United States
OVERWHELMED and woefully unprepared, America was last night burning as at least 30 cities were engulfed by fury over the death of George Floyd.
For months the US has grappled with Covid-19 and the mass job losses unleashed by the virus – but anger at the police is all that matters now.
As I stood on the ravaged streets of Minneapolis next to thousands of demonstrators protesting over Mr Floyd’s death at the hands of white cops, it didn’t take long before their anger turned again to violence.
But unlike previous nights, they were no longer alone.
From the east to west coasts, deadly protests have broken out, forcing many states to declare emergencies.
Two government private security officers were shot – one fatally – in Oakland, California, while at least 7,500 people demonstrated. In
Detroit, a 19-year-old protester was shot dead by a group of men, and police were seen violently throwing a 20-year-old female demonstrator to the ground in New York.
Phoenix, Denver and Houston also suffered widespread vandalism.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump gloated that rioters were damaging the Atlanta headquarters of CNN – the news channel he hates.
He tweeted: “In an ironic twist of fate, CNN HQ is being attacked by the very riots they promoted as noble and just. Oops.”
It came just days after Twitter was forced to mark the president’s tweets as “glorifying violence” after he posted: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Fearing an all-out war across
America, Mr Trump has instructed soldiers in North Carolina, New York, Colorado and Kansas to be placed on standby.
It is the first time since the 1992 LA riots that such a call has been made.
The order came as demonstrators confronted Secret Service officers at the White House for five long hours as Mr Trump sat inside.
Yesterday, he tweeted that the protesters “would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen”, had
they breached the fence. Despite a global pandemic killing more than 100,000 Americans and leaving 40 million unemployed in its wake, people in the States now have greater concerns on their minds than coronavirus.
While they fight to be heard, Mr Trump wages his war against Twitter, postal voting in the upcoming election and threatens looters with being shot.
But the president’s handling of Covid-19 and now the riots has left many Republicans fearing his support will collapse at November’s polls.
Inequality
His lack of leadership during both crises has harmed his popularity, while many have tired of his erratic behaviour as he tries to deflect attention from the big issues affecting Americans.
Both the country’s political dysfunction and racial inequality have been laid bare all week – a reminder of how black people are killed by police in disproportionately high numbers.
It is a nation in crisis and nowhere is it worse than Minneapolis – a melting pot of immigrants maligned by Mr Trump and his administration.
A walk down burning Lake Street shows the contempt felt for the US leader, who has served only to fan the flames of the unrest.
“F*** Trump”, can be seen sprayed on burnt out and looted businesses hundreds of times. On Friday, when police officer Derek Chauvin was charged with Mr Floyd’s murder, it did little to quell the anger in the city.
Instead the criminal complaint against the officer – who has since been fired – fuelled yet more violence after it revealed he had held his knee on 46-year-old Mr Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. For two minutes and 53 seconds of that, the father-of-two was unresponsive.
On Friday, fearing a fourth night of violence, Minneapolis leaders ordered an 8pm curfew but it had no effect.
As the curfew drew close, I stood by