's death in Minneapolis last week.

KTVB sent a crew to cover the rally and was told by an Idaho State Police officer that there were about over 300 people at the statehouse. 

Demonstrators carried signs like,"Black Lives Matter," and "Legalize Being Black" and took turns speaking from a megaphone.

One person said, "Racism needs to stop in our schools, racism needs to stop on our streets, racism needs to stop period."

Another demonstrator expressed, "We shouldn't be caged up because we are black, that is not right."

Some speakers were furious that no one intervened as Floyd died.

"At the end of the day, you can save somebody by not just watching," a man said. "I don't think that Floyd should have died. There was a lot of people watching and they should have did something and it is sad that you could just watch somebody get murdered in front of you and not do anything about it."

Another man in attendance said not all officers would have responded in the same way.

"We live here in Boise," the man said. "I was born here, I was raised in LA, I have been back and forth my entire life and I know what bad police look like and I can honestly say, we are lucky to live here because the police here do treat us right."

One woman said she understood the anger in other cities stating, "Peaceful protests but sometimes peace doesn't work, we need to figure out how we can fix this."

Some police officers were at the protest but only blocked traffic on Jefferson Street when the crowd began spilling onto the road. 

Paul Boehlke, a KTVB photographer, was at the protest and said police did not intervene in the protest while he was there, which was about three hours.

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