WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of demonstrators accumulated in Washington and other U.S. cities on Saturday demanding an end to racism and brutality by law enforcement, as protests triggered by George Floyd’s deadly encounter with Minneapolis authorities stretched into a 12 th day.
A Lincoln Memorial rally and march to the White Home marked the largest outpouring yet of demonstrations nationwide because video footage emerged showing Floyd, an unarmed black man in handcuffs, lying face down and having a hard time to breathe as a white policeman knelt on his neck.
Demonstrators rallied on Saturday in numerous urban centers – among them New York, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and Miami – as well as in little, rural communities across the country.
” It seems like I get to be a part of history and a part of the group of people who are trying to alter the world for everybody,” said Jamilah Muahyman, a Washington resident at a presentation near the White Home.
Among the more unexpected Black Lives Matter rallies was an event of 150 to 200 individuals in the east Texas town of Vidor, well-known for its long associations with the Ku Klux Klan.
Floyd’s Might 25 death has sparked a storm of protests and civil strife in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, thrusting the highly charged debate over racial justice back to the leading edge of the political program 5 months before the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election.
With the noteworthy exception of Seattle, where authorities utilized flash-bang grenades in a confrontation with demonstrators in the city’s Capitol Hill district, Saturday’s protests on the whole took on an unwinded tone compared to those of recent days.
The week began with sporadic episodes of arson, robbery and vandalism in several cities that authorities and activists have actually blamed mostly on outdoors provocateurs and criminal aspects.
Police have at times resor