US braces for massive protests
NEW YORK (AFP) — The United States on Friday braced for massive weekend protests against racism and police brutality, as outrage soared over the latest law enforcement abuses against demonstrators that were caught on camera.
With protests over last week’s police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, surging into a second weekend, US President Donald Trump sparked fresh controversy by saying it was a “great day” for Floyd.
Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for November’s election, called Trump’s comments “frankly despicable” as thousands took to streets across America for a 10th straight day of anti-racism demonstrations.
Massive street demonstrations were set for yesterday, including in Washington, where tens of thousands of people were expected. The mayor painted “Black Lives Matter” in giant letters on the road leading to the White House ahead of the crowd’s arrival.
Also yesterday, a remembrance for Floyd was scheduled in Raeford, North Carolina, the state where he was born, following an initial ceremony in Minneapolis that was held last Thursday.
The protests, sparked by a police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes as he pleaded for his life, took place amid a roiling controversy over the officers’ use of force against largely peaceful demonstrators. In Buffalo, New York, two policemen were suspended without pay after a video showed them shoving an unidentified 75-year-old protester who fell and suffered a head injury.
Reporting the suspension on Twitter, Mayor Byron Brown said he and the police commissioner were “deeply disturbed” by the video.
An earlier police statement said the man, who appeared unconscious and bleeding heavily from the head, “tripped and fell.”
In a tweet, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the incident “wholly unjustified and utterly disgraceful.”
In Indianapolis, police launched an investigation after a video emerged showing at least four officers hitting a woman with batons and firing pepper balls at her last Sunday night.
In New York City on Thursday, officers baton-charged dozens of peaceful protesters defying a curfew in the Bronx after pinning them in, leaving them with nowhere to run, according to several reports.
New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea on Friday announced that two officers had been suspended following “several troubling incidents,” one for pushing a woman to the ground and another for pulling down a man’s face mask and spraying pepper spray at him. Both incidents were caught on video.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who imposed the weeklong night-time curfew after widespread looting earlier in the week, has repeatedly said the NYPD is showing “restraint.”
In an editorial published on Friday, The New York Times called on De Blasio to “open your eyes.”
“The police are out of control,” it said.
Floyd, 46, died in the Midwestern city of Minneapolis while handcuffed during a May 25 arrest for a nonviolent offense.
His death reignited long-standing resentment over police killings of African-Americans and unleashed a nationwide wave of protest unlike anything seen in the US since Martin Luther King’s 1968 assassination.