Burning rage
Police killing unleashes torrent of anger, frustration
Tense protests over the death of George Floyd and other police killings of black men grew yesterday from New York to Tulsa to Los Angeles. Police cars were set ablaze and reports of injuries mounted on all sides as the country lurched towards another night of unrest after months of coronavirus lockdowns.
The protests, which began in Minneapolis after Floyd’s death on Tuesday after a policeman pressed a knee on his neck for more than eight minutes, have left parts of the city a grid of broken windows, burned-out buildings and ransacked stores. The unrest has since become a national phenomenon as protesters decry years of deaths at police hands.
The large crowds involved, with many people not wearing masks or social distancing, raised concerns among health experts about the potential for helping spread the coronavirus pandemic when overall deaths are on the decline nationwide and much of the country is reopening society and the economy.
After a tumultuous night on Saturday, racially diverse crowds took to the streets again for mostly peaceful demonstrations in dozens of cities from coast to coast.
The previous day’s protests also started calmly, but many turned violent later.
● In Washington, the DC National Guard was called in as hundreds converged on the mall and pockets of violence erupted during a second straight night of protests. Outside the White House, crowds chanted, taunted Secret Service agents and at times pushed against security barriers, and police used pepper spray. President Donald Trump, who had been in Florida for the SpaceX rocket launch, landed on the lawn in the presidential helicopter at dusk and went inside, ignoring journalists.
● In Philadelphia, at least 13 officers were injured when protests
turned violent and at least four police vehicles were set on fire. Other fires were set throughout downtown.
● In the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, the site of a 1921 massacre of about 300 black people and left the city’s thriving black district in ruins, protesters blocked intersections and chanted the name of Terence Crutcher, a black man killed by a police officer in 2016.
● In Seattle, police fired tear gas and stun grenades to try to disperse black-clad crowds that smashed downtown shopfronts and stole merchandise.
● In Los Angeles, protesters chanted “Black Lives Matter”, some within inches of the face shields of officers. Police used batons to move the crowd back and fired rubber bullets. A spray-painted police car burned in the street.
● And in New York City, confrontations flared repeatedly as officers made arrests and cleared streets. A video showed two NYPD cruisers lurch into demonstrators pushing a barricade against one of them and pelting it with objects, knocking people down.
It was unclear if anyone was hurt. “Our country has a sickness. We have to be out here,” said Brianna Petrisko, among those at lower Manhattan’s Foley Square.
“This is the only way we’re going to be heard.”
In Minneapolis, where the protests began, 29-year-old Sam Allkija said the damage reflected longstanding frustration and rage in the black community: “I don’t condone them. But you have to look deeper into why these riots are happening.”
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who said local forces had been overmatched on Saturday, fully mobilised the state’s National Guard and promised a huge show of force. The Guard announced yesterday it had more than 4000 members responding to Minneapolis and would quickly have nearly 11,000.
“The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd,” Walz said. “It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities.”