Salt Lake City mayor calls for peace after violent protests

July 10 (UPI) -- Salt Lake City's mayor called for peace ahead of expected protests Friday night, one day after protests turned violent.

Erin Mendenhall asked for demonstrators to be patient as a newly formed commission gets to work evaluating racial equity in policing and formulates changes to the police department in the wake of police brutality protests.

"We aren't going to underestimate the potential of protests tonight, and I implore people to stop hurting people and to stop breaking things, because it's not affecting change whatsoever," she told the Deseret News.

Demonstrators gathered outside the offices of Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill on Thursday night to protest the office's findings that two police officers were justified in the May 23 shooting death of Bernardo Palacios-Carbajal.

Read more: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2020/07/10/Salt-Lake-City-mayor-calls-for-peace-after-violent-protests/1041594408388/