US scrambles to stem revolt as Trump faces anger for violent crackdown
WASHINGTON, United States — Leaders across the United States sought ways Tuesday to stem mounting unrest over police racism, from extending curfews to engaging protesters, as President Donald Trump faced wide criticism for deploying force to break up a peaceful rally.
Once-in-a-generation protests have brought a multiracial coalition peacefully to the streets for the past week but each night has descended into mayhem, with both activists and officials blaming rabble-rousers.
New York prolonged its first curfew since World War II for the full week after some of the city's most storied shopping addresses were ransacked, including the flagship Macy's store.
Minnesota took one of the first concrete actions to address the grievances behind the uprising, which began in the state's largest city Minneapolis after the May 25 killing of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man.
Floyd died after he was pinned for nearly nine minutes under the knee of a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, who ignored Floyd's pleas for his life and had remained on the force despite multiple complaints.
"We must take this moment to change it all," Lieutenant Governor Penny Flanagan said of structural discrimination.
She told reporters the state was launching a civil rights investigation of the Minneapolis Police Department, which would look into possible violations going back 10 years.
In Los Angeles, one of dozens of cities hit by unrest, police officers and Mayor Eric Garcetti dropped to their knees in a symbolic act of solidarity as they met marchers led by African-American Christian groups.
"A black face should not be a sentence to die, nor to be homeless, nor to be sick, nor to be underemployed, nor to be under-educated," Garcetti told them.
Inviting the leaders into City Hall, he promised a discussion about issues, "not about words."
"We need a country that listens," he said.
Trump blasts 'scum'
In Washington, thousands returned to the streets Tuesday for a peaceful "Black Lives Matter" march and helicopters quickly hovered above them, following a night of low-flying choppers kicking up debris in scenes reminiscent of the US occupation of Iraq.
On Monday, federal police abruptly opened tear gas and fired rubber bullets to break up a non-violent protest in Lafayette Park outside the White House, moments before Trump strolled outside for a photo-op at a historic nearby church damaged by arson the previous night.
Trump, who has rejected the traditional presidential role of healer, voiced glee on Twitter over the response in Washington and accused the leadership of New York -- led by the rival Democratic Party -- of succumbing to "Lowlife & Scum."
"Overwhelming force. Domination," wrote Trump, who a day earlier declared himself "your president of law and order."
Joe Biden, Trump's presumptive Democratic rival in November 3 elections, denounced the crackdown on peaceful protesters in Lafayette Park as an abuse of power and promised, if elected, to tackle the "systemic racism" in the country.
"Donald Trump has turned this country into a battlefield driven by old resentments and fresh fears," Biden said in a speech in Philadelphia, also hit by violence.
"He thinks division helps him," Biden said. "His narcissism has become more important than the nation's wellbeing."
Trump on Tuesday visited another prominent religious site, a shrine in honor of pope John Paul II, prompting the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Washington to say the space was being "egregiously misused and manipulated."
The late pontiff "certainly would not condone the use of tear gas and other deterrents to silence, scatter or intimidate (people) for a photo opportunity in front of a place of worship and peace," Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory said.
The United States also faced unusual, if polite, criticism from some of its international allies.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called the anti-racism protests "understandable and more than legitimate."
"I hope that these peaceful protests won't slide further into violence, but even more than that I hope that they will make a difference in the United States," Maas told reporters.
Germany, Britain and Australia all voiced concern about the safety of the media after a number of journalists were roughed up by police or occasionally by rioters.
Curfew extended in New York
New York, the fabled "City that Never Sleeps" that had just been emerging from weeks under lockdown over the coronavirus, extended a curfew through Sunday that will start each night at 8.00 pm.
"We will take steps immediately to make sure there will be peace and order," Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has a fraught relationship with the police, said with visible anger.
The curfew began Monday at 11.00 pm but New York was already suffering widespread looting, with rioters smashing storefronts on posh Fifth Avenue, pulling electronics from a Best Buy store and breaking into Macy's, the department store known for its iconic Christmas displays.
Protests each day have begun peacefully. Several thousands took to the streets Tuesday in Manhattan, kneeling and shouting "George Floyd, George Floyd."
Protester Nat Hooper, 27, an African-American bookseller, called demonstrations "our civic duty" and hoped that Trump would be voted out in November.
"We don't think he's a good representation of what Americans believe in or American ideals," he said.
Cav Manning, 54, who is also black, said the protests aimed at "making leaders listen."
"This isn't just about George Floyd, may he rest in peace. This is about all the black men before, all the black women, all the black children, any people feeling the knee of oppression," he said as he protested in the diverse Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Minneapolis was relatively calm but violence spread elsewhere with four officers shot overnight in St. Louis, a city with a history of racial tensions. None of the injuries was life-threatening.
St. Louis Police Chief John Hayden told reporters protesters had been peaceful before a separate group of 200 showed up who "obviously had no intention of protesting, doing anything constructive" and threw fireworks and gasoline at officers.
"How can this be? Mr. Floyd was injured and was killed somewhere else, and they're tearing up cities all across the country," Hayden said. — with Laura Bonilla in New York
Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Atlanta were among several US cities to announce curfews Saturday in a bid to stem violent anti-police protests breaking out across America.
A nighttime curfew was also implemented in Louisville, Kentucky as the United States continues to be rocked by demonstrators angry at the death of a black man during an arrest in Minneapolis on Monday.
George Floyd was handcuffed and died after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, sparking the widespread protests against police brutality. — AFP
Photo: Demonstrators confront secret service police officers outside of the White House on May 30, 2020 in Washington DC, during a protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, who died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes. Demonstrations are being held across the US after George Floyd died in police custody on May 25. Jose Luis Magana / AFP
Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of the murder of George Floyd, was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison on Thursday on federal charges.
Chauvin, who is white, pleaded guilty in December 2021 to violating the civil rights of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, during his May 2020 arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy a pack of cigarettes.
Chauvin is already serving a 22-and-a-half-year sentence after being convicted of state murder charges for Floyd's death, which sparked protests against racial injustice and police brutality across the United States. — AFP
Several hundred protesters marched Sunday in Akron, Ohio after the release of body camera footage that showed police fatally shooting a Black man with several dozen rounds of bullets.
As anger rose over the latest police killing of a Black man in the United States, and authorities appealed for calm, a crowd marched to City Hall carrying banners with slogans such as "Justice for Jayland."
The slogan refers to Jayland Walker, 25, who was killed Monday after officers tried to stop his car over a traffic violation, police said.
Sunday marked the fourth straight day of protests. Demonstrations were peaceful but for a tense moment in which some protesters got close to a line of police and shouted at them.
After the first rally, a crowd of people remained in the street protesting.
Fearing potential unrest, authorities in the city of 190,000 people moved snowplows and other heavy equipment near the police department to serve as a barrier.
After initially providing few details of the shooting, Akron authorities released two videos Sunday: one that was a compilation of body-camera footage, body-cam still frames and voiceover, and another of the complete body-cam footage of the entire chase and shooting.
The voiceover explained that Walker did not stop and drove off. Police engaged in a car chase and said a shot had been fired from Walker's vehicle.
After being chased for several minutes, Walker got out of his car while it was still moving and fled on foot. Officers tried to subdue him with their tasers, but he kept running.
Several officers finally chased Walker to a parking lot. The body-cam footage is too blurry to see clearly what happens, but an initial police statement released after the shooting says he behaved in a way that caused officers to believe he posed a "deadly threat."
All of the officers at the scene opened fire on Walker, shooting multiple times in rapid succession.
He was pronounced dead at the scene. — AFP
A Minnesota jury begins deliberating the fate of three former police officers charged with violating the civil rights of George Floyd, the African American man whose murder sparked nationwide protests.
Tou Thao, 36, J. Alexander Kueng, 28, and Thomas Lane, 38, are on trial in federal court in Saint Paul for their roles in Floyd's May 2020 death in the sister city of Minneapolis.
"It's your duty to find the facts," Judge Paul Magnuson tells the jury of eight women and four men, "and then apply the law."
"Don't allow sympathy or prejudice to influence you," the judge says before sending the jurors off to begin their deliberations. — AFP
Sculptures of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, two Black Americans whose deaths at the hands of police in 2020 rocked the United States, are to be auctioned for charity after being exhibited in New York, Sotheby's said Thursday.
The pieces will be on sale online until December 17 and the profits will go to associations founded by the families of the two victims, "We are Floyd" and "The Breonna Taylor Foundation," Sotheby's said.
The two statues are the work of artist Chris Carnabuci, while the statue of Taylor has been decorated by Brooklyn-based Nigerian artist Laolu Senbanjo, also known as Laolu NYC, who has worked with Beyonce in the past.
The golden statue of George Floyd, who was killed last May at age 46 when a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for some nine minutes, had been vandalized with spray paint while on display in Union Square in Manhattan.
It has since been cleaned up, and the 1.8 meter (six foot) sculpture is expected go for between $100,000 and $150,000. — AFP
A US court has handed down a four-year sentence to a former police officer charged with illegally beating a Black undercover colleague posing as a protester at a 2017 demonstration.
A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced Randy Hays, 34, to more than four years in jail after the former cop pleaded guilty in 2019 to using excessive and unreasonable force, according to court documents.
Hays, along with former officers Dustin Boone and Christopher Myers were accused of knocking to the ground an undercover officer who was monitoring protesters, and then kicking and striking the officer with a police baton.
On Thursday, another former officer, Bailey Colletta, was given a three-year suspended sentence for lying to a federal grand jury during its investigation of the incident.
Boone was found guilty by a jury in June and is due to be sentenced on September 15, exactly four years after the incident. — AFP
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