Rioters run amok Community burns in unrest over police killing of black man
MINNESOTA has called in the National Guard as looting broke out in St Paul and a wounded Minneapolis braced for more violence after rioting over the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man in police custody, reduced parts of one neighbourhood to a smoking ruin.
The Minneapolis unrest ravaged several blocks in the Longfellow neighbourhood, with scattered rioting reaching for miles across the city.
It was the second consecutive night of violent protests following Mr Floyd’s death on Monday. In footage recorded by a bystander, Mr Floyd can be seen pleading that he can’t breathe as an officer kneels on his neck. As minutes pass, he slowly stops talking and moving.
Businesses across the Twin Cities were boarding up their windows and doors yesterday in an effort to prevent looting.
The violence spread a few miles away to St Paul’s Midway
neighbourhood, where police said 50 to 60 people rushed a Target, attempting to loot it. Police later blocked the entrance, but the looting shifted to shops along nearby University Ave, one of St Paul’s main commercial corridors, and other spots in the city.
St Paul spokesman Steve Linders said authorities were dealing with unrest in roughly 20 different areas.
“Please stay home. Please do not come here to protest. Please keep the focus on George
Floyd, on advancing our movement and on preventing this from ever happening again,” tweeted St Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, who is black.
Erika Atson, 20, was among several hundred people who gathered outside government offices in downtown Minneapolis, where organisers called for peaceful protest.
Atson, who is black, described seeing her 14- and 11year-old brothers tackled by
Minneapolis police years ago because officers mistakenly presumed the boys had guns.
She said she had been at “every single protest” since Mr Floyd’s death and worried about raising children who could be vulnerable in police encounters.
“We don’t want to be here fighting against anyone. We don’t want anyone to be hurt. We don’t want to cause any damages,” she said. “We just want the police officer to be held accountable.”