TRUMP FANS THE FLAMES IN USA
NOW PRESIDENT BRANDS ANTI-RACIST PROTESTERS TERRORISTS IN A TWEET
DONALD TRUMP was yesterday accused of fanning the flames of hatred after he branded anti-racism protesters ‘terrorists’ as the revolt against alleged police brutality continued to spread across the US.
The president lashed out blaming ‘radical left anarchists’, the ‘lamestream media’ and Democrat politicians as the country erupted in fury following last week’s killing of black dad-of-two George Floyd by a white police officer.
He tweeted his government would be ‘designating Antifa as a Terrorist Organization’ and also accused journalists of ‘doing everything within their power to foment hatred and anarchy’.
However, critics questioned whether it would be possible to outlaw Antifa, which is not an organisation and has no leaders or hierarchy. The umbrella term, which is short for anti-fascist, is often used to refer to activists who confront far-right and white supremacist demos.
Mr Floyd, 46, died after being arrested outside a shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last Monday. Video footage shows police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck as he pins him to the ground. Chauvin, 44, has been charged with murder.
His death sparked public outrage across the US with violent clashes not seen since after Rodney King was brutally beaten by police in Los Angeles almost 30 years ago.
Almost 1,700 people in 22 cities have been arrested. Nearly a third of those were in LA, where the governor declared a state of emergency and ordered in the National Guard as dozens of fires burned.
Some of the demonstrations started peacefully – tens of thousands marched through the centre of Minneapolis.
But, as night fell, protests exploded into violent fury at ‘racist police’ – and state troopers and members of the National Guard moved in to try to break up the demonstrations. Protesters spraypainted ‘I Can’t Breathe’ – reportedly the last words Mr Floyd (pictured) uttered – on the side of buildings.
Few corners of America were left untouched, from fires being lit inside the city hall in Reno, Nevada, to police firing tear gas and rubber bullets at rockthrowing demonstrators in Fargo, North Dakota. In Salt Lake City, Utah, demonstrators torched a police car. Vehicles were also set on fire in Miami and Florida, while ‘multiple shootings’ were reported in Indianapolis.
At least 13 police officers were injured as their vehicles were set ablaze in Philadelphia. Six more officers in Ferguson, Missouri, were hurt after being hit with rocks and fireworks. Elsewhere, two police vehicles were videoed driving into a crowd of demonstrators in New York, knocking several people to the ground.
And just one block from the White House in Washington, DC, a firework was thrown at police and a bin set alight.
Protesters in Nashville, Tennessee, rampaged through the city, damaging at
least 30 buildings. The anger sparked by the death of Mr Floyd was compounded by coronavirus, which has left millions out of work and killed more than 100,000 people in the US, including disproportionate numbers of black people.
Mr Floyd, a doorman, had lost his job due to lockdown restrictions. ‘We’re sick of it... the cops are out of control,’ protester Olga Hall said in Washington. ‘There’s just been too many dead boys.’