Protesters gather nationwide.

down as they took people into custody and cleared streets. One video showed on officer slam a woman to the ground as he walked past her in the street.

Back in Minneapolis, the city where the protests began, 29- year- old Sam Allkija said the damage seen in recent days reflects longstanding frustration and rage in the black community.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz fully mobilized the state’s National Guard and promised a massive show of force.

“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.”

At least a dozen major cities nationwide imposed overnight curfews ranging from 6 p. m. in parts of South Carolina to 10 p. m. around Ohio. People were also told to be off the streets of Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles and Minneapolis — where thousands ignored the same order the previous night.

Hundreds of people were arrested Friday, and police used batons, rubber bullets and pepper spray to push back crowds in some cities.

The officer who held his knee to Floyd’s neck as he begged for air was arrested Friday and charged with third- degree murder and second- degree manslaughter — but that appeared to provide little balm. Many protesters are demanding the arrests of the three other officers involved.

President Donald Trump stoked the anger, firing off a series of tweets criticizing Minnesota’s response, ridiculing people who protested outside the White House and warning that if protesters had breached its fence they would “have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen.”

Minnesota has steadily increased to 1,700 the number of National Guardsmen it says it needs to contain the unrest, and the governor is considering a potential offer of military police put on alert by the Pentagon.

Governors in Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio and Texas also activated the National Guard after protests there turned violent overnight, while nighttime curfews were put in place in Portland, Oregon, Cincinnati and elsewhere.