Protests rock cities across US
Anger over George Floyd’s killing spreads:
USA - Thousands of people ignored a curfew in Minneapolis to protest for a fourth night in a row, as anger around police brutality and the death of George Floyd erupted into violence across the US, from New York to California.
Although multiple demonstrations started peacefully many turned volatile overnight, with crowds in Minneapolis overwhelming law enforcement, taking over a police station and smashing and burning shops. In Atlanta, people set a police car ablaze and broke windows at CNN’s headquarters, an attack that prompted Georgia’s governor to declare a state of emergency.
An unidentified assailant in Detroit fired shots from an SUV into a crowd of demonstrators, killing a 19-year-old man.
The shooting came hours after Donald Trump was criticised for inciting violence against protesters when he threatened people he called “thugs” on Twitter: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer captured on video kneeling on Floyd for nine minutes, was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. But three other officers involved in the arrest had not yet been charged, and the announcement did little to end what has descended into regular nightly clashes. In the capital, the White House was put under lockdown as demonstrators tussled with the Secret Service into the early hours. Protesters
threw bricks and bottles but failed to get over the barricades. Police dispersed the crowds with pepper spray. On Saturday morning, in a series of intimidating tweets, the president lauded the Secret Service, saying they “would quickly come down on [the protesters], hard – didn’t know what hit them”. “Big crowd, professionally organized, but nobody came close to breaching the fence. If they had they would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen,” Trump said. “That’s when people would have been really badly hurt, at least.”
Secret Service agents, he warned, were “just waiting for action”.
(The Guardian)