Live updates: Police gas, force out peaceful protesters so Trump can pose for photos at a church
President Trump on June 1 threatened to deploy federal troops if state and city leaders don't quell the violence amid protests over the death of George Floyd. (The Washington Post) By Kim Bellware, Marisa Iati, Maria Sacchetti, Meryl Kornfield, Abigail Hauslohner, Ben Guarino and Felicia Sonmez
NEWS PROVIDED BY washingtonpost ⮕ June 1, 2020 8:46 PM CT
ST. LOUIS, June.1, 2020 /MateFit/ -- President Trump on Monday threatened to deploy federal troops if state and city leaders don’t act to quell acts of violence and looting amid the protests over the killing of George Floyd. Moments earlier, just outside the White House, federal authorities used rubber bullets, flash bangs and gas to clear peaceful protesters from the area.
Trump then walked across Lafayette Square to St. John’s Church, where a fire was set Sunday evening. The president held up a Bible and nodded to media cameras, before being joined by Attorney General Bill Barr and others to pose for photos.
Here are some significant developments:
The Right Rev. Mariann Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, said she learned of Trump’s visit to St. John’s by watching it on the news. “I am outraged,” she said. “I don’t want President Trump speaking for St. John’s."
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner on Monday said George Floyd’s death was a homicide. Floyd died of “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression," according to the report.
President Trump berated the nation’s governors during a conference call, describing them as “weak” in the face of growing racial unrest and urging them to take an aggressive stand against unruly protests.
The Trump administration has discussed invoking the Insurrection Act, which permits the president to deploy active-duty forces to quell domestic unrest. Governors have denounced the threat of federal troops.
In some cities, law enforcement officers were seen marching and kneeling with protesters. But elsewhere, police in riot gear continued to increase their use of force, which added to the disorder.
8:46 p.m.
New York braces for another night of looting
People exit a vandalized store in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York. (Craig Ruttle/AP)
People exit a vandalized store in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York. (Craig Ruttle/AP)
The sound of buzz saws and hammers filled the streets of New York’s SoHo neighborhood on Monday, as workers hustled to board up windows in the upscale area.
By dusk, members of the Guardian Angels Safety Patrol, sporting red bowling-style jackets emblazoned with their group’s name, had gathered in anticipation of a long night ahead. On Sunday, looters had come through, breaking windows and stealing merchandise.
“We’re trying to see if we can help deter a lot of stuff,” said Jose Gonzalez, 44, who’s been with the Guardian Angels for more than two decades. Gonzalez has kept watch over the city in other tense times, like 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
But he can’t remember anything quite like this.
“I expect more for New Yorkers,” he said. “We’re just hoping and praying that it’s going to be a peaceful night compared to last night.”
Nearby, looters poured in and out of a Zumiez apparel store on Broadway, one block south of Union Square. Some carried so much stuff that items spilled from their arms as they sprinted.
“We want peace — don’t escalate things!” a man yelled in the direction of the looters. He was ignored.
Police in riot gear arrived at the store about 9 p.m., but it did little to deter the flow of foot traffic.
The city will face its first curfew in recent memory tonight at 11.
By Kayla B. Ruble and Shayna Jacobs
8:32 p.m.
Protesters in St. Louis say ‘it’s time for everyone to get together'
Protesters leave notes stating what they want to change as they demonstrate against police brutality and the death of George Floyd at the Gateway Arch. (Photo by Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images)
Protesters leave notes stating what they want to change as they demonstrate against police brutality and the death of George Floyd at the Gateway Arch. (Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images)
Local hip-hop and reggae musician Rashid Bushido is tired of hearing about “all the black-on-black killings."
“It’s about time for a change,” said Bushido, who is black. "It’s time for everyone to get together; it’s not a black or white thing.”
Bushido was among more than 1,000 protesters who marched to St. Louis City Hall. Monday night.
This was a calm gathering, where people chanted and then stood quietly around organizers with megaphones. Dexter Peebles, a black drag dancer who grew up in Ferguson, brought 10 friends who were “a little timid to come out."
“It’s not all scary, like media says,” he said. "A lot of it is powerful and beautiful.”
A little after 7 p.m., organizers called an end to the gathering and most protesters dispersed throughout downtown St. Louis. About a dozen people approached two St. Louis police officers standing outside an SUV and started yelling.
After a few minutes, the officers got in their car and drove away. A couple hundred protesters gathered outside a monument dedicated to St. Louis firefighters and chanted, “Whose streets? Our streets!”
By Eric Berger
8:19 p.m.
Peaceful D.C. protesters stand up to those who fall ‘out of line’
Demonstrators kneel as police officers in riot gear push back outside the White House on Monday. (Jose Luis Magana/AFP/Getty Images)
Demonstrators kneel as police officers in riot gear push back outside the White House on Monday. (Jose Luis Magana/AFP/Getty Images)
More than 100 protesters walked downtown, then up 14th Street NW, twice kneeling together. The diverse group, made up mostly of young people, urged their fellow protesters to stay away from police and yelled at one young man who threw a water bottle at police to go home.
“We are here for justice,” a young black man shouted as others knelt. “We ain’t here for no injustice. Say his name!”
“George Floyd!” the crowd roared.
“This is really amazing,” one young woman said, her left first raised as she watched her fellow protesters march through Thomas Circle, nearly two hours after curfew.
The diverse crowd was filled mostly with young people. They knelt again at 14th and N streets NW, shouting for justice.
“I think I finally broke my shoes in,” 24-year-old Andrew Burch, who had been marching for three hours, told his friend.
Burch, who is white, said that he planned to continue marching and that he wanted people to understand how focused protesters are on keeping the peace.
“Whenever anyone gets out of line, 10 people go around them,” he said. “It’s really about community.”
By Rachel Chason
8:17 p.m.
Denver police chief speaks to protesters, takes questions from the crowd
Mercii Thomas, who had to get stitches after she was shot in the head by a police projectile on Saturday, holds her fist in the air during protests Monday in Denver. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)
Mercii Thomas, who had to get stitches after she was shot in the head by a police projectile on Saturday, holds her fist in the air during protests Monday in Denver. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)
Lywanna Melvin raises her fist near the Colorado State Capitol on Monday. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)
Lywanna Melvin raises her fist near the Colorado State Capitol on Monday. (Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)
Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen stepped in front of a diverse crowd of protesters to offer a hopeful message:
“This is the first step to make sure these tragedies don’t happen in the future,” he said.
Protesters handed a megaphone back and forth to ask Pazen questions. “Make sure you use hand sanitizer!” yelled a marcher.
They asked him how he felt when his officers scuffled with protesters at demonstrations on previous nights, using pepper projectiles and tear gas to clear crowds.
“We need to bring the temperature down,” said Pazen, who was named chief of police by Denver Mayor Michael Hancock (D) in 2018. “ We need to unite.”
Nearby, clouds of marijuana smoke lingered in the air and reggae music blared as hundreds of people settled in on the concrete steps under the Colorado State Capitol. The crowd relaxed after marching past patrons sipping beer at recently reopened restaurants and boarded-up buildings on the city’s 16th Street Mall.
Standing in front of the graffiti-covered capitol on a closed street bordering Civic Center Park, where volunteers spent the morning cleaning up after Sunday night’s protests, Ayo Ayodele, 34, said he came out to march to encourage long-term policy changes.
“I’m concerned about systemic issues — this isn’t a one-off offense,” said the Nigerian-born asset manager, who is preparing to become a U.S. citizen in November.
Ayodele recounted how he and several Nigerian friends were pulled over in Chicago when he attended college at the Illinois Institute of Technology for broken taillights. “They came up to the car with guns drawn,” he recounted. “It wasn’t until years later when I started to see incidents like this on television that I realized how institutionalized it is.”
By Jennifer Oldham
8:15 p.m.
Trump’s promise to protect Second Amendment draws ire of gun-control activists
President Trump on Monday night said he was “dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers” into the streets of cities across the United States to quell protests and violence and to protect Americans — naming specifically their Second Amendment rights.
“I am mobilizing all available federal resources — civilian and military — to stop the rioting and looting, to end the destruction and arson and to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans, including your Second Amendment rights,” Trump said from the Rose Garden outside the White House, as police used gas and projectiles to disperse peaceful protesters nearby.
The invocation of the Second Amendment quickly drew the attention of activists and analysts who suggested the comment served as a dog whistle to supporters to employ violence.
The president’s critics have regularly flagged the contrast between the often conciliatory language he uses toward white conservatives involved in displays of violence or protest and the calls for retaliation he makes when minorities and liberals are involved.
“Let’s be clear: Trump mentioning ‘Second Amendment rights’ while discussing the protests is a direct call to arms to the right wing radicals and other armed individuals who have integrated themselves with peaceful protesters,” tweeted Igor Volsky, the executive director of Guns Down America, which advocates for fewer firearms. “He is asking for violence from his base.”
“Trump just invoked the Second Amendment. As if that was part of this. Pretty much a signal for jumpy white people to walk around with guns,” tweeted Tom Nichols, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College.
Others suggested Trump, or his supporters, were hypocrites.
“Where are the Second Amendment zealots who claim to worry about an overzeaolous federal government when Trump is threatening to send the military to attack and subdue American citizens on American soil?” tweeted Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank.
“Trump invoked the need to defend the Second Amendment and then walked outside and violated the First Amendment,” tweeted Michael McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia during the Obama administration.
By Abigail Hauslohner
8:11 p.m.
Justice Dept. sends all law enforcement components to ‘assist in the restoration of order’ in D.C.
Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and Attorney General William P. Barr stand with President Trump in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church on Monday. (Tom Brenner/Reuters)
Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and Attorney General William P. Barr stand with President Trump in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church on Monday. (Tom Brenner/Reuters)
The Justice Department on Monday deployed all of its law enforcement components to “assist in the restoration of order to the District of Columbia” — a highly unusual move, as many federal law enforcement officials are far removed from such work.
In a statement, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Federal Bureau of Prisons would all assist in the effort. She said they were “closely coordinating with the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to maximize federal security presence throughout the District.”
“The Department is working hand-in-hand with the Metropolitan Police Department, the Capitol Police, the Federal Protective Service, the U.S. Secret Service and the D.C. National Guard,” Kupec said.
The move represents another escalation of the federal response to the unrest, particularly in the District.
Earlier Monday, a senior Justice Department official said Attorney General William P. Barr had directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to send riot teams to Miami and Washington and had activated the FBI’s hostage rescue team in Washington. The official said all of the FBI’s field offices were helping respond to protests, but in an investigative role. As local police make arrests, the official said, the FBI will interview those in custody and assess if any federal crimes have been committed.
By Matt Zapotosky
8:04 p.m.
Illinois governor sends National Guard to nine counties
Owners of a mobile phone store in Waukegan, Ill., clean up debris Monday after the vandalism of Sunday night. (Paul Valade/Daily Herald/AP)
Owners of a mobile phone store in Waukegan, Ill., clean up debris Monday after the vandalism of Sunday night. (Paul Valade/Daily Herald/AP)
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued an emergency declaration late Monday for nine counties that have experienced looting — Champaign, Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Macon, Madison, Sangamon and Will — and he is sending in 250 National Guard troops and 300 state troopers.
All coronavirus testing sites in Illinois are closed indefinitely to protect staff members.
“We cannot allow those who have taken advantage of this moment to loot and smash to also steal the voices of those peacefully expressing a need for real, meaningful change,” said Pritzker (D). “This anger doesn’t come out of nowhere — it’s born of decades and centuries of systemic racism and injustice. That’s what all of us have to recognize, and that’s where our work begins.”
The troops are in addition to the 375 National Guard members he sent early Sunday to protect the perimeter of Chicago’s central business district, which looters ravaged on Saturday.
Some local officials say the additional resources are not enough to protect Chicago’s most vulnerable neighborhoods on the South and West sides. Alderman Anthony Beale is demanding that Pritzker send 3,000 troops to Chicago and that Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s public curfew be moved up an hour to 8 p.m.
Beale said he and a small group of Chicago police officers guarded a Walmart in his ward all night from looters. “I observed pure chaos,” he said.
He is blasting Lightfoot for requesting National Guard troops only to secure the downtown district while leaving neighborhood storefronts vulnerable.
Nearly 700 people were arrested Sunday after looting in Chicago. Sixty-four guns were recovered. Between Friday and Sunday, the city’s 911 dispatch center received 10,000 calls about looting.
By Mark Guarino
7:52 p.m.
Washington, D.C. bishop: ‘I don’t want President Trump speaking for St. John’s'
US President Donald J. Trump poses with a bible outside St. John's Episcopal Church after delivering remarks in the Rose Garden on Monday. (SHAWN THEW/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
US President Donald J. Trump poses with a bible outside St. John's Episcopal Church after delivering remarks in the Rose Garden on Monday. (SHAWN THEW/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
After President Trump gave a White House Rose Garden address in which he threatened to deploy federal troops, he walked over to the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House that was set on fire Sunday.
The president appeared to be using the church for a photo opportunity, standing in front of the church's sign holding up a Bible for several seconds. A reporter asked him if it was his Bible and he said, “It's a Bible."
“We have a great country,” he said. “That's my thoughts. Greatest country in the world."
Before his visit, law enforcement cleared protesters out of the area with tear gas.
The Right Rev. Mariann Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, said she learned of Trump's visit by watching it on the news.
“I don’t want President Trump speaking for St. John’s,” Budde said.
“I am outraged,” she said, with pauses emphasizing her anger as her voice slightly trembled. “I am the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and was not given even a courtesy call that they would be clearing with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop, holding a Bible, one that declares that God is love and when everything he has said and done is to enflame violence."
Before being elected as bishop in D.C., Budde spent 18 years in Minneapolis as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church. She said the church disassociates itself from the messages of the president. “We hold the teachings of our sacred texts to be so so grounding to our lives and everything we do and it is about love of neighbor and sacrificial love and justice,” she said.
Budde said the Episcopal Church had about a dozen clergy at the church and Lafayette Square all day to support protesters and left when the curfew was called.
By Sarah Pulliam Bailey and Michelle Boorstein
7:48 p.m.
Volunteer medic improvises for people injured in Minneapolis protests
At the governor’s mansion in Saint Paul, Minn., following a protest Monday night, volunteer medic Jae Stanberry stood outside a beat-up Chevy van with crosses taped to the window.
An EMT in her professional life, Stanberry has been helping out “because the world is hurting,” she said. “When there is hurting, you want to help, and you want to help make a change. Basically, I am here to protect the city and help anyone who needs it.”
All week, Stanberry has been taking shifts treating minor wounds. For rubber-bullet injuries, they refer people to a hospital for expert care. At times, she said, it’s been quite scary.
For example, on Saturday night in front of Shiloh Church and the NAACP in north Minneapolis, men guarding the church were beaten up by another group because the second group thought they were white supremacists. They weren’t.
“Thankfully, the injuries were minor,” Stanberry said. “One has a gashed lip.” She is also worried about concussion signs, and the other is emotionally shaken.
She was shaken herself. “I know what I signed up for, and we are in a tougher part of Minneapolis,” she said.
At the same time, she said, the governor’s statements blaming outside agitators for the unrest didn’t help quell tensions.
“I do strongly feel that it has had some unfortunate consequences,” she said.
By Sheila Regan
7:47 p.m.
Democrats assail Trump’s threat to deploy military as ‘un-American,’ ‘fascist’
President Trump’s Rose Garden remarks Monday night triggered a firestorm of criticism from congressional Democrats, several of whom denounced his threat to deploy the military domestically as the behavior of a would-be authoritarian leader.
“It is un-American to use our service members to ‘dominate’ civilians, as both the President and Secretary of Defense have suggested,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said in a statement. “We live in a democracy, not a dictatorship.”
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) decried Trump’s Rose Garden remarks as “fascist,” while Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) tweeted that Trump had “just declared war on millions of Americans and the 1st Amendment."
“He is the greatest threat to the American way of life in our history,” Yarmuth said.
Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) noted that Trump’s actions Monday stood in contrast to those of another president who previously deployed federal troops domestically.
“In 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower invoked the Insurrection Act to combat segregation & protect civil rights,” Neguse tweeted. “Today, @realDonaldTrump did the opposite — deploying troops against citizens protesting for their civil rights. Vote. The fate of our republic depends on it.”
Many Democrats also assailed Trump’s decision to hold a photo opportunity outside St. John’s Episcopal Church after his remarks.
“How low can this president go? President Trump ordered federal authorities to fire tear gas at peaceful protesters so that he could hold a photo op to appear like a tough guy,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) tweeted.
Some Republicans, however, praised Trump for making what they described as a show of strength.
“Security moms thank @realDonaldTrump for standing against rioters, looters and evil that would destroy our cities,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) tweeted.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) praised Trump’s “#LEADERSHIP,” while Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) took issue with the media’s coverage of the protests near the White House.
In a tweet, Rubio described the protest as “another dangerous situation” in front of the White House — even though the demonstration was progressing peacefully.
By Felicia Sonmez
7:25 p.m.
Friend of man who drove a truck into Minneapolis protesters speaks out
Trucks transport D.C. National Guard troops to support law enforcement officers that are keeping demonstrators away from the White House on Monday. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Trucks transport D.C. National Guard troops to support law enforcement officers that are keeping demonstrators away from the White House on Monday. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Authorities stand near a large truck abandoned on a Minneapolis road road on Sunday. (Julio Cortez/AP)
Authorities stand near a large truck abandoned on a Minneapolis road road on Sunday. (Julio Cortez/AP)
A tanker truck drives through thousands of people marching on a highway to protest the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Sunday, in this still image obtained from social media video. (Ermeen Eebreeheemee/Facebook/Reuters)
A tanker truck drives through thousands of people marching on a highway to protest the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Sunday, in this still image obtained from social media video. (Ermeen Eebreeheemee/Facebook/Reuters) (Facebook/Ermeen Eebreeheemee/Ermeen Eebreeheemee Via Reuters)
When Lonnie McQuirter, owner of a beloved gas station in south Minneapolis, saw the clip of protesters banging on a tanker truck and throwing rocks, his heart sank.
He recognized the driver immediately as one of his fuel delivery truckers. McQuirter had called in a favor to get gas delivered to his 15-year-old shop, 36 Lyn Refuel Station, known for its low gas prices and commitment to local products. 36 Lyn has remained open thanks to neighbors standing guard through the recent tumultuous nights. After seeing the number of people out the first night via security cameras, McQuirter joined them, leaving only to take naps during the day.
On Sunday, driver Bogdan Vechirko delivered two loads of gas to 36 Lyn at McQuirter’s request. Vechirko has been a consistent driver to 36 Lyn during the covid-19 pandemic, McQuirter said. Then, he ended up on an I-35W bridge where a protest was taking place.
“He’s a first-generation American family who moved here for a better life — he’s a hard-working individual,” McQuirter said. “When he left I told him to be safe and get home safely to his family ... But I feel in some ways responsible that it was because of me trying to help my customers that [this happened] and his name and reputation have been ruined.”
McQuirter said he has known Vechirko to be professional and courteous — to the point of helping McQuirter move cars that have stalled.
The truck was empty but speeding at around 70 mph when the driver saw the protest, panicked and hit the brakes, Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said at a news conference Monday.
“We don’t have any information that makes this seem like this was an intentional act,” Harrington said, noting that he’s still surprised no one was hurt. “We got lucky or there was something miraculous happening there.”
By Sheila Mulrooney Eldred
7:22 p.m.
A diverse group of St. Louis protesters circles Gateway Arch, calls for an end to white supremacy
Jenn DeRose had rolled her bike to the protests after the 2014 police shooting of black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.
She had rolled her slightly more beat-up bike to the protests after the 2017 acquittal of St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley in the killing of another black man.
On Monday evening, she rolled her bike — which she now describes as a monster, bearing a milk crate and a sign that said “End White Supremacy” — downhill along with thousands of other protesters heading to the Gateway Arch monument in downtown St. Louis. It’s the same site as St. Louis’s Old Courthouse, where the first trial of the Dred Scott case was heard before the Civil War.
“I’m tired, and everything is terrible and on fire, and it needs to burn down until we can build something new,” said DeRose, who works for the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.
DeRose, who is white, was among a diverse crowd that gathered near the historical monument for the protest, which included the chants of “No justice, no peace!” that have echoed across the country in recent days.
Once protesters had walked down to the lawn surrounding the arch, they formed a circle around organizers carrying megaphones.
Sarah Jensen was wearing her lab coat at the protest. She is a dermatologist who lives in the St. Louis suburb of Town and Country, part of the district of Rep. Ann Wagner, a Republican. Jensen participated in a “Witnessing Whiteness” book club with a teacher at her children’s private school and realized “how narrow my world was,” she said.
“This is the first time I have been down” to a protest since George Floyd died, said Jensen, a mother of three. “It took me a while to get out of my own bubble, to get out of my own comfort zone.”
By Eric Berger
7:19 p.m.
‘It’s up to people who have privilege in this country to stand up’
As dark clouds massed over the Rocky Mountains, Denver police in white SUVs, lights flashing, raced to keep pace with hundreds of protesters. The officers stayed in their vehicles and blocked normally busy downtown streets to clear the way for marchers who chanted “Black lives matter” and “Hands up, don’t shoot.”
Denver receptionist Ahbreena Reid strode tall, with Trayvon Martin, George Floyd and Tamir Rice scrawled on her bare shoulders and torso in black ink above hastily drawn red handprints.
“Enough is enough,” said Reid, 20, who is half Barbadian and half American. “My brothers have been racially profiled. I’ve been racially profiled. We need to redesign police training.”
Reid and Edna Curtis, 20, her friend since middle school and a linguistics major at the University of Colorado, came out on the fifth night of protests that have convulsed the Mile High City. They marched past police in SWAT gear stationed behind chain-link barricades.
“I’m here because it’s up to people who have privilege in this country to stand up,” said Curtis, whose parents emigrated to the United States from Bosnia. “How is it that the color of somebody’s skin that they don’t dictate used to discriminate against them?”
By Jennifer Oldham
7:14 p.m.
Insurrection Act allows president to deploy active-duty military to quell domestic unrest
The Trump administration is significantly expanding the military response to unrest in Washington, sending more national guardsmen to the streets of the capital Monday night and keeping active-duty forces on alert nearby if needed, defense officials said.
The response has included discussions about whether the administration should invoke the Insurrection Act, which permits President Trump to deploy active-duty forces to quell domestic unrest. The hope and expectation is that the active-duty Army will not be needed, said a senior defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Senior defense officials said the District of Columbia National Guard has been fully activated to respond to the unrest that is continuing a week after the death of George Floyd in police custody last week in Minneapolis. In addition to those approximately 1,200 troops, up to 800 additional National Guard members from five other states also will be sent to the nation’s capital, the officials said.
In a conference call with governors on Monday, Trump predicted a strong military response in Washington, where businesses have been looted, cars have been burned and national monuments have been defaced in the last few days.
Read more here.
By Missy Ryan and Dan Lamothe
6:57 p.m.
Some governors denounce Trump’s threat to send federal troops to states
Several governors responded to Trump’s Rose Garden remarks Monday night by denouncing the president’s threat to call up active-duty troops if states don’t quell violence amid the recent protests.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D), who clashed with Trump in a phone call earlier Monday, said on CNN that he couldn't imagine any governor would request federal troops.
“I reject the notion that the federal government can send troops into the state of Illinois,” Pritzker said.
In a tweet, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) denounced Trump for “calling out the American military against American citizens."
Cuomo also sharply criticized the clearing out of peaceful protesters from the streets near the White House so that Trump could hold a photo opportunity.
“I have seen a lot of things, but I was shocked at what they did,” Cuomo said on CNN. “I was shocked at the force they used to move the protesters, who could not have been more peaceful."
“Calling out the American military for a photo opportunity. … It was shameful. It was really, truly shameful,” he added.
By Felicia Sonmez and Meryl Kornfield
6:40 p.m.
Trump poses for photos with Bible in front of church after protesters pushed out of area
Trump visits St. John's church damaged in D.C. protests
President Trump on June 1 visited the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church, which was damaged by protests in Washington, D.C. (The Washington Post)
Shortly after mounted police forced protesters away from Lafayette Square, President Trump walked through the park and spoke briefly to the news media in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church along H Street.
Protesters gathered in front of the historic church on Sunday night, ripped an American flag from its exterior, and then set fire to a basement office. Fire officials said the damage was minimal, and no damage could be seen from the outside. Fires were also set on H Street and to the bathroom building in the park, across from the church.
Protesters were back on Monday evening, but were swept away by police using flash-bang explosives, pepper spray pellets and tear gas, while Trump spoke to the nation from the Rose Garden.
When the area around the church was cleared, Trump and a large group of people, most of them not wearing masks, walked through Lafayette Square to the church.
Trump, holding a Bible, spoke very briefly on H Street, posed for photos with Attorney General Bill Barr and others, and then walked back to the White House.
By Tom Jackman
6:24 p.m.
Trump threatens to deploy military if states and cities don’t quell violence
Trump threatens to deploy the military amid growing protests
President Trump on June 1 threatened to deploy federal troops if state and city leaders don't quell the violence amid protests over the death of George Floyd. (The Washington Post)
President Trump on Monday threatened to deploy federal troops if state and city leaders do not act to quell acts of violence and looting amid the protests over the death of George Floyd.
In a hastily arranged Rose Garden address, Trump said he is “taking immediate presidential action to stop the violence and restore security and safety in America.”
“If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them,” Trump said.
Presidents generally cannot use the military for domestic law enforcement. But the Insurrection Act of 1807 allows the president to use federal troops to put down lawlessness during emergencies. The act was most recently used in 1992 amid unrest in Los Angeles after the police beating of Rodney King.
By Felicia Sonmez
6:11 p.m.
Curfew in Davenport, Iowa, after two are fatally shot and police officer is injured
Two people died and two others were injured Davenport, Iowa, amid violent disruptions — including as many as 20 calls about shots being fired — that began Sunday night and spilled into the early morning hours. A police officer was among those injured and is recovering, Davenport Police Chief Paul Sikorski said Monday.
The two deaths occurred in separate incidents northwest of downtown Davenport roughly three miles apart. One person was fatally shot outside a Walmart on West Kimberly Road and the other was shot near the 1100 block of West 15th Street, Sikorski said. Police are investigating both incidents as homicides. The Davenport Police Department did not immediately respond to calls for additional details about the fatal shootings.
Sikorski said a third person, a Davenport police officer, was shot in what he described as an alleyway ambush in the 1100 block of West 15th Street around 3 a.m.
“[In] that incident, there were three police officers in a vehicle. They were in motion in the vehicle when they were ambushed and fired upon,” Sikorski said. “The vehicle was fired upon and hit several times by rounds, injuring one.”
Sikorski said the one of the officers returned fire, but it was not clear whether the officer struck someone. He said two officers were placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, which is standard protocol when an officer fires their weapon at someone.
Details of the other nonfatal injury were not immediately clear.
Davenport Mayor Mike Matson and Scott County officials said a curfew would be in place from 9 p.m. Monday until 5 a.m. Tuesday, with exemptions for government officials, news media and people reporting to work.
Sikorski described the perpetrators of Sunday’s chaos as “rioters” and said he believed them to be “loosely organized.”
Matson said the community and the nation were hurting and encouraged residents to be vigilant and peaceful.
“Damage and bodily harm do not promote justice,” Matson said.
By Kim Bellware
6:08 p.m.
Official medical examiner’s report says George Floyd died by homicide
County medical examiners officially ruled George Floyd’s death a homicide in a post-mortem report released Monday evening.
On May 25, Floyd “experienced a cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained” by law enforcement, said the report released by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office. The cause of death was “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.”
He died at 9:25 p.m.
A preliminary autopsy released Friday by the county ruled out strangulation and said “the combined effects of Mr. Floyd being restrained by the police, his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death.”
The new report mentioned Floyd had heart disease. It also noted fentanyl intoxication and “recent methamphetamine use” as significant conditions, but the report did not describe them as contributors. The county did not immediately respond to a request for comment explaining the update.
Floyd’s family also commissioned an independent autopsy. That determined the cause of his death was “asphyxiation from sustained pressure,” attorneys for the family announced earlier on Monday.
By Ben Guarino
6:06 p.m.
Police use flash bangs to sweep protesters away from White House before Trump speaks
Authorities use rubber bullets, tear gas to clear protesters near White House
Authorities used rubber bullets and tear gas to clear protesters near the White House on June 1. (The Washington Post)
Moments before President Trump began speaking at the White House about the need to crush protests that he said were not peaceful, police fired flash-bang shells which exploded in the middle of a crowd of protesters outside Lafayette Square, and then mounted police pushed through H Street and forced protesters two blocks from the park.
With 20 minutes left before a 7 p.m. curfew, authorities set off a series of explosions in the middle of the crowd, some landing right at protesters’ feet.
Members of the National Guard moved up while police squeezed inward, forcing protesters down 16th Street, toward Eye Street. Members of the Guard aimed their guns directly at some protesters on top of the bathroom building.
At least one protester was hit and stumbled onto the street. As officials moved the crowd further down 16th, some yelled “walk! walk!” in attempts to avoid a stampede. In brief moments of calm, some tried to take a knee.
By Rebecca Tan
6:03 p.m.
Louisville mayor fires police chief after killing of local barbecue vendor
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer (D) said Monday he has fired Police Chief Steve Conrad, after the police-involved killing of a local restaurateur overnight Monday.
David McAtee, the owner of a Louisville barbecue restaurant, was shot and killed amid what Louisville officials said was an exchange of gunfire near an intersection after midnight Monday.
Fischer said multiple investigations are underway into McAtee’s killing, and that he fired the city’s police chief upon learning that the police officers involved in the shooting had not activated their body cameras.
“This type of institutional failure will not be tolerated,” Fischer said during a Monday afternoon news conference. Deputy police chief Robert Schroeder would assume duty as interim chief, he added.
In a soundless police surveillance video released by the mayor’s office, police officers and national guardsmen are seen, from a distance, arriving at the edge of a grocery store’s parking lot, and then dispersing pedestrians and cars from the lot. Officials said the police were enforcing the mayor’s dusk-to-dawn curfew, in response to protests and riots that have convulsed the city, like many others in recent days.
Schroeder said two Louisville police officers and two National Guardsmen fired their guns in response to shots fired, and that the two police officers have been placed on leave, pending the outcome of the city’s investigation.
An audio recording of police radio communications, also released by the mayor’s office, conveys the voices of multiple police officers and dispatchers reporting “shots fired” at the grocery store’s intersection at about a quarter past midnight.
McAtee’s family told local media Monday that he regularly provided free meals to police officers and residents of Louisville’s California neighborhood, where he ran his barbecue shop next to Dino’s Food Mart. Schroeder described him as “a good friend” to many.
His death comes two months after Louisville police officers shot and killed another black resident, Breonna Taylor, 26, as she slept in her bed, after the officers burst into the home to execute what city officials call a “no-knock” warrant.
By Abigail Hauslohner
5:41 p.m.
Fort Lauderdale police officer who pushed black protester to the ground is put on leave
The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., police officer who shoved a black woman to the ground has been “relieved of duty” pending an administrative review, according to the police department. The woman was kneeling in front of him during a protest.
The action comes after video footage of the incident was circulated on social media.
Steven Pohorence, who is white, has been with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department since October 2016, a spokeswoman confirmed to The Washington Post Monday.
Video of the confrontation was captured during a demonstration Sunday night. In it, Pohorence is seen engaging in a shouting match with protesters. At one point, he turns around to face a woman wearing a face covering who was kneeling on the ground with her arms raised.
Pohorence swiftly palms the right side of her face and shoves her to the pavement.
The group around him grows enraged, hurling water bottles and other objects at Pohorence as he’s quickly escorted away from the scene by another officer.
IllustriousCeo
@illustriousCeo
Black cop save protester who was on their knees and he pushed ‼️‼️
Embedded video
278K
7:29 PM - May 31, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
91.9K people are talking about this
— Michael Majchrowicz
5:38 p.m.
Peaceful protest in Philadelphia escalates after demonstrators overtake highway, police fire tear gas
Protesters march along Interstate 676 in Philadelphia on Monday.
Protesters march along Interstate 676 in Philadelphia on Monday.
What started out as a peaceful protest Monday in Philadelphia, with police officers and demonstrators kneeling together in front of City Hall, escalated after demonstrators rushed onto Interstate 676 and officers attempted to arrest them.
Hundreds of protesters with signs gathered at City Hall on Monday to protest police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death. In a heartfelt moment, at least two police officers were filmed kneeling with protesters, prompting gratitude from the crowd.
“We love you,” some protesters told the officers.
But the adoration wasn’t lasting. Within two hours, protesters had marched to Interstate 676. Soon before the city’s 6 p.m. curfew, protesters jumped an iron gate, got onto the highway and shut down traffic in both directions.
Drivers who agreed with the protesters’ message stood by their cars, joining a chant of “Black lives matter!”
Local police, state police and the National Guard then launched sound bombs and tear gas at the group, causing protesters to scatter, many stampeding toward a grassy slope on one side of the highway. An officer standing on an armored vehicle pointed what looked like a rifle, presumably with rubber bullets, at a crowd of running protesters.
Josh Clements, a protester who was hit by tear gas, told The Washington Post that he doesn’t plan to obey the curfew.
“I’m just recovering from that,” Clements said of the gas. “Then I’m ready to keep going.”
Police detained what appeared to be about 30 protesters during the episode. Philadelphia police said 429 people had been arrested since noon Saturday on charges including rioting, breaking curfew and looting.
By Meryl Kornfield and Maura Ewing
5:33 p.m.
Schumer calls for McConnell to introduce law enforcement reform bill before July 4
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday called on Republicans to bring a law enforcement reform bill to the Senate floor before July 4, calling for the chamber to “lead on these issues rather than aggravate the problem.”
Schumer sharply criticized Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for pressing ahead with the confirmation of judicial nominees — many of whom, Schumer argued, “will become part of the very problem we’re now discussing: a justice system that doesn’t work for everyone. A biased system.”
The New York Democrat also took aim at President Trump, suggesting that the president's refusal to deliver an address in the wake of Floyd's killing shows that he is "unwilling even to speak to the nation about racial justice."
“The president’s policies have worsened racial divisions in our country. His rhetoric has consistently inflamed them. Either the president is too afraid to lead or is simply incapable,” Schumer said.
By Felicia Sonmez
5:25 p.m.
Jersey City mayor marches with protesters for police reform
Shortly after 1 p.m., the Rev. Keion Jackson, 22, led a mile-long march of 300 protesters through Jersey City’s Greenville neighborhood.
“We come in peace!” he said.
It was the city’s first protest since George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis last week. Protesters walked from Berry Lane Park to the police department’s Greenville Precinct. When the group reached the station, a line of officers wearing helmets and holding shields stood behind a metal barricade. Others stood on the steps in uniform but without protective gear. One signaled to Jackson, 22, to step behind the barricade to address the crowd.
Jackson asked the crowd to remember that they were seeking justice for those “who have been lynched by folks in blue.” He added: “We are committed to seeking justice, but we have to do so in a peaceful manner. Why? Because we can’t be like them.”
Mayor Steven Fulop was among the marchers. He reached out to organizers over the weekend to offer resources including assisting with traffic control.
"We don’t see eye to eye on everything,” said James Shea, the city’s public safety director. “But there’s never a time when they can’t come speak to us or when we won’t support their right to express their viewpoint even if we disagree with them.”
— Kevin Armstrong
5:01 p.m.
Store owner regrets that employee called 911 on George Floyd
Mahmoud Abumayyaleh, who owns the Cup Foods store in South Minneapolis, expressed remorse that an employee called police last week on George Floyd.
“I regret [the police] being called, and I wish they would never have been called,” Abumayyaleh told the news website TheGrio on Monday.
One of Abumayyaleh’s employees suspected that Floyd paid for cigarettes with a counterfeit bill. That worker called the police, a decision Abumayyaleh said was in compliance with state policy. Abumayyaleh wrote on Facebook that it was possible that Floyd was unaware the bill was fake.
The site outside Cup Foods where Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin — who has since been fired and charged — knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes has become a memorial. A mural painted on one of the store’s brick walls features Floyd and the words “I can breathe now.”
“We are deeply saddened and outraged by what happened to George Floyd in front of our store,” Abumayyaleh wrote in the Facebook post. “We support this protest and share in their anger.” The Cup Foods owner said he would donate to Floyd’s memorial service.
By Ben Guarino
4:59 p.m.
Omaha bar owner who killed black protester won’t be charged, prosecutor says
A white local business owner who shot and killed a 22-year old black protester in Omaha on Saturday won’t be charged because he was acting in self-defense, the country prosecutor announced Monday.
Cellphone and surveillance videos compiled by investigators showed that James Scurlock was killed during a struggle with Jake Gardner, who owns The Hive and The Gatsby bars, after Gardner was tackled by Scurlock and others, Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said during a news briefing.
Showing some of the videos, Kleine called the shooting “senseless” but said Gardner was defending himself because he feared Scurlock was going to injure or kill him.
“This individual, when he gave his statement, his version was, ‘I thought I had to do this because I thought I was going to get hurt or killed,’” Kleine said of Gardner. “That’s the question then: Is it justifiable use for force?”
Kleine said the encounter began when Gardner’s 68-year-old father was shoved and Gardner approached the group Scurlock was in, demanding to find out who pushed his father. Kleine added he doesn’t believe Gardner was targeting Scurlock because of his race.
“It might have been heated conversations but there was never any racial tone to the conversations,” Kleine said of the audio gathered from the shooting scene.
Gardner’s inflammatory remarks about transgender women have previously made local headlines.
Following the news that Gardner wasn’t charged, Scurlock’s family announced that they wanted a grand jury invoked.
“What I want is justice, not a quick answer and this is a quick answer,” James Scurlock’s father, who shares the same name, told reporters in a news conference following Kleine’s briefing.
By Meryl Kornfield
4:45 p.m.
New York City-area lawyers charged in molotov cocktail attack on police van
NEW YORK — A federal judge in Brooklyn set bail Monday for two local lawyers charged in a molotov cocktail attack on a police van as prosecutors said the pair tried to arm other protesters with the makeshift incendiary devices.
Bond was set at $250,000 apiece for the lawyers, Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman, and home detention was ordered, but prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York are appealing the magistrate judge’s bail decision, saying Mattis and Rahman are dangers to the community. The two are among the hundreds who have been arrested in the city during the ongoing and often-violent protests over the Minneapolis death of George Floyd in police custody and other such incidents.
According to court papers, NYPD officers caught Mattis and Rahman trying to flee after setting the marked police van ablaze early Saturday. The documents state that the two had toilet paper, a Bud Light can and “a liquid suspected to be gasoline in the vicinity of the passenger seat and a gasoline tank” in the back of the 2015 Chrysler minivan they were driving, which was registered in Mattis’s name.
Rahman, who is alleged to have thrown the homemade device, tried to hand out explosive materials to others “so that those individuals could likewise use the incendiary devices in furtherance of more destruction and violence,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn.
An appeal on the bail decision was expected to be heard Monday.
Another woman, Samantha Shader, was ordered held without bail by the judge.
Shader is alleged to have thrown a molotov cocktail into an occupied police van late Friday in Crown Heights. Officials say the woman, from Upstate New York, was caught on video throwing the device and admitted to the crime.
By Shayna Jacobs
4:05 p.m.
Chauvin to make first court appearance next week
Derek Chauvin, the fired Minneapolis police officer who used his knee to pin George Floyd’s neck to the ground, will have his first court appearance on June 8, according to Hennepin County District Court filings.
Chauvin, who is white, faces charges of third-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd, a black man whom he pinned to the pavement for nearly nine minutes, including for three minutes after Floyd lost consciousness.
A preliminary report from the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office found that “the combined effects” of the police’s actions, underlying health conditions and potential drugs or alcohol in Floyd’s system “likely contributed” to his death.
An independent autopsy commissioned by Floyd’s family and released Monday determined that his death was caused by “asphyxiation from sustained pressure.”
Chauvin and three other officers involved in Floyd’s arrest were fired following the incident.
By Abigail Hauslohner and Julie Tate
4:03 p.m.
Some D.C. officers take a knee with protesters outside Trump hotel
A group of hundreds of protesters marched through the streets of downtown Washington on Monday afternoon, chanting “Black Lives Matter!” and slogans denouncing President Trump as they approached his hotel at 11th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW.
D.C. police officers on bicycles raced to the scene and positioned themselves in front of the Trump International Hotel. Protesters pressed up against a barrier, knelt down and yelled to police: “Kneel with us! Kneel with us!”
A female African American officer who identified herself only as Officer Brown looked straight at the protesters, gripping her bicycle. When she took a knee, the crowd erupted in cheers. Within minutes, a row of at least three other officers — white and black — had knelt several yards away from her.
Attention then turned to the more than a dozen other officers. “Officer, do you agree with us?” asked Leo West, a 20 year old college student from Takoma Park wearing a Black Lives Matter face mask.
Suddenly the officer, an African American whose uniform gave his name as P.D. Harris, briefly sank to his knee. “You’re a good man, Officer,” West shouted. “All of you can do it. Be like Officer Harris.”
Half a dozen more officers sank to their knee as well.
But by now, Officer Harris was on his feet. “Do it again,” urged Edward Dana, a 24 year old University of D.C. student and employee of the department of disability services. When Harris refused, Dana became upset.
Suddenly another protester he’d met just a few hours earlier intervened. “Let’s be cool,” said 22-year-old Tony Norris. “This man still has a family to get back to,” said Norris, who is African American. “He’ll take a knee when he needs to.”
Harris gave a fist bump to a passing protester, and Dana left with the rest of the crowd.
Officer Harris declined to give his full name or to comment. “I think you understand,” he said, still standing in front of the Trump Hotel.
By Rebecca Tan and Michael Miller
3:55 p.m.
Cuomo: New York City curfew set for Monday night
A curfew will take effect in New York City from 11 p.m. Monday to 5 a.m. Tuesday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) announced Monday afternoon in a radio interview discussing the protests there over George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis.
The New York Police Department’s presence will also be doubled, putting 4,000 more officers on patrol, Cuomo said on Upstate New York’s WAMC radio station.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted about the citywide curfew a short time later, noting that it was “for everyone’s safety.”
The decision comes after several nights of rising tensions between protesters and police there and across the country. Dozens of large cities have set curfews, including Washington, Los Angeles and Miami. But de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea both had expressed hesitation over the effectiveness of such a measure.
During a news briefing Monday, de Blasio said a curfew was “not a silver bullet.” In an interview Monday with NBC’s “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie, Shea said a curfew would not address the escalating violence associated with the protests, which he has called “a mob.”
“If people think it will, they don’t understand what’s going on,” he told Guthrie.
By Meryl Kornfield
3:44 p.m.
McConnell says the country ‘cannot deafen itself’ to the pain of black Americans
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urged the country to listen to black Americans’ calls for equal justice in the wake of George Floyd’s death. But he also condemned the violence and destruction that has been seen in some cities in recent days.
“One nation cannot deafen itself to the anger, pain or frustration of black Americans,” McConnell said in Senate floor remarks Monday afternoon. “Our nation needs to hear this. Yet over the last several days, citizens have watched with horror as cities across America have convulsed with looting, riots and destruction. … You do not advance peace by committing assault. You do not advance justice by inflicting injustice upon your neighbors."
McConnell described the killings of Floyd and two other African Americans — Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Breonna Taylor in Louisville — as part of a pattern of events that have left Americans “grieved and horrified."
“To me, to a great many of my fellow Kentuckians, and to many outraged Americans, these disturbing events do not look like three isolated incidents,” McConnell said. “They look more like the latest chapter in our national struggle to make equal justice and equal protection of the law into facts of life for all Americans rather than contingencies that sometimes depend on the color of one’s skin.”
McConnell said he was pleased that investigations were underway in all of the deaths. Of the Floyd case, he added, “In no world whatsoever should arresting a man for an alleged minor infraction involve a police officer putting his knee on a man’s neck while he cries out ‘I can’t breathe’ and then goes silent.”
By Felicia Sonmez
3:17 p.m.
ViacomCBS cable channels will go dark to honor Floyd
Zachary Levi speaks onstage during the 2019 MTV Movie and TV Awards at Barker Hangar on June 15 in Santa Monica, Calif. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images for MTV)
Zachary Levi speaks onstage during the 2019 MTV Movie and TV Awards at Barker Hangar on June 15 in Santa Monica, Calif. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images for MTV)
MTV, Comedy Central and other ViacomCBS cable properties will go dark for eight minutes and 46 seconds at 5 p.m. on Monday to honor George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.
The length of time was chosen because it is how long Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck, according to a criminal complaint.
The move will preempt a number of shows, including “Ridiculousness” on MTV and “The Office” on Comedy Central.
Paramount Network, Pop, VH1, TV Land, CMT and Logo will also be among the networks going dark, according to Chris McCarthy, the executive who oversees the networks and is behind the move.
A PSA video is also being created by the conglomerate to support Black Lives Matter, a ViacomCBS spokeswoman said, and will be aired on both broadcast and online outlets.
By Steven Zeitchik
2:59 p.m.
Family’s independent autopsy concludes asphyxia caused George Floyd’s death
An independent autopsy commissioned by George Floyd’s family determined the cause of his death was “asphyxiation from sustained pressure,” attorneys for the family announced Monday.
No underlying medical conditions caused or contributed to Floyd’s death, medical examiner Michael Baden said at a news conference. He said Floyd did not respond to CPR or cardiac shock in the ambulance that transported him to the hospital.
The manner of death was homicide, the independent autopsy concluded.
The findings differed from the results of the preliminary autopsy from the Hennepin County medical examiner, which found no evidence of traumatic asphyxia — deprivation of oxygen — or strangulation. The medical examiner concluded that Floyd’s death was caused by “the combined effects of Mr. Floyd being restrained by the police, his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system.”
Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the Floyds, said at the news conference that Floyd died outside the corner store.
“The officers killed him based on a knee to his neck for almost nine minutes and two knees on his back, compressing his lungs,” Crump said. “The ambulance was his hearse.”
Antonio Romanucci, co-counsel for the family, added that the weight of the other officers, Thomas Lane and J.A. Kueng, prevented blood from flowing into Floyd’s brain and air from entering his lungs.
Crump said Floyd’s family wants Chauvin’s murder charge to be upgraded to a first-degree count and the other two officers to be prosecuted “to the fullest extent of the law.”
“Essentially, George died because he needed a breath,” Crump said.
By Marisa Iati and Kim Bellware
2:44 p.m.
Protesters march through Dublin’s streets for second consecutive day
LONDON — Thousands of people took to the streets in Dublin, Ireland’s capital, again on Monday afternoon to express solidarity with protesters in the United States after the death of George Floyd in Minnesota a week ago.
The march came one day after hundreds gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Dublin on Sunday while other cities across Europe followed suit. Over the weekend, crowds knelt outside the U.S. Embassy along the south bank of the River Thames in London chanting, “No justice, no peace,” while in the German capital, Berlin, an estimated 1,500 people marched to protest Floyd’s killing.
The protesters in Dublin on Monday congregated outside the General Post Office and at the Spire monument, holding handmade signs that read “Black lives matter” and “I understand that I will never understand. However, I stand with you.”
The Irish Times estimated that more than 5,000 people had joined the march to condemn police brutality in the United States and racism worldwide.
Videos circulating on social media showed crowds chanting in unison, “What’s his name? George Floyd,” and “I can’t breathe” as protesters made their way along O’Connell Street and toward the U.S. Embassy.
“Racism is everywhere,” one person told RTE News, adding, “We’re sick of it now, so we’re here to protest, that’s it.”
Irish Times reporter Sorcha Pollak described Monday’s protest as one of the largest she had witnessed in the capital in recent years.
Sorcha Pollak
✔
@SorchaPollak
MASSIVE turnout to Dublin’s #BlackLivesMatter protest. Biggest demonstration I’ve seen in the capital in years
Embedded video
8,822
9:38 AM - Jun 1, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
2,409 people are talking about this
“It’s important that we have somewhere where we can express our anger and frustration at what’s going on in America and show our solidarity,” Dublin resident Anna Heverin told the Irish Independent, adding that Ireland has its own problem with racism.
While some video footage showed protesters congregating in close proximity, others seemingly tried to observe social distancing measures by standing apart and wearing face masks as they marched through the streets.
By Jennifer Hassan
2:39 p.m.
Trump official’s claim of opportunism by ‘foreign adversaries’ in U.S. protests draws strong response from Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe summoned the U.S. ambassador to a meeting in Harare with its foreign minister Monday after a Trump administration official referred to Zimbabwe while decrying “foreign adversaries” using widespread protests as an opportunity to stoke tensions in the United States.
“I want to tell our foreign adversaries, whether it’s a Zimbabwe or a China, that the difference between us and you is that that officer who killed George Floyd, he’ll be investigated, he’ll be prosecuted, he’ll receive a fair trial,” national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
U.S. Ambassador Brian A. Nichols issued an unusually forthright statement after his meeting with Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo, acknowledging his experience as a black American while also calling on Zimbabwe to respect constitutional rights to peaceful protests and free speech in its context.
“As an African American, for as long as I can remember I have known that my rights and my body were not fully my own,” he wrote, adding that he has also known that the United States “has always aspired to be better.”
“In a long, unbroken line of black men and women, George Floyd gave the last full measure of devotion to point us toward a new birth in freedom,” Nichols said, noting that the officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes has been charged with murder and that U.S. officials are pledging justice in his case. “Zimbabweans surely wonder when, after so many years, Patrick Nabanyama, Itai Dzamara, and Paul Chizuze will get justice,” he added, naming three citizens who disappeared during then-President Robert Mugabe’s rule.
In a separate statement, Moyo said the Zimbabwean government had noted O’Brien’s comments with “astonishment and concern,” calling any allegations of Zimbabwe interfering in U.S. affairs “false” and “deeply damaging to a relationship already complicated by years of prescriptive megaphone diplomacy and punitive economic sanctions.”
“Zimbabwe is not and never has been an adversary of the United States of America,” Moyo wrote, adding that his country has expressed deep concern over Floyd’s death and the “violence, arson and looting” of the past week. But he also said that the Zimbabwean government recalls U.S. criticism of it during periods of civil unrest there, when American officials demonstrated what he described as a “lack of balance” and double standards.
By Siobhán O'Grady
2:21 p.m.
Trump views protesters’ violence as ‘unacceptable,’ White House press secretary says
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany denounced violence that has taken place at demonstrations over George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis police custody. She told reporters at a briefing Monday that President Trump “has made clear that what we are seeing on America’s streets is unacceptable.”
“Violence, looting, anarchy, lawlessness are not to be tolerated,” McEnany said. “Plain and simple, these criminal acts are not protests. They are not statements. These are crimes that harm innocent American citizens. The First Amendment guarantees the right of the people to peaceably assemble. What we saw last night in Washington and across the country was not that.”
She also defended Trump’s response to the protests and pushed against calls for the president to deliver an address to the nation. He “has delivered multiple statements on this. … He hasn’t been silent on this,” McEnany said.
Asked about the issues of systemic racism and police brutality that demonstrators are decrying, McEnany said that Trump “fundamentally rejects the idea that these egregious actions of these four Minnesota officers are representative of our police force as a whole.”
At the end of the briefing, McEnany played a brief video that included a montage of police officers hugging and comforting protesters.
By Felicia Sonmez
1:56 p.m.
Minneapolis truck driver may have panicked in midst of protest crowd, official says
The tanker truck driver who plowed through a crowd of highway protesters in Minneapolis on Sunday probably did so out of panic, according to the head of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
Commissioner John Harrington told reporters Monday that the truck driver was already on Interstate 35 when officials started closing down certain entrance ramps in preparation for the city’s 8 p.m. curfew.
“From what we understand, he was speeding,” Harrington said. “He saw the crowd, and what it looks like initially, he panicked. He just kept barreling forward, and then he saw a young woman on a bike fall down in front of him, and he slammed on the brakes.”
The trucker, identified by a local news outlet as Bogdan Vechirko, was arrested. An investigation continues, but Harrington said his actions might not have been intentional. “It doesn’t appear that he was driving to try and intercept the protests at this point,” he said. He called the lack of fatalities “a miracle.”
Gov. Tim Walz (D) said he watched the event unfold live on cameras as the tanker moved through the crowd, fearing he would witness dozens or more people killed before the driver came to a stop.
“The driver noted afterward, after he was told that he didn’t kill anybody, that the crowd, the vast majority, were protecting him,” Walz said of the driver who was pulled out of his truck and surrounded by protesters. “The protesters were protecting the driver … because they realized just how dangerous the situation was.”
By Lateshia Beachum
1:40 p.m.
Floyd’s brother gives emotional speech at site of killing, urges protesters to stop violence
After traveling from Brooklyn to Minneapolis to visit the site of his brother’s death, Terrence Floyd expressed disappointment that some protests across the country have turned violent.
Speaking Monday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Floyd said his brother, George, was a “gentle giant” who valued peace and unity. He would want protesters to channel their anger “to do something positive,” Terrence Floyd said.
“The things that are transpiring now, they may call it unity, but it’s destructive unity,” he said. “It’s not what he was about. That’s not what my brother was about.”
Terrence Floyd said his brother saw the bright side of every situation and made him feel that he could do anything, no matter what he was going through.
In an emotional speech later at the site of his brother’s killing, Floyd urged protesters to stop the violence and to focus on enacting change through voting.
“I understand you’re all upset. But like it was already said, I doubt you’re all half as upset as I am,” Floyd said. “So if I’m not over here … blowing up stuff, if I’m not over here messing up my community, then what are you all doing?”
“That’s not going to bring my brother back at all,” he added. “It may feel good for the moment, just like when you’re drinking, but when it comes down, you’re going to wonder what you did.”
Nick Ferraro
✔
@NFerraroPiPress
Terrance Floyd kneels at the site of his brother’s death
View image on Twitter
798
1:11 PM - Jun 1, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
314 people are talking about this
By Marisa Iati
1:31 p.m.
Louisville police should release video of restaurant owner’s shooting, governor says
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) is urging Louisville police to quickly release body camera footage from a fatal shooting early Monday where Louisville Metro Police and the Kentucky National Guard killed a black business owner.
The governor said at a midday news briefing that he hoped the department would release the footage “long before nightfall” so that residents can judge the situation for themselves. The Kentucky State Police are investigating the shooting.
“I think it’s important the truth gets out there, but also for ensuring we don’t have violence,” Beshear said, suggesting that swift transparency could quell another night of unrest.
Family identified the victim as David McAtee, according to the Courier-Journal. McAtee owned a popular barbecue restaurant next to the parking lot where police officers and the National Guard had responded around 12:15 a.m. to break up a “large crowd” apparently violating the city’s temporary curfew order.
Police said someone in the crowd fired first. Beshear said officers and at least two members of the guard fired back, striking McAtee.
It wasn’t immediately clear what McAtee was doing at the scene.
The governor defended his decision to call in the National Guard in response to the past several days of protests. “My belief was that it was going to escalate, [but] not because of peaceful protesters,” he said. “People are going to rightfully ask about last night, which is why we have to get down to all the facts.”
Before Monday’s fatal shooting and even before the death of George Floyd in police custody last week, Louisville residents were demanding justice for Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT worker shot in March when police entered her home during a “no-knock” raid. Three officers were subsequently reassigned pending an internal investigation.
Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, spoke at the beginning of Monday’s briefing. “I don’t think I’m asking for too much. Just justice for her,” she said.
By Kim Bellware
1:23 p.m.
‘Anarchists, we see you!’ Trump warns protesters
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Anarchists, we see you!
Embedded video
271K
12:57 PM - Jun 1, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
133K people are talking about this
President Trump, after urging governors Monday to “dominate” protesters, shared a short video on Twitter, tacking on this message: “Anarchists, we see you!”
The video trained on an unidentified white male protester in what appeared to be downtown Columbus, Ohio.
Columbus is among the cities across the country where protesters have clashed with police for several days in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
By John Wagner
1:00 p.m.
Democratic governors push back on Trump’s call to ‘dominate’ protesters
Democratic governors on Monday pushed back on President Trump, saying his focus was dangerous and misguided during an earlier conference call in which he described many of them as “weak” and urged them to “dominate” unruly protesters.
Speaking to reporters, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) said he objected to Trump’s characterization that states with violent protests had become a “laughingstock” to the rest of the world in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“I said, ‘No one’s laughing here,’” Walz said. “We’re in pain. We’re crying. We saw a man lose his life.”
Walz said he also took issue with Trump’s emphasis on a “posture of force,” saying it was unsustainable, both “militarily” and “socially.”
“It's the antithesis of how we live,” Walz said. “It's the antithesis of civilian control.”
In a statement, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) called Trump’s comments “deeply disturbing.”
“The president repeatedly and viciously attacked governors, who are doing everything they can to keep the peace while fighting a once-in-a-generation global pandemic,” Whitmer said. “The president’s dangerous comments should be gravely concerning to all Americans, because they send a clear signal that this administration is determined to sow the seeds of hatred and division, which I fear will only lead to more violence and destruction. We must reject this way of thinking.”
Whitmer contrasted Trump’s approach with that of former president Barack Obama, who in a Medium post on Monday argued that those angry about Floyd’s killing should “channel our justifiable anger into peaceful, sustained, and effective action.”
“I felt hopeful and inspired in a way that I haven’t felt in a long time,” Whitmer said.
By John Wagner
12:53 p.m.
Trudeau weighs in on U.S. protests, says ‘anti-black racism’ is real in Canada
TORONTO — After thousands of Canadians participated in solidarity protests against police violence and racism over the weekend, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday said “anti-black racism is real” and addressed those for whom the images and stories coming out of the United States are “all too familiar.”
“To young black Canadians, I hear you when you say you are anxious and angry, when you say this brings back painful experiences of racism that you faced,” he said at the start of a news conference on the country’s coronavirus response. “I want you to know that I’m listening.”
It was the second time Trudeau made unsolicited comments about the protests in the United States, which have spawned solidarity demonstrations in cities from Vancouver to Toronto to Montreal.
He issued a call to keep protesters and the journalists who are covering them “safe and respected” and condemned a small group of people who looted stores and clashed with police in Montreal after a formal anti-racism rally had ended there.
Asked whether he could be an effective messenger given his history of wearing blackface makeup on multiple occasions as a younger man, Trudeau said again that he “deeply” regretted his actions, which “hurt many, many people.”
The prime minister, who has periodically cast himself as a liberal foil to President Trump, declined to comment on whether he thought the rhetoric from the White House risked inflaming tensions.
“I can’t speak for other countries, but in Canada, we must come together,” Trudeau said.
By Amanda Coletta
12:47 p.m.
Facebook employees blast Zuckerberg’s hands-off response to Trump posts
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies at a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington on Oct. 23. (Erin Scott/Reuters)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies at a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington on Oct. 23. (Erin Scott/Reuters)
As protests swept the nation over the weekend, several Facebook employees publicly chastised chief executive Mark Zuckerberg for his hands-off approach to a divisive post on the demonstrators by President Trump — one that Twitter took the unprecedented step of flagging as inflammatory on its site.
“I am not proud of how we’re showing up,” tweeted Jason Toff, director of product management. “The majority of co-workers I’ve spoken to feel the same way. We are making our voice heard.”
Read more here.
By Rachel Siegel and Elizabeth Dwoskin
12:43 p.m.
Minnesota governor extends curfew, says upcoming Floyd funeral will be ‘significant event’
Minnesota will remain under curfew for the next two days, Gov. Tim Walz said Monday.
The new curfew hours are 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. as the state tries to emerge from days of unrest following the death of George Floyd, the black man who died in Minneapolis after a white officer knelt on his neck, leading to protests that in some areas devolved into vandalism and theft.
Walz (D) also said that Floyd’s funeral would be Thursday, calling it a “significant event” for his state as it moves toward healing.
The governor plans to send some National Guard members in Minnesota back to their homes, while the multiunit command center for all involved agencies will remain operating, he said.
By Lateshia Beachum
12:35 p.m.
Barr escalates federal response, deploying riot squads and hostage rescue team
Attorney General William P. Barr has directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to send riot teams to Miami and Washington, D.C., as part of the federal government’s escalating response to the civil unrest across the country, a senior Justice Department official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The official said all FBI field offices are also setting up command posts and will work with local law enforcement on possibly bringing federal charges against those who cross state lines to riot.
As local police make arrests, the official said, the FBI will interview those in custody and assess if any federal crimes have been committed. The Justice Department has become keenly focused on the violence in the District.
On Sunday night, Barr sent the FBI’s elite Hostage Rescue Team to assist local police. A Special Operations Response Team from the Bureau of Prisons was present in Miami over the weekend, and one will be active in the District, the official said.
By Matt Zapotosky
12:24 p.m.
Minneapolis police union president calls protests a ‘terrorist movement,’ blames local politicians
The president of the Minneapolis police union slammed the protests rocking the city as a “terrorist movement” in a letter to officers on Monday and blamed local politicians for the turbulence.
“This terrorist movement that is currently occurring was a long time build up which dates back years,” Lt. Bob Kroll wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Star Tribune. “Starting with minimizing the size of our police force and diverting funds to community activists with an anti-police agenda. Our chief requested 400 more officers and was flatly denied any. This is what led to this record breaking riot.”
Kroll said that if not for limits placed on officers’ tactics and equipment, the demonstrations would have ended Tuesday night, when they began.
“The politicians are to blame and you are the scapegoats,” he wrote.
Kroll also decried the firing of the four officers involved in George Floyd’s death, said he had received death threats and criticized news outlets that he said would not publish information about Floyd’s “violent criminal history.” Floyd pleaded guilty in 2009 to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, court records show.
The letter was met with backlash from Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey, who partly blamed Kroll for eroding trust between the police department and residents.
“For a man who complains so frequently about a lack of community trust and support for the police department, Bob Kroll remains shockingly indifferent to his role in undermining that trust and support,” Frey wrote. “His categorical opposition to reform, his consistent disrespect for civilian leadership, and his lack of empathy for the community have done more to undermine trust in police than any ‘community activist’ ever has.”
Former Minneapolis police chief Janeé Harteau labeled Kroll’s letter a “disgrace” and called on him to turn in his badge.
By Marisa Iati
12:17 p.m.
Trump calls governors ‘weak,’ urges them to ‘dominate’ unruly protests
President Trump gestures Saturday as he walks across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. (Patrick Semansky/AP)
President Trump gestures Saturday as he walks across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. (Patrick Semansky/AP)
President Trump on Monday berated the nation’s governors on a conference call, describing them as “weak” in the face of growing racial unrest and urged them to try to “dominate” unruly protests, according to three people on the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversation.
Trump also called on the governors to take back the streets and use force to confront protestors and said if they did not, they would look like “fools,” alarming several governors on the call as they communicated privately, according to the officials.
“If you don’t dominate you’re wasting your time,” Trump said according to a person on the call.
Read more here.
By Robert Costa, Seung Min Kim and Josh Dawsey
12:17 p.m.
A morning of cleanup in Philadelphia after a night of destruction
Less than 12 hours after unrest in West Philadelphia left businesses ravaged along the 52nd Street commercial corridor — with storefront windows smashed, fires set and merchandise looted — broom-toting neighbors began cleaning up the mess Monday morning in a show of solidarity with the bodegas, pharmacies, restaurants and clothing stores there.
Julian Bender, a 33-year-old white man, and Sierra Hill-Akers, a 26-year-old black woman, swept shattered glass from what used to be the front window of the America’s Kids clothing store. Bender heard about the volunteer efforts on Facebook, Hill-Akers on Twitter. “I live in the neighborhood and wanted to help out,” Bender said. “I knew people would show up to help.”
Steven Hall, 52, stood outside King’s Fashion, looking in dismay at its smashed exterior and charred interior. He has worked at the clothing store for 19 years and was on the scene at 7:30 a.m. to see how the shop had fared. He gestured at the small crowd gathered around him, some armed with spray bottles of cleaner. “This has nothing to do with us,” Hall said, referring to Sunday night’s mayhem. “Now where are we supposed to shop? Where are we supposed to work?”
Despite the unknowns, he was not surprised by the morning turnout. “West Philly is going to stay strong,” he said.
Similar efforts are taking place in cities across the country that are reeling from the weekend destruction. Nonprofit groups, neighborhood associations and concerned residents are putting out the word to assist damaged businesses. Here and in other cities, local governments are also sending cleanup crews.
Michael Ramsey, who works for a community development corporation that regularly cleans the 52nd Street corridor, was impressed with how quickly the volunteers worked. Before noon, he said, the street was looking even cleaner than usual.
By Maura Ewing
11:49 a.m.
Obama speaks out on unrest, urges focus on state and local elections
President Barack Obama speaks in 2014 after meeting with elected officials, community leaders and law enforcement officials on building trust in communities after unrest in Ferguson, Mo. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
President Barack Obama speaks in 2014 after meeting with elected officials, community leaders and law enforcement officials on building trust in communities after unrest in Ferguson, Mo. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
Former president Barack Obama is urging those angered by the death of George Floyd to focus their efforts on state and local elections and to push officials on those levels for specific reforms to the criminal justice system.
“If, going forward, we can channel our justifiable anger into peaceful, sustained, and effective action, then this moment can be a real turning point in our nation’s long journey to live up to our highest ideals,” Obama said in a Medium post on Monday.
At a time when protesters are gathering nightly outside the White House, Obama said those seeking change should be fighting for a president and other federal officials who recognize “the corrosive role that racism plays in our society and want to do something about it.”
But he argued that “the elected officials who matter most in reforming police departments and the criminal justice system work at the state and local levels.”
“It’s mayors and county executives that appoint most police chiefs and negotiate collective bargaining agreements with police unions,” Obama wrote. “It’s district attorneys and state’s attorneys that decide whether or not to investigate and ultimately charge those involved in police misconduct. Those are all elected positions.”
Obama also cited documents developed during his presidency and by the Obama Foundation that he says can provide guidance on reforms to seek.
“The more specific we can make demands for criminal justice and police reform, the harder it will be for elected officials to just offer lip service to the cause and then fall back into business as usual once protests have gone away,” he wrote.
In the post, he said the waves of protests have been driven by “genuine and legitimate frustration,” but he also urged those seeking reforms not to “excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it.”
By John Wagner
11:42 a.m.
Merck CEO on Floyd: ‘Could be me or any other African American man’
Squawk Box
✔
@SquawkCNBC
"Businesses have to use every instrument at their disposal to reduce these barriers," says @Merck CEO Ken Frazier. "Joblessness leads to hopelessness. Hopeless leads to what we see in the streets--Business can step up and can provide the leadership I think the country needs."
Embedded video
157
7:29 AM - Jun 1, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
86 people are talking about this
Business executives often appear on CNBC to talk about stocks or corporate strategy. But on Monday, Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier had a different message: What happened to George Floyd could just as easily have happened to him.
“What the African American community sees in that videotape is that this African American man, who could be me or any other African American man, is being treated as less than human,” said Frazier, one of the country’s most prominent black business executives.
Frazier has spoken before of his formative years and of being bused more than an hour to some of the top schools in Philadelphia. “I know for sure that what put my life on a different trajectory was that someone intervened to give me an opportunity, to close that opportunity gap. And that opportunity gap is still there,” he said Monday.
Now, sitting at the helm of one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, Frazier called on the business community to create more jobs, which have been gutted by the coronavirus pandemic — and close opportunity gaps wrought by long-standing discrimination.
“Joblessness leads to hopelessness,” he said. “Hopelessness leads to what we see in the streets.”
By Rachel Siegel
11:10 a.m.
NYC mayor criticizes some officers’ tactics, addresses daughter’s arrest
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) hardened his tone about a police officer who drew his gun on protesters Sunday and two police cruisers that drove into a crowd in Brooklyn.
At a news conference Monday, de Blasio added to his previous explanation of officers’ decision to drive into protesters who had gathered in front of them. He said he tried in his initial comments to criticize the officers while noting that some police were in danger earlier in the day.
“There is no situation where a police vehicle should drive into a crowd of protesters or New Yorkers of any kind,” de Blasio said Monday. “It is dangerous, it is unacceptable. This is an extremely aberrant situation, and there were extenuating circumstances, I believe, because of what happened earlier.”
The mayor also said he had temporarily removed the gun and badge of an officer who pointed his weapon at demonstrators outside the Strand bookstore. City officials were investigating the incident to determine whether there should be other consequences, de Blasio said.
In response to news reports that his 25-year-old daughter, Chiara de Blasio, had been arrested while protesting, the mayor said he did not believe she did anything wrong and that he admired her advocacy. He said that he found out about her arrest when a reporter asked about it and that his daughter told him she was acting peacefully.
“She was very clear that she believes she was following the instructions of police officers and doing what they were asking,” the mayor said.
De Blasio also said the officers who told reporters about the arrest had done “something unconscionable” and that the Sergeants Benevolent Association, which represents the city’s current and former police sergeants, regularly violated people’s privacy.
SBA leaders did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
By Marisa Iati
10:39 a.m.
Sen. Cotton suggests use of Army division that specializes in air assaults to quell protests
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) is calling for the use of the military — including an Army division that specializes in air assault operations — to quell the violent protests that have erupted in cities across the country.
Cotton, often mentioned as a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate, made his push in tweets and on morning television, arguing that “anarchy, rioting, and looting needs to end tonight.”
“If local law enforcement is overwhelmed and needs backup, let's see how tough these Antifa terrorists are when they're facing off with the 101st Airborne Division,” Cotton said in one tweet, referencing the Army division nicknamed the “Screaming Eagles.”
In a subsequent tweet, the senator listed other military units that he said could be deployed, saying he favors “whatever it takes to restore order.”
“No quarter for insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters,” he wrote.
Generally speaking, the president cannot utilize the military for domestic law enforcement. But under the Insurrection Act, exceptions can be made at the request of a governor or state legislature.
This authority was invoked in 1992, when California Gov. Pete Wilson (R) sought federal military assistance from President George H.W. Bush in response to the riots that erupted in Los Angeles in the wake of the arrest and beating of Rodney King.
By John Wagner
10:08 a.m.
History shows Floyd case may not be a ‘slam dunk,’ Ellison says
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who has taken over as prosecutor for the Floyd case, cautioned the public Monday about expecting certain results.
In an interview with SiriusXM’s “The Black Eagle,” Ellison reminded listeners of the Freddie Gray and Walter Scott cases, in which officers didn’t receive expected consequences even after their misconduct resulted in the deaths of both black men.
No federal charges were brought against the six officers involved in Gray’s death, and a murder case against the officer caught on camera shooting and killing Scott resulted in a deadlocked jury.
“I just want to caution folks,” Ellison said. “I don’t deny that your eyes are working well and you saw what you saw, but that doesn’t mean that when we get to a courtroom that it’s going to be some sort of easy slam dunk. History proves that it isn’t.”
Derek Chauvin, the white Minneapolis police officer who was caught on video pressing his knee onto Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Three other officers who were present during the incident have been fired but have not yet been charged.
By Lateshia Beachum
9:45 a.m.
Protests pose a challenge for Biden: Appealing to older and younger black voters
Former vice president Joe Biden and Jill Biden arrive to lay a wreath at the Delaware Memorial Bridge Veterans Memorial Park on May 25. (Patrick Semansky/AP)
Former vice president Joe Biden and Jill Biden arrive to lay a wreath at the Delaware Memorial Bridge Veterans Memorial Park on May 25. (Patrick Semansky/AP)
Former vice president Joe Biden views himself as so connected to the African American experience that on a debate stage in Atlanta six months ago, he declared: “I come out of the black community.” But as that city and others burn and demonstrators demand a robust political agenda for communities of color, the 77-year-old presumptive Democratic nominee for president faces a crucial test: Does he have the relationships and the political dexterity to channel their anger, or will he be overtaken by a tsunami of discontent?
“He has to meet the moment,” said Cornell Belcher, who was a pollster for President Barack Obama. “He’s completely capable of stepping in that space and delivering a unifying message about bringing America together and talking about the refrain that [Martin Luther] King put out decades ago: that an injustice anywhere to anyone is an injustice to everyone. That’s the space that he must occupy.”
So far, Biden has stayed relatively quiet. He gave brief televised remarks supporting protesters Friday and did a rare round of cable news interviews to drive home his point. He issued a statement condemning violence early Sunday morning as images of burning police cars filled TV news. Later, he pulled a prerecorded video from the speaking program for Sunday evening’s Maine Democratic Party convention “due to recent events,” according to a campaign aide.
Read more here.
By Annie Linskey and Cleve Wootson
8:58 a.m.
Retailers and restaurants across the U.S. close amid protests
Protesters take items from a North Face store in New York on May 30. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Protesters take items from a North Face store in New York on May 30. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Scenes of destruction have created chaos and concern along the path of the nation’s protests over the death of a black man in police custody in Minneapolis. That’s pushed brick-and-mortar retail and restaurant industries, already hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, to the center.
Retailers and other businesses in cities across the United States, including Minneapolis, Washington, New York, Atlanta, Philadelphia and the San Francisco Bay area, experienced broken window thefts and violence over the weekend.
The actions prompted a number of businesses to close and raised questions about how exactly the actions relate to the protesters, many of whom were peaceful.
Read more here.
By Rachel Lerman
8:30 a.m.
White House press secretary says Trump focused on antifa
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany holds a news briefing at the White House in May.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany holds a news briefing at the White House in May. (Yuri Gripas/Pool/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday pressed the notion that the far-left “antifa” movement is largely behind the violence that has emerged in protests around the nation and said President Trump is “committed to acting on this.”
McEnany noted Trump has declared antifa a terrorist organization, a move she suggested is indicative of his efforts to quell the violence.
“This president has taken bold action. This is the law-and-order president,” McEnany said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”
Asked whether Trump plans to deliver an Oval Office address on the unrest, as a growing number of conservatives are urging, McEnany said: “A national Oval Office address is not going to stop antifa. What’s going to stop antifa is action, and this president committed to acting on this.”
Neither Trump nor Attorney General William P. Barr has made public specific evidence that the far-left movement is orchestrating the protests that have erupted in dozens of U.S. cities. And scholars have said antifa — short for anti-fascist — is not a national group but more of a far-left ideology.
Asked if the White House is giving antifa too much “credit” for orchestrating the violence, McEnany said: “I don’t think so. … They are certainly behind this.”
As McEnany spoke on television, Trump tweeted an attack on former vice president Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, referring to a report that some of his presidential campaign staffers had donated money to a group that is helping Minneapolis protesters get out of jail on bail.
“Sleepy Joe Biden’s people are so Radical Left that they are working to get the Anarchists out of jail, and probably more,” Trump asserted. “Joe doesn’t know anything about it, he is clueless, but they will be the real power, not Joe. They will be calling the shots!”
By John Wagner
8:01 a.m.
Australian march canceled over safety concerns
A march in Sydney has been canceled after organizers expressed concern about the safety of attendees, Australian media reported.
“We have had some people intending to wreak havoc and protest against the event,” an organizer posted to Facebook, according to the Australian Associated Press.
The event, due to be held in Sydney’s city center on Tuesday and organized by a group called Fighting In Solidarity Towards Treaties, was designed to honor Floyd and bring attention to the deaths of Australian indigenous people in police custody.
However, the event has now been deleted from Facebook.
“This event was meant to be a time for Aboriginal voices to be heard but, due to uncertainty of safety for all involved, we would like to (advise) cancellation of the protest,” an organizer wrote, according to AAP.
It was not immediately clear what threats had been made.
Organizers are now promoting a separate vigil on Saturday. Similar rallies are planned for other large Australian cities, including Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.
Indigenous groups have taken the lead in many protests, arguing that they are subject to racist discrimination and police brutality.
An analysis published by the Guardian on Monday found that there had been at least 432 aboriginal deaths in police custody since 1991, when a government commission into aboriginal deaths in police custody concluded.
By Adam Taylor
7:36 a.m.
Gov. Beshear orders investigation after man fatally shot in confrontation with Louisville police and National Guard
One man was shot and killed when police and the National Guard opened fire in Louisville following a violent confrontation between a group gathered in a parking lot and law enforcement trying to disperse the crowd, authorities said early Monday.
Gov. Andy Beshear (D) said in a statement Monday morning he had authorized the Kentucky State Police to independently investigate the fatal shooting “given the seriousness of the situation.”
Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad said that after another night of destructive protests over the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor in Louisville and the death of George Floyd in Minnesota, the Kentucky National Guard and Louisville police were dispatched to the parking lot at Dino’s Food Mart around 12:15 a.m., where a large crowd had gathered.
But as the agencies began trying to disperse them, someone in the crowd fired at the officers and soldiers, Conrad said.
Both the National Guard and Louisville police returned fire, he said, killing one man at the scene. Conrad did not identify him.
“Our officers are working very hard to keep people safe and protect property,” Conrad said in an early-morning news briefing. “While doing that, we’ve had officers shot at and assaulted. I think it’s very, very clear that many people do not trust the police. That is an issue we’re going to have to work on and work through for a long time.”
Conrad said that police are interviewing several people and are collecting video footage of the shooting, which he pledged to release to the public soon. The chief did not address whether the crowd was in any way related to the protests, which were centered about two miles away in downtown Louisville.
The fatal shooting is likely to further inflame tensions in Louisville, where protesters have been demanding justice in the death of the unarmed 26-year-old Taylor, an African American EMT, on March 13. Taylor was asleep in her apartment when officers broke down her door in the middle of the night to serve a warrant, alarming her boyfriend who fired at police, believing they were armed intruders. Taylor died when police returned fire.
The shooting also follows another violent incident during protests on Thursday night, when someone opened fire from within a large crowd, injuring seven people, police say. No one has been arrested yet in that shooting.
By Meagan Flynn
7:21 a.m.
California’s downtown government buildings close because of protests
Many of California’s government buildings will shutter their doors on Monday amid the outbreak of protests spread across the state.
A Sunday night directive sent from the state Department of Human Resources said all state buildings “with offices in downtown city areas” will be closed and individual agencies can determine which buildings should remain dark, the Associated Press reported.
Amy Palmer, a spokeswoman for the state Government Operations Agency, said the decision was made after a consultation with the California Highway Patrol and Office of Emergency Services, the outlet reported.
The attorney general’s offices in Oakland, Sacramento and other cities affected by protests will also close, based on a state Justice Department memo to employees that advised them to work from home if they’re able, the AP reported.
By Lateshia Beachum
6:51 a.m.
Trump urged to address the nation by ‘Fox & Friends’ hosts
Co-host Brian Kilmeade on the set of Fox News's “Fox & Friends” in New York in January 2018.
Co-host Brian Kilmeade on the set of Fox News's “Fox & Friends” in New York in January 2018. (Richard Drew/AP)
Hosts and guests on “Fox & Friends” — a regular staple of President Trump’s morning television viewing — urged him Monday to deliver an Oval Office address on the unrest across the nation.
Their voices add to some aides in the White House and a growing number of conservative commentators who have argued in recent days that both Trump and the country would be well-served by hearing from him in a troubling time. Others have suggested it is premature until he has concrete measures to announce.
“If there isn’t a reason to ever address the country that has been so diversely affected by one thing, this is the reason,” said Brian Kilmeade, a co-host of the Fox News program. “It’s not 9/11 where Washington, Pennsylvania and New York were hit. … Every state has been affected. We can’t quite figure out who the enemy is. We know we want to get together. We know they want to tear us apart. The president has to bring the country together, and in that speech can’t be anything about a Democrat and nothing about a Republican. It’s got to be about an American.”
Dan Bongino, a former U.S. Secret Service agent and conservative commentator appearing on the program, agreed.
“If there was ever a time in the history of the U.S. presidency for an Oval Office address to bring the country together, it’s unquestionably right now,” Bongino said.
The exhortations echoed those of Fox News host Griff Jenkins, who said over the weekend that Trump should deliver a formal address, arguing that President George H.W. Bush did so after unrest in Los Angeles in 1992.
In a tweet Monday morning, Trump made no mention of Kilmeade urging him to make an Oval Office address but quoted another part of his commentary from the show: recounting that some protesters seemed affiliated with antifa groups and had a mind-set similar to those who participated in Occupy Wall Street protests nearly a decade ago.
“TRUE!” Trump added in his own words.
By John Wagner
6:03 a.m.
Trump plans teleconference with governors on ‘keeping American communities safe’
President Trump has plans for a video teleconference with governors, law enforcement and national security officials on Monday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
President Trump has plans for a video teleconference with governors, law enforcement and national security officials on Monday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
President Trump, who remained out of view Sunday, so far has no public events on his schedule for Monday but plans a video teleconference with governors, law enforcement and national security officials.
According to guidance released by the White House, the event, which is closed to the press, will originate from the Situation Room and focus on “keeping American communities safe.”
Beforehand, Trump is scheduled to meet with Attorney General William P. Barr, who on Saturday said that the violence that has erupted in many places appears to be “planned, organized and driven by anarchic and left extremist groups … many of whom travel from outside the state to promote the violence.”
It is not uncommon for the White House to add events to Trump’s schedule by midday, so it remains possible that the president will emerge on Monday.
Trump’s decision to stay out of public view on Sunday drew widespread scrutiny, given that Americans have come to expect presidents to speak to the nation during trying times. Trump’s public communication was limited to a series of tweets that included an attack on the Democratic mayor of Minneapolis and praise for himself for having deployed the National Guard.
By John Wagner
6:00 a.m.
Dayton, Ohio, protest organizer asks police to ‘raise your hands if you are here to protect us’
Well before the 7 p.m. curfew that Dayton, Ohio, Mayor Nan Whaley (D) enacted for downtown and the popular Oregon District, municipal sanitation trucks blocked access to the city with checkpoints for inbound traffic. Armored police tactical vehicles rumbled down deserted streets and helicopters hovered overhead. Several hundred protesters were granted access to a staging area downtown where they marched and shouted, “No justice, no peace! No racist police!” and “Hands up, don’t shoot!”
Protest leader Asia Gibbs confronted a line of police in Dayton using a bullhorn to ask them a question: “Raise your hands if you are here to protect us and stand with us?” Most officers stood stone-faced, but as Gibbs repeated the question with different cordons of police, a few did raise their hands.
“If you could get an officer to admit they are not racist, that relieves some of the mental anguish in our people,” said Gibbs, a 36-year-old African American woman whose five children were her motivation to organize.
Demonstrators, a majority of them white, marched to Lily’s Bistro in the Oregon District, which was damaged by window-shattering rioters Saturday night. On Sunday, owner Emily Mendenhall decided to serve the cause that damaged her restaurant, offering free burgers, hot dogs and drinks to the protesters.
“If it takes a broken window to effect change, than I’ll take the broken window,” she said. “I think it is important that small-business owners speak up.”
The peaceful protest was in stark contrast to just 24 hours earlier when protesters hurled objects at police, and officers responded by firing rounds of rubber bullets and chemical munitions. Dayton police arrested 15 protesters for various violations on Saturday, but no arrests were reported Sunday.
By Kevin Williams
5:15 a.m.
U.S. at ‘crossroads’ as protests grip cities and police crack down
In U.S. cities, police use pepper spray, stun guns and tear gas on protesters
Video from several U.S. cities showed police using force against protesters and bystanders on May 30 during a night of protests over George Floyd's death. (Video: Monica Akhtar/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Protesters took to the streets for a sixth night Sunday, as anger over the Memorial Day death of a black man in police custody burned across a country already reeling from the deadly coronavirus and the resulting economic crisis.
As the violent and chaotic weekend drew to a close, officials in more than two dozen cities had imposed sweeping curfews, including in Minneapolis and St. Paul, the epicenter of the crisis. Governors in 26 states called in the National Guard. And Secret Service agents clashed for a second day with demonstrators outside the White House, where President Trump used social media to assail Democrats and threaten protesters.
At least six people were killed in violence that flared as demonstrations in parts of the country devolved into mayhem. Gunfire rang out from Detroit to Indianapolis to Chicago to Omaha — places where authorities said people were slain in shootings connected to the protests. But there were also scenes of peaceful assembly, as well as of police officers kneeling in solidarity and protesters placing themselves before store fronts to prevent looting and brawling at odds with the message of nonviolence.
Read more here.
By Isaac Stanley-Becker, Felicia Sonmez and Katie Mettler
3:58 a.m.
Minneapolis has become a war zone
Police officers stand on Interstate 35 as they watch protesters Sunday. (Joshua Lott/For The Washington Post)
Police officers stand on Interstate 35 as they watch protesters Sunday. (Joshua Lott/For The Washington Post)
MINNEAPOLIS — The gas stations are closed. The grocery stores are dark. And along Hiawatha Avenue in South Minneapolis, one of the only restaurants serving is a McDonald’s, where every inch of the building’s windows are boarded up except for two small holes at the drive-through just big enough to pass along food.
After nearly a week of unrest in response to the death of George Floyd, city and state officials were optimistic Sunday after a night passed without the dangerous fires, looting and violence that have cut a wide swath of devastation through the heart of this Midwestern city.
But it came with a new reality: Thousands of National Guard troops and state and city police officers moving to aggressively — and sometimes violently — regain control of the streets, and a lockdown that has residents under curfew and has closed the major highways at night.
Read more here.
By Holly Bailey, Robert Klemko, Jared Goyette and Tarkor Zehn
3:33 a.m.
Some officers march and kneel with protesters as fraught weekend of uprisings concludes
Images of tense encounters between protesters and police officers piled up over the weekend, as authorities intensified their efforts to quell nationwide uprisings, using rubber bullets, pepper pellets and tear gas in violent standoffs that seared cities nationwide.
But some officers took different actions, creating contrasting images that told another story about the turbulent national moment following the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, in police custody in Minneapolis.
From New York to Des Moines to Spokane, Wash., members of law enforcement — sometimes clad in riot gear — knelt alongside protesters and marched in solidarity with them. The act has become synonymous with peaceful protests in recent years after football player Colin Kaepernick knelt as part of his protests against police brutality on unarmed black citizens.
Read more here.
By Hannah Knowles and Isaac Stanley-Becker
3:14 a.m.
Birmingham protesters tear down Confederate monument, set Thomas Jefferson statue ablaze
Protesters in Birmingham, Ala., tore down a monument to a Confederate naval captain on Sunday night, tying a rope around the statue’s neck andpulling it to the ground, video showed.
The statue depicts Charles Linn, who helped establish Birmingham and who also ran Confederate ships full of cotton to Europe to raise funds during the Civil War. Photos of the aftermath showed Linn’s statue lying face down in the dirt, with “BLM” painted in large red letters along the back of his leg.
WBRC FOX6 News
✔
@WBRCnews
Protesters tear down a statue in Linn Park in Birmingham Sunday night.
--> https://bit.ly/3gFflm1
Embedded video
297
9:27 PM - May 31, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
192 people are talking about this
It was one of several monuments that protesters in Birmingham sought to destroy. Near Linn Park, where the namesake’s statue crumbled, protesters also set a statue of Thomas Jefferson on fire, cheering around it as sounds of windows shattering could be heard in the background of the video footage.
Madison Underwood
✔
@MadisonU
Protesters set fire to the Thomas Jefferson statue in Linn Park.
Embedded video
173
10:17 PM - May 31, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
138 people are talking about this
Also in Linn Park on Sunday, protesters tried to destroy another Confederate monument that has been part of a prolonged legal fight, before the mayor personally intervened.
Dozens gathered around the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument during a speech by comedian Jermaine “FunnyMaine” Johnson, who urged them to tear it down. The protesters began by chipping away at the base of the monument with tools, AL.com reported. Then, they tied a rope around the top of the monument and connected the rope to a pickup truck. When the driver hit the gas, though, the rope broke.
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin (D), who has supported the monument’s removal, then appeared in the park with a bullhorn, asking the protesters to stop and promising to remove it himself by Tuesday.
“I understand the frustration and the anger that you have,” he said, according to AL.com. “Allow me to finish the job for you.”
Protesters across the South have been vandalizing numerous Confederate monuments as part of the protests demonstrations in George Floyd’s name. Read more here in a report by Lynda Robinson.
By Meagan Flynn
2:13 a.m.
In African American communities, private grief amid public rage
SUNDAY MAY, 31, Kansas City, Mo: Protesters gather at the JC Nichols Memorial Fountain in Kansas City, Mo. Sunday May 31, 2020. Christopher Smith for The Washington Post
SUNDAY MAY, 31, Kansas City, Mo: Protesters gather at the JC Nichols Memorial Fountain in Kansas City, Mo. Sunday May 31, 2020. Christopher Smith for The Washington Post (Christopher Smith/for The Washington Post)
MINNEAPOLIS — The whole city still smelled like fire, but Yvonne Passmore wanted to survey the damage wrought by days of violent protests. So she stood beside three neighbors in South Minneapolis, all of them black, all of them trying to process what had happened during the past few days, and months, and years.
“First, we had the coronavirus, which is wiping us out,” said Passmore, 65, pushing down her mask so she could breathe a little better. “And now it’s this.”
The neighbors debated the intensity of the protests, which left a trail of wreckage in this neighborhood off Lake Street. Had it gone too far? Small markets and convenience stores had been looted and destroyed, taking away a crucial source of fresh produce. The Walgreens was destroyed; the post office, too.
Read more here.
By Holly Bailey, Annie Gowen, Vanessa Williams and Jose Del Real
1:29 a.m.
Journalists continue to be arrested, struck by police while covering protests
Whether they were wearing press credentials around their necks mattered little, as journalists around the country continued to be targeted by police with arrest, rubber bullets and tear gas while covering the protests.
LAist and KPCC reporter Adolfo Guzman-Lopez showed photos of a large welt on his neck after being struck by a rubber bullet just after interviewing a man while covering protests in Long Beach. In Washington, MSNBC correspondent Garrett Haake was struck with a rubber bullet or bean bag — he said he wasn’t certain — while reporting live on the air near the White House, standing across from a line of police in riot gear.
“I have some souvenir welts on my side to show for it,” he wrote later on Twitter. “And sorry for cursing on tv.”
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez
@AGuzmanLopez
· May 31, 2020
I’m reporting on the Long Beach protests. Police in riot gear just moved their line half a block up to 3rd and Pine Ave. Protestors largely dispersed. I’ll be posting in this thread
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez
@AGuzmanLopez
I just got hit by a rubber bullet near the bottom of my throat. I had just interviewed a man with my phone at 3rd and Pine and a police officer aimed and shot me in the throat, I saw the bullet bounce onto the street @LAist @kpcc OK, that’s one way to stop me, for a while
View image on TwitterView image on Twitter
26.2K
8:40 PM - May 31, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
12.2K people are talking about this
From the back of a police car, Des Moines register reporter Andrea May Sahouri said in a Twitter broadcast that she had been arrested while covering a protest that turned violent at Merle Hay Mall.
“I was was saying, ‘I’m press! I’m press! I’m press!’ Police deliberately took me, sprayed pepper spray in my face, and then put me in zip ties,” she said in the video.
Similar cases played out from Las Vegas to New York to Orlando.
Madison Underwood
✔
@MadisonU
That was terrible. I'm glad my colleagues are okay. I'm okay. My nose is swollen and bleeding. My phone is gone. I'm thankful to the folks who dragged me out of there, who checked on me, who said nice things. Not sure why that went bad so quickly. https://twitter.com/WarOnDumb/status/1267313097225768961 …
Kyle Whitmire
✔
@WarOnDumb
Here's footage of my colleagues being attacked tonight in downtown Birmingham. They're accounted for now and OK and will get lots of free beers when this is over. Love you guys. https://twitter.com/DrunkCoachGrant/status/1267307033969262593 …
1,093
12:13 AM - Jun 1, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
277 people are talking about this
Read more by Paul Farhi and Elahe Izadi here.
By Meagan Flynn
12:00 a.m.
Austin police fire on protesters after a day of peaceful demonstrations
AUSTIN — It was a scene like countless others this weekend: a swirling mass of protesters of all ages and backgrounds descending on police headquarters, chanting “black lives matter.”
Suddenly — and seemingly without warning — a group of officers on an overpass across the street opened fire Sunday with what protesters described as rubber bullets, sending the panicked crowd of several hundred screaming demonstrators scrambling for safety.
At least three people were struck by the projectiles, including a young woman who was hit in the back of the head.
Jessica Huseman
✔
@JessicaHuseman
Police are firing beanbag rounds in Austin. There was no warning, it has made the situation much worse.
Embedded video
2,880
11:06 PM - May 31, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
1,679 people are talking about this
Demonstrators helped the injured woman to a small medical camp run by volunteers across the street, seating her in a folding chair where she collapsed, a stream of blood running down her back.
“That shook me up,” Ericka Jennings, 40, said after consoling someone who was struck by a projectile and later carried to a nearby car and whisked away. “It was peaceful and then someone threw a water bottle and they just started shooting!”
Protesters spent much of the day outside the police department without incident. But as the sun began to set, they scrambled up a concrete embankment and poured onto Interstate 35, a traffic-choked thoroughfare that runs up the spine of Texas and has historically separated downtown Austin from several historic African American and Latino neighborhoods.
Austin resident Russel Bangor, 36, said he was shocked when police fired on the protesters. “I came here expecting to hold a sign and ended up dragging injured bodies to safety,” he said. “I never expected this.”
By Peter Holley
11:37 p.m.
As small and large businesses in Chicago are looted, the city braces for a long week
A laundromat in Chicago after protesters trashed it over the weekend. (Mark Guarino/For the Washington Post)
A laundromat in Chicago after protesters trashed it over the weekend. (Mark Guarino/For the Washington Post) (Mark Guarino for The Washington Post/TWP)
CHICAGO — After being looted for hours, a liquor store on Madison Avenue on the city’s West Side was torched Sunday night, thick smoke rising skyward.
Glenn Johnson, 45, stood in the doorway of his graphic design business across the street. He had watched people haul the wine and booze out from the store, most putting their plunder into cars with out-of-town license plates. “The weirdest thing I have ever seen in my life,” he said.
Similar damage had been seen earlier Sunday at several malls and big-box retailers, from Tinley Park, south of the city, to Skokie on the North Shore, as mobs smashed glass storefronts to make away with goods. But the looting was concentrated on Chicago’s South and West Sides.
At least three dozen police officers in riot gear guarded one location where businesses, including a Foot Locker, had been destroyed. Mannequins, shoe boxes and the cash register were strewn on the street.
The destruction continued late. In Englewood, a South Side neighborhood hit hard over decades by unemployment and poverty, people darted from a Family Dollar store and stuffed goods in the back seats or trunks of their vehicles. Moments later, a large fire went up in the parking lot, followed by the arrival of a fire department ladder truck and then the police.
A few blocks away, several officers headed into City Sports, an indoor mall that had been stripped bare earlier. “We show up and chase them out. We leave, and they come back. It’s been happening all day and all night,” one officer said as the mall’s alarms blared.
The police department announced 12-hour days for officers and no time off, a sign that the city is preparing for unrest at least all week.
Johnson said he doesn’t condone the violence, “but I don’t condemn it.” At the same time, as his city unravels, he fears “we’re so far into this, everything is going to be gone.”
“There’s no telling when this will be rebuilt,” he said.
By Mark Guarino
George Floyd’s death: What you need to know
Updated June 1, 2020
George Floyd’s death at the hands of a police officer triggered protest in Minneapolis and other cities in the U.S. and Europe.
Live updates: Family’s independent autopsy says Floyd died of asphyxia, contradicting county’s exam
Trump calls governors ‘weak,’ urges them to use force against unruly protests
D.C. braces for more protests, unrest; curfew to begin at 7 p.m.
Police turn more aggressive against protesters and bystanders, alike, adding to violence and chaos
Video timeline: George Floyd’s final minutes
Kim Bellware covers national and breaking news for The Washington Post. She previously worked for City Bureau, The Huffington Post and as a nationally-focused freelance reporter.
Marisa Iati is a reporter for the General Assignment News Desk at The Washington Post. She previously worked at the Star-Ledger and NJ.com in New Jersey, where she covered municipal mayhem, community issues, education and crime.
Maria Sacchetti covers immigration for the Washington Post, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the court system. She previously reported for the Boston Globe, where her work led to the release of several immigrants from jail. She lived for several years in Latin America and is fluent in Spanish.
Meryl Kornfield is a reporter at the investigative desk of The Washington Post.
Abigail Hauslohner covers immigrant communities and immigration policy on The Washington Post's National desk. She covered the Middle East as a foreign correspondent from 2007 to 2014, and served as the Post's Cairo bureau chief. She has also covered Muslim communities in the United States and D.C. politics and government.
Ben Guarino is a reporter for The Washington Post’s Science section. He joined The Post in 2016.
Felicia Sonmez is a national political reporter covering breaking news from the White House, Congress and the campaign trail. She was previously based in Beijing, where she worked for Agence France-Presse and The Wall Street Journal.
