SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The founder of Black Lives Matter Utah is speaking out after what started as a peaceful protest Saturday led to several businesses being vandalized, multiple injured officers, and dozens of arrests.

Lex Scott, who founded the Utah chapter of the national movement, said the group did not organize Saturday’s protest, and they do not condone the violence that grew from it.

She said those who turned violent are not the ones attending Black Lives Matter protests or meetings with police.

“To the people that came say they don’t understand the movement at all,” Scott said. “They are damaging the movement.”

While most protesters over the weekend remained peaceful, others took a difference stance while claiming to be a part of the Black Lives Matter movement. However, Scott said the Utah chapter requires members to be non-violent, and they’re instructed not to destroy property.

“We see people playing aggressor, and then playing victim,” she said. “That doesn’t solve anything. It puts people’s lives in danger. What did they accomplish really by trashing the city?”

“You can replace a building,” she added, “but you can’t replace George Floyd’s life, or Patrick Harmon or Darian Hunt.”

Scott said Saturday’s violence and abuse of the Black Lives Matter is frustrating. However, police brutality has not changed in the movement’s six-year efforts, she said, and that is why the group is gathering signatures for a police reform bill petition. 

Armed National Guardsmen were still in the downtown area Monday hours after a citywide curfew was lifted.