ZCZC
BFF-38
US-POLITICS-RACE-UNREST NEWSERIES
Troops, police clamp down in US cities as unrest over racism flares
MINNEAPOLIS, May 31, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Thousands of National Guard
troops patrolled major US cities Sunday after five consecutive nights
of protests over racism and police brutality that boiled over into
arson and looting, sending shock waves through the country.
A senior White House official, echoing President Donald Trump,
blamed anarchists and far left activists for the violence while local
leaders appealed to citizens to give constructive outlet to their rage
without destroying their communities.
“There are some people in our streets who are driven there by a
passion for our community,” said Melvin Carter, the African American
mayor of St. Paul, the capital of Minnesota and twin city of
Minneapolis, the epicenter of the protests.
“And then there’s folks in our streets who are there to burn down
our black-owned barbershops, to burn down our family-owned businesses,
our immigrant-owned restaurants,” he said on CNN.
The death Monday of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, at the hands
of police in Minneapolis ignited this latest wave of outrage in the US
over law enforcement’s repeated use of lethal force against African
Americans — this one like others before captured on cellphone video.
From Seattle to New York, tens of thousands of protesters took to
the streets demanding tougher murder charges and more arrests over the
death of Floyd, who stopped breathing after Minneapolis police officer
Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz mobilized the state’s 13,000 National
Guard troops to help restore order while police enforced an overnight
curfew after rioters looted shops and set fires in the Minneapolis-St.
Paul area.
Police fired tear gas and stun grenades to clear streets of
curfew-violators Saturday night in Minneapolis, and National Guard
troops protected the state capitol in St Paul.
A Minneapolis police spokesman, John Elder, said a man’s body was
found near a burning vehicle early after firefighters were called to
the scene.
MORE/MRU/2240hrs
ZCZC
BFF-39
US-POLITICS-RACE-UNREST NEWSERIES-TWO
It was unclear if the death, which was being investigated as a
homicide, was connected to the unrest in the city.
Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta were among two dozen cities
ordering people to stay indoors overnight as more states called in
National Guard soldiers to help control the civil unrest not seen in
the United States for years.
In Los Angeles, officers fired rubber bullets and swung batons
during a testy standoff with demonstrators who set fire to a police
car.
Police and protesters clashed in numerous cities including Chicago
and New York, with officers responding to projectiles with pepper
spray while shop windows were smashed in Philadelphia.
In Washington, protesters faced off with secret service agents
outside the White House for a second straight night as Trump faces the
most serious spate of civil unrest of his presidency, in the middle of
the coronavirus pandemic.
Multiple arrests were reported by US media in Minneapolis, Seattle
and New York as rallies continued through the night.
Trump blamed the extreme left for the violence, including widespread
looting and arson in Minneapolis, saying rioters were dishonoring the
memory of Floyd.
“We cannot and must not allow a small group of criminals and vandals
to wreck our cities and lay waste to our communities,” Trump said.
“My administration will stop mob violence. And we’ll stop it cold,”
he added, accusing the loose-knit militant anti-fascist network Antifa
of orchestrating the violence.
Robert O’Brien, Trump’s national security advisor, also accused
organized radicals of cross state lines “to burn down our cities.”
“And it’s got to be stopped. And we expect law enforcement to get to
the bottom of it for sure,” he said on CNN.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden condemned the violence
of the protests, but said on Sunday that US citizens had every right
to demonstrate.
“Protesting such brutality is right and necessary,” he said. “But
burning down communities and needless destruction is not.”
MORE/MRU/2240hrs
ZCZC
BFF-40
US-POLITICS-RACE-UNREST NEWSERIES-THREE LAST
– National Guard deployed –
Peaceful protests occurred too, including in Toronto as the movement
spread beyond America’s borders.
Demonstrators nationwide chanted slogans such as “Black Lives
Matter” and “I can’t breathe,” which Floyd, who has become a fresh
symbol of police brutality, was heard saying repeatedly before he
died.
“We’re not turning the cheek anymore. Black lives matter. They will
always matter. And we’re here today to show that,” said makeup artist
Melissa Mock, who joined several thousand in a daytime protest in
Miami.
Earlier, people congregated and chanted peacefully in Minneapolis,
carrying brooms to help clean up damaged shops and streets.
Some placed flowers in front of the shop where Floyd was arrested on
Monday, before his death in the hands of police was recorded in a
horrifying cellphone video since seen around the world.
– ‘Black lives matter’ –
Looting occurred in Miami, where a curfew was also announced, while
in New York mayor Bill de Blasio said a video appearing to show an
NYPD police car drive into protesters in Brooklyn was “upsetting” but
that he did not blame the officers.
In Los Angeles, the city’s mayor expanded a curfew order as looting
broke out. Stretched emergency services scrambled to put out two
blazes on Melrose Avenue, as similar scenes played out in Washington
with officials extinguishing a major fire at a hotel off Layfayette
Square.
There were also multiple instances of journalists covering the
protests being wounded, with reports of pepper balls and rubber
bullets being used on members of the press.
BSS/AFP/MRU/2240hrs