Trump decries ‘terrorists’ as riots sweep US
DONALD TRUMP vowed to designate the militant Left-wing group Antifa a terrorist organisation yesterday as he claimed “radical” agitators were fuelling the protests sweeping America.
Demonstrations over the death of George Floyd while in police custody spread overseas yesterday as London, Berlin and Toronto all saw people take to the streets.
America was braced for a sixth night of protests last night. At least 75 cities in more than 30 states have now seen public demonstrations against police brutality. Police deployed rubber bullets, tear gas and pepper spray as violent clashes played out across the country on Saturday night in scenes that laid bare the country’s racial tension.
Mr Floyd’s death after being pinned to the ground with a white police officer’s knee on his neck was the trigger for the outrage. Footage showed Mr Floyd pleading “I can’t breathe”.
Over the weekend the protests appeared to morph into both a wider cry of anger at racial injustice.
Curfews had been put in place in at least 25 cities – a scale of localised lockdowns to counter protests not seen since after Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968. Making an unexpected announcement yesterday, Mr Trump tweeted: “The United States of America will be designating Antifa as a terrorist organisation.”
It is not clear how many members of Antifa, a Left-wing anti-fascist political movement, have been at the protests. The group has long been criticised by US politicians on the Right for its confrontational tactics.
In London yesterday thousands marched in protest at police violence, chanting “no justice, no peace”.
DONALD TRUMP has been accused of denying the brother of the man killed by a Minneapolis police officer the chance to speak during a telephone call in which the US president offered his condolences.
Philonise Floyd spoke to Mr Trump and Joe Biden, the Democratic party’s presumptive presidential nominee, in the aftermath of the death of his 46-year-old brother George.
Mr Trump’s attempts to defuse the tension, fuelled by video footage showing police officer Derek Chauvin with his knee on Mr Floyd’s neck, appeared to have failed.
“It was so fast, he didn’t give me an opportunity to speak,” Mr Floyd told the Rev Al Sharpton on MSNBC.
“It was how I was trying to talk to him but he just kept like pushing me out like, ‘I don’t want to hear what you’re talking about’.
“And I just told him, I want justice. I said that I couldn’t believe that they committed a modern-day lynching in broad daylight.”
Mr Floyd said he had asked Mr Biden to secure justice for his brother. “I asked vice president Biden – I never had to beg a man before – but I asked him, could he please, please get justice for my brother,” Mr Floyd said.
“I need it. I do not want to see him on a shirt just like the other guys.
“Nobody deserved that. Black folk don’t deserve that. We’re all dying. Black lives matter.”
Earlier Mr Trump had expressed his sympathy with Mr Floyd’s family, describing them as “terrific people”.
“I just expressed my sorrow. That was a horrible thing to witness,” he said, adding that it “looked like there was no excuse for it.”
Having seen the video, the president said it was obvious that Mr Floyd was in great pain.
However, Mr Trump’s other responses, notably the language he has used in threatening to set “vicious dogs” on protesters at the White House, have led to the president being accused of being tone-deaf to the anger that has swept the country.
Mr Biden has been unequivocal in his support for the family, condemning racial injustice in America and calling for police reform.
“Weeks like this we see it plainly that we’re a country with an open wound.
“And none of us can turn away,” Mr Biden said in a broadcast on Friday.
“None of us can be silent. None of us can any longer, can we hear the words ‘I can’t breathe’ and do nothing.”