Protests form across US demanding end to police violence
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Protests formed across America again Sunday, even as glass and graffiti from the previous night’s unrest were still being cleaned up, with some violence and crime flaring in pockets of largely peaceful demonstrations fueled by the killings of black people at the hands of police.
From Boston to San Francisco, protesters took to the streets once more, and some signs of trouble emerged in cities that have closed streets and imposed curfews after days of turmoil. People robbed stores in broad daylight in Philadelphia and Santa Monica, California, and a semitruck drove into a massive crowd of people that took over a portion of a highway in Minneapolis.
It’s unclear if there were injuries. Protesters crawled on the truck, and police came in force to clear the highway in the city where the turbulence emerged after the death last week of George Floyd — a black man who pleaded that he couldn’t breathe after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into his neck for several minutes. The protests quickly became national, spreading to dozens of cities large and small.
The officer who pressed his knee onto Floyd’s neck has been arrested and charged with murder, but protesters are demanding charges against all four officers at the scene. All four were fired.
In neighboring St. Paul, thousands gathered peacefully in front of the state Capitol, pledging to keep up the protests.
“We’re Minnesota nice, but we’re not Minnesota dumb, and we’re not done,” St. Paul Black Lives Matter organizer Darnella Wade said. “They sent us the military and we only asked them for arrests.”
Minnesota’s governor brought in thousands of National Guard soldiers to help quell violence that had damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings in Minneapolis over days of protests. The immense deployment appeared to have worked Saturday night, when there was comparatively little destruction.
On Sunday, in a display of force, long lines of state patrolmen and National Guard soldiers were lined up in front of the Capitol, facing the demonstrators, with perhaps a dozen militarystyle armored vehicles behind them.
Across America, demonstrators called again for an end to police violence.
“They keep killing our people,” said Mahira Louis, 15, who marched with her mother and several hundred others through downtown Boston. “I’m so sick and tired of it.”
Many also joined police in pleading for a stop to violence, saying it weakened calls for justice and reform.
“It only hurts the cause,” said Danielle Outlaw, head of the police force in Philadelphia, where more than 200 people were arrested as fires and looting engulfed the heart of the city.
Disgust over generations of racism in a country founded by slaveholders combined with a string of recent racially charged killings to stoke the anger. Adding to that was angst from months of lockdowns brought on by thecoronavirus pandemic, which has disproportionately hurt communities of color, not only in terms of infections but in job losses and economic stress.
The droves of people congregating for demonstrations threatened to trigger new outbreaks, a fact overshadowed by the boiling tensions.
The scale of the protests, sweeping from coast to coast and unfolding on a single night, rivaled the historic demonstrations of the civil rights and Vietnam War eras.