U.S cities brace for more unrest
Trump wants National Guard to stop ‘lowlifes and losers.’
President Donald Trump on Tuesday turned up the pressure on governors to quell the violence set off by the death of George Floyd, demanding New York call up the National Guard to stop the “lowlifes and losers.”
As more demonstrations began taking shape around the country, and cities including Washington prepared for another possible round of scattered violence after dark, the president amplified his hard-line calls of a day earlier, in which he threatened to send in the military to restore order if governors didn’t do it.
“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!!!”
One day after a crackdown on peaceful protesters near the White House, thousands of demonstrators massed a block away from the presidential mansion, facing law enforcement personnel standing across a black chain-link fence. The fence was put up overnight to block access to Lafayette Park, just across the street from the White House.
“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.”
The crowd remained in place after the city’s 7 p.m. curfew passed, defying warn- ings that the response from law enforcement could be even more forceful. At one poi n t, the crowd boo ed when a protester climbed a light post and took down a street sign. A chant went up: “Peaceful protest!”
Protests ranged across the U.S., including New York City, Los Angeles, Houston, St. Paul, Minnesota, Columbia, South Carolina, and Orlando, Florida, where more than 1,000 people gathered in the afternoon to decry the kill- ings 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.”
In New York, midtown Manhattan was pocked with battered storefronts. Macy’s flagship store was among those hit after crowds of peo- ple smashed windows and looted stores Monday as they swept through the area. A police sergeant was hospitalized after being hit by a car in the Bronx, where peo- ple walked Tuesday between ransacked buildings and a burned-out car on the Grand Concourse, a commercial thoroughfare.
Police made nearly 700 arrests and Mayor Bill de Blasio extended an 8 p.m. curfew all week.
“We’re going to have a tough few days,” he warned, but added: “We’re going to beat it back.” He pleaded with community leaders to step forward and “create peace.”
More than 20,000 National Guard members have been called up in 29 states to deal with the violence. New York is not among them, and De Blasio has said he does not want the Guard. On Tuesday, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo called what happened in the city “a disgrace.”
“The NYPD and t he mayor did not do their job last night,” Cuomo said at a briefing in Albany.
He said the mayor under- estimated the problem, and the nation’s largest police force was not deployed in sufficient numbers, though the city had said it doubled the usual police presence.
Tuesday marked the eight straight night of the protests, which began in Minneapo- lis, where Floyd died, and quickly spread across the country.
Scattered violence flared Monday in multiple protests, including an officer who was shot and gravely wounded as police tried to disperse a crowd outside a Las Vegas hotel and casino, and four officers shot in St. Louis. They were expected to recover. In Philadelphia, officials said one person was killed trying to use explo- sives to open an ATM, and a gun shop owner fatally shot a would-be thief. A 19-yearold died of injuries suffered during looting.
About a dozen other deaths have been reported around the country over the past week. And nearly 8,000 peo- ple nationwide have been arrested for offenses such as stealing, blocking highways and breaking curfew, according to a count by The Associated Press.
Some protesters framed the burgeoning movement as a necessity after a string of killings by police.
“My goal is to use my voice and my leadership to make this world safer so that one day I can bring children here and won’t have to fear for their safety,” 19-year-old Amari Burroughs of Parkland, Florida, said Tuesday as she prepared for another protest.
Meanwhile, governors and mayors, Republicans and Democrats alike, rejected Trump’s threat to send in the military, with some saying troops would be unnecessary and others questioning whether the government has such authority and warn- ing that such a step would be dangerous.
Such use of the military would mark a stunning federal intervention rarely seen in modern American history.
Minnesota launched a civil rights investigation of Minneapolis police in hopes of forcing widespread changes. Gov. Tim Walz and the state Department of Human Rights announced the filing of the formal complaint Tuesday. Walz and Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero said they hope to reach agree- ment with the city to identify ways to address the police department’s history of racial discrimination.
Amid the protests, cities struggled to keep police in line and avoid instances of excessive force.
The police chief in Louisville, Kentucky, was fired after a restaurant owner was killed by police and National Guard members enforcing a curfew. In Richmond, the police chief said officers who used tear gas on a group of peaceful protesters would be disciplined. In Atlanta, six officers were charged after a video showed authorities dragging two young people from a car during protests.