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US-POLITICS-RACE-UNREST LEAD
Clashes outside White House as US cities under curfew
WASHINGTON, June 1, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Police fired tear gas outside the White
House late Sunday as major US cities were put under curfew to suppress rioting
as anti-racism protestors again took to the streets to voice fury at police
brutality.
With the Trump administration branding instigators of six nights of rioting
as domestic terrorists, there were more confrontations between protestors and
police and fresh outbreaks of looting.
Violent clashes erupted repeatedly in a small park next to the White House,
with authorities using tear gas, pepper spray and flash bang grenades to
disperse crowds who lit several large fires and damaged property.
Local US leaders appealed to citizens to give constructive outlet to their
rage over the death of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis, while night-time
curfews were imposed in cities including Washington, Los Angeles and Houston.
One closely watched protest was outside the state capitol in Minneapolis’
twin city of St. Paul, where several thousand people gathered before marching
down a highway.
“We have black sons, black brothers, black friends, we don’t want them to
die. We are tired of this happening, this generation is not having it, we are
tired of oppression,” said Muna Abdi, a 31-year-old black woman who joined the
protest.
“I want to make sure he stays alive,” she added in reference to her son,
aged three.
Hundreds of police and National Guard troops were deployed ahead of the
protest.
At one point, some of the protestors who had reached a bridge were forced
to scramble for cover when a truck drove at speed after having apparently
breached a barricade.
The driver was later taken to hospital after the protestors hauled him from
the vehicle, although there were no immediate reports of other casualties.
There were other large-scale protests in cities including New York and
Miami.
Washington’s mayor ordered a curfew from 11:00 pm until 6:00 am, as a
report in the New York Times said that President Donald Trump had been rushed
by Secret Service agents into an underground bunker at the White House on
Friday night during an earlier protest.
– Stores ransacked –
Large-scale violence has rocked many US cities in recent days, and looters
ransacked stores in a neighborhood of Philadelphia on Sunday.
In the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica, looting was reported at stores
in a popular beachside shopping center.
Officials in LA — a city scarred by the 1992 riots over the police beating
of Rodney King, an African-American man — imposed a curfew from 4:00 pm
Sunday until dawn.
“Please, use your discretion and go early, go home, stay home and help us
make sure that those who want to change this conversation from being about
racial justice to be about burning things and looting things, don’t win the
day,” the city’s mayor Eric Garcetti said on CNN.
The shocking videotaped death last Monday of an unarmed black man, George
Floyd, at the hands of police in Minneapolis ignited the nationwide wave of
outrage over law enforcement’s repeated use of lethal force against unarmed
African Americans.
Floyd stopped breathing after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin
knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and is due to make his
first appearance in court on Monday. Three other officers with him have been
fired but for now face no charges.
Governor Tim Walz has mobilized all of Minnesota’s National Guard troops —
the state guard’s biggest mobilization ever — to help restore order.
Police fired tear gas and stun grenades to clear streets of curfew
violators Saturday night in Minneapolis.
Walz extended a curfew for a third night Sunday and praised police and
guardsmen for holding down violence. “They did so in a professional manner.
They did so without a single loss of life and minimal property damage,” he
said.
“Congratulations to our National Guard for the great job they did
immediately upon arriving in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last night,” President
Donald Trump tweeted, adding that they “should be used in other States before
it is too late!”
The Department of Defense said that around 5,000 National Guard troops had
been mobilized in 15 states as well as the capital Washington, with another
2,000 on standby.
The widespread resort to uniformed National Guards units is rare, and it
evoked disturbing memories of the rioting in US cities in 1967 and 1968 in a
turbulent time of protest over racial and economic disparities.
Trump blamed the extreme left for the violence, saying he planned to
designate a group known as Antifa as a terrorist organization.
“The violence instigated and carried out by Antifa and other similar groups
in connection with the rioting is domestic terrorism and will be treated
accordingly,” added Attorney General Bill Barr.
– ‘A nation in pain’ –
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Trump, who has often urged police
to use tough tactics, was not helping matters.
“We are beyond a tipping point in this country, and his rhetoric only
enflames that,” she said on CBS.
Joe Biden, Trump’s likely Democratic opponent in November’s presidential
election, visited the scene of one anti-racism protest.
“We are a nation in pain right now, but we must not allow this pain to
destroy us,” Biden tweeted, posting a picture of him speaking with an African-
American family at the site where protesters had gathered in Delaware late
Saturday.
Floyd’s death has triggered protests beyond the United States, with
hundreds rallying outside the US embassy in London in solidarity.
“I’m here because I’m tired, I’m fed up with it. When does this stop?”
Doreen Pierre told AFP at the protest.
In Germany, England football international Jadon Sancho marked one of his
three goals for Borussia Dortmund against Paderborn by lifting his jersey to
reveal a T-shirt bearing the words “Justice for George Floyd”.
BSS/AFP/MMA/1030HRS