MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – Civil unrest flared and curfews were imposed in several major U.S. cities on Saturday as demonstrators required to the streets to vent outrage at the death of a black male shown on video gasping for breath as a white Minneapolis cop knelt on his neck.
From Los Angeles to Miami to Chicago, protests marked by chants of “I can’t breathe” – a rallying cry echoing the dying words of George Floyd – started in harmony before turning rowdy as demonstrators blocked traffic, set fires and encountered riot police, some firing tear gas and plastic bullets in an effort to bring back order.
The sight of protesters flooding streets sustained a sense of crisis in the United States after weeks of lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has actually seen millions tossed out of work and has actually disproportionately affected minority neighborhoods.
In the country’s capital, numerous demonstrators put together near the Justice Department head office shouting, “black lives matter.” Many later relocated to the White House, where they faced off with shield-carrying police, some mounted on horseback.
President Donald Trump said on Saturday that if protesters who gathered the night prior to in Lafayette Square, across from the White House, had breached the fence, “they would have been welcomed with the most vicious pet dogs, and many threatening weapons, I have ever seen.”
The complete Minnesota National Guard was activated for the very first time because World War Two after 4 nights of arson, robbery and vandalism in parts of Minneapolis, the state’s largest city, and its surrounding capital, St. Paul.
Minnesota Guv Tim Walz said the release was essential due to the fact that outside agitators were utilizing protests over Floyd’s death to sow mayhem, and that he anticipated Saturday night’s presentations to be the fiercest up until now.
” We are under attack,” Walz, a first-term guv elected from Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party