Trump aims to outlaw Antifa
Protests also flared in Chicago, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Cleveland, and Dallas, where rioters were seen on video beating a store owner who chased them with a large machete or sword. Police said on Sunday he was in a stable condition.
The clashes in Minneapolis Saturday night marked the fifth night of arson, looting and vandalism in parts of the state’s largest city, and its adjacent capital, St. Paul. The state’s governor said on Saturday that he was activating the full Minnesota National Guard for the first time since the Second World War.
Thousands of people gathered peacefully on Sunday afternoon for a rally in St. Paul as state troopers surrounded the state capitol building. About 170 stores in the city have been looted, its mayor told CNN.
“There is no real one answer but the beginning is we have to learn to be honest with each other,” said 66-year-old community activist Philip Holmes as he stood among demonstrators holding “Black Lives Matter” signs.
In Santa Monica, Calif., on Sunday, hundreds of protesters marched peacefully down Ocean Avenue, parallel to the city’s famed beaches. A line of police officers stood at the entrance to the Santa Monica Pier, local KTLA-TV said.
Several hundred demonstrators marching through downtown Miami stopped between the federal courthouse, FBI offices, and the federal detention centre chanting “no justice, no peace.” Inmates could be seen in the narrow windows waving shirts.
While covering the protests in Minneapolis on Saturday night, two members of a Reuters TV crew were hit by rubber bullets and a Reuters photographer’s camera was smashed as attacks against journalists covering civil unrest in U.S. cities intensified.
In response to the protests, Target Corp announced it was closing 100 stores, about 30 of them in Minnesota.
The administration of President Donald Trump, who has called protesters “thugs,” will not federalize and take control of the National Guard for now, national security adviser Robert O’brien said on Sunday.
Trump said on Sunday that the U.S. government will designate anti-fascist group Antifa as a terrorist organization. It was not clear how many of the protesters participating in demonstrations are from Antifa.
“Get tough Democrat Mayors and Governors,” Trump said on Twitter on Sunday afternoon. “These people are ANARCHISTS. Call in our National Guard NOW. The World is watching and laughing at you and Sleepy Joe. Is this what America wants? NO!!!”
“Sleepy Joe” is Trump’s nickname for Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for November’s presidential election.