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US-POLITICS-RACE-UNREST
US cities under curfew after fresh anti-race protests, looting
MINNEAPOLIS, June 1, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Authorities imposed curfews in the
capital Washington and other major US cities Sunday to prevent fresh rioting
after anti-racism protestors again took to the streets to voice their fury at
police brutality.
As the Trump administration branded instigators of five nights of rioting
domestic terrorists, there were more confrontations between protestors and
police and fresh outbreaks of looting.
Local leaders appealed to citizens to give constructive outlet to their
rage over the death of an unarmed black man, while night-time curfews were
imposed in cities such as Washington, Los Angeles, Houston and Minneapolis,
which has been the epicenter of unrest.
The most 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 run 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 such as New York, Miami and
Washington where riot police lined up outside the White House as the crowds
gathered at a nearby park.
Washington’s mayor issued a curfew order 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 another protest.
– Stores ransacked –
While there was no immediate repeat of the large-scale violence that has
rocked cities in recent days, looters ransacked stores in a neighborhood of
Philadelphia.
And in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica, looting was reported at
stores in a popular beachside shopping center with people running out of
stores that had been broken into.
Officials in LA — a city scarred by riots over the police beating of
Rodney King nearly three decades ago — 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, saying, “They did so in a professional
manner. They did so without a single loss of life and minimal property
damage.”
“Congratulations to our National Guard for the great job they did
immediately upon arriving in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last night,” President
Donald Trump said in a tweet 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’ –
But 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 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 wrote on Twitter, posting a picture of him speaking with a
black family at the site where protesters had gathered in Delaware on Saturday
night.
The death of Floyd has triggered protests beyond the US, 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 internatinal 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/0925HRS