Minneapolis burning

Violent protests after police brutality and man’s death in custody

PROTESTS, many violent, spread across US cities yesterday after the death of a man in police custody.

In New York City, protesters defied Covid-19 prohibition, clashing with police, while demonstrators blocked traffic in downtown Denver.

Anger over the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air as a white police officer kneeled on his neck, has spread in Africa, where the head of the AU Commission yesterday rejected “continuing discriminatory practices against black citizens of the US”.

In a series of tweets, Moussa Faki Mahamat urged the “total elimination” of all forms of racism in the US.

Much of the Minneapolis violence occurred in the Longfellow neighbourhood, where protesters converged on the precinct station of the police who arrested Floyd. On Thursday, cheering protesters torched a Minneapolis police station that the department abandoned, as three days of violent protests spread to nearby St Paul and angry demonstrations flared across the US over the death of Floyd.

A police spokesperson confirmed on Thursday that staff had evacuated the 3rd Precinct station, the f ocus of many of the protests, “in the interest of the safety of our personnel”. Livestream video showed the protesters entering the building, where fire alarms blared and sprinklers ran as blazes were set.

Late on Thursday, President Donald Trump blasted the “total lack of leadership” in Minneapolis.

“Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control,” Trump tweeted.

A visibly tired and frustrated Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey made his first public appearance of the night at City Hall near 2am yesterday and took responsibility for evacuating the precinct, saying it had become too dangerous for officers there.

Then he added: “There is a lot of pain and anger right now in our city. I understand that… What we have seen over the past several hours and past couple of nights here in terms of looting is unacceptable.”

He defended the city’s lack of engagement with looters – only a handful of arrests across the first two nights of violence – and said, “We are doing absolutely everything that we can to keep the peace.”

He said National Guard members were being stationed in locations to help stem looting, including banks, grocery stores and pharmacies.

Yesterday, the Minnesota State Patrol arrested a CNN television crew as they reported on the unrest in Minneapolis. While live on air, CNN reporter Omar Jimenez was handcuffed and led away. A producer and a photojournalist for the TV news-based channel were also led away in handcuffs.

CNN said on Twitter that their arrests were “a clear violation of their First Amendment rights” and called for their immediate release.

Thick smoke rose over the city as fires burned yesterday. Firefighters worked to contain a number of fires as National Guard troops blocked access to streets where businesses had been damaged. They marched side by side and block by block as they expanded a perimeter around a heavily damaged area.

Protests first erupted on Tuesday, a day after Floyd’s death in a confrontation with police captured on video by a citizen and widely viewed.

Walz deployed the National Guard on Thursday at the Minneapolis mayor’s request. The Guard tweeted minutes after the precinct burned that it had sent more than 500 soldiers across the metro area. The Guard said a “key objective” was to make sure fire departments could respond to calls, and said in a follow-up tweet it was “here with the Minneapolis Fire Department” to assist. But no move was made to put out the 3rd Precinct fire.

Assistant Fire Chief Bryan Tyner said fire crews could not safely respond to fires at the precinct station and some surrounding buildings.

On Thursday, businesses boarded up their windows and doors to prevent looting. Minneapolis shut down nearly its entire light-rail system and all bus services out of safety concerns.

In St Paul, clouds of smoke hung in the air as police armed with batons, wearing gas masks and body armour kept an eye on protesters as firefighters were putting out blazes. But elsewhere in Minneapolis, thousands of peaceful demonstrators marched through the streets calling for justice.

Meanwhile, in Louisville, Kentucky, police confirmed that at least seven people were shot on Thursday night as protesters demanded justice for Breonna Taylor, a black woman who was shot and killed in a police raid in March. Taylor, an emergency medical technician, was shot at least eight times when three officers entered her apartment by force to serve a search warrant in a narcotics investigation. The department said the officers announced themselves and returned gunfire from her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker.

The US Attorney’s Office and the FBI in Minneapolis said on Thursday they were conducting “a robust criminal investigation” into the death.

The FBI is investigating whether Floyd’s civil rights were violated. | AP

AP IN THIS image from handout video provided by Darnella Frazier, a Minneapolis officer kneels on the neck of a handcuffed George Floyd who was pleading that he could not breathe on Monday. Four Minneapolis officers involved in the arrest of Floyd who died in police custody were fired Tuesday. The officers had responded to a call from a shopkeeper about somebody trying to pass counterfeit money. |

AP A DEMONSTRATOR holds a sign with an image of George Floyd during a Wednesday protest at the Minneapolis Police Department’s 3rd Precinct station to demand justice in the death of George Floyd. |