More protests as Trump decries ‘lowlifes and losers’
Violent confrontations decline Tuesday night
WASHINGTON — Undeterred by curfews, protesters streamed back into the nation’s streets Tuesday night, hours after President Donald Trump pressed governors to put down the violence set off by George Floyd’s death and demanded that New York call up the National Guard to stop the “lowlifes and losers.”
“NYC, CALL UP THE NATIONAL GUARD,” he tweeted. “The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart. Act fast! Don’t make the same horrible and deadly mistake you made with the Nursing Homes!!!”
But most protests passed peacefully, and while there were scattered reports of looting in New York City, the country appeared calmer by late Tuesday than it did a day earlier, when violence swept through multiple cities.
In some cities, police allowed protesters to defy curfews as long as they remained peaceful. In Washington, protesters lingered long past curfew in front of the White House, with no response from the hundreds of police. At one point earlier in the day, the crowd booed when a protester climbed a light post and took down a street sign. A chant went up: “Peaceful protest!”
“Last night pushed me way over the edge,” said Jessica DeMaio, 40, of Washington, who attended a protest Tuesday for the first time. “Being here is better than being at home feeling helpless.”
Amid the protests, nine states and the District of Columbia held presidential primaries that tested the nation’s ability to run elections while balancing a pandemic and sweeping social unrest. Joe Biden won hundreds more delegates and was on the cusp of formally securing the Democratic presidential nomination.
Thousands of protesters marched Tuesday night in a string of demonstrations across Manhattan and Brooklyn after merchants boarded up their businesses, fearing a repeat of the night before. Many people remained on the streets after the curfew hour. Police eventually ordered them to move along and began taking some into custody.
During the day, protests ranged across the U.S., including in New York City; Los Angeles; Houston; St. Paul, Minnesota; Columbia, South Carolina; and Orlando, Florida, where more than 1,000 people gathered to decry the killings of black people.
“This has to change,” said 39-year-old Aisxia Batiste, an out-of-work massage therapist in Orlando. “Something has to give. We’re done. This is the beginning of the end of something. It has to be.”
Governors and mayors, Republicans and Democrats alike, rejected Trump’s threat to send in the military. Some questioned whether the government has such authority.