By Zeke Miller and Tim Sullivan, Washington USA
Protests were largely peaceful and the nation's streets were calmer than they have been in days since the killing of George Floyd set off demonstrations that at times brought violence and destruction along with pleas to stop police brutality and injustice against African Americans.
There
were scattered reports of looting in New York City overnight, and as of
Wednesday morning there had been over 9,000 arrests nationwide since the unrest
began following Floyd's death May 25 in Minneapolis. But there was a marked
quiet compared with the unrest of the past few nights, which included fires and
shootings in some cities.
The
calmer night came as many cities intensified their curfews, with authorities in
New York and Washington ordering people off streets while it was still
daylight.
A block
away from the White House, thousands of demonstrators massed following a
crackdown a day earlier when officers on foot and horseback aggressively drove
peaceful protesters away from Lafayette Park, clearing the way for President
Donald Trump to do a photo op at nearby St. John’s Church. Tuesday's protesters
faced law enforcement personnel who stood behind a black chain-link fence that
was put up overnight to block access to the park.
“Last
night pushed me way over the edge,” said Jessica DeMaio, 40, of Washington, who
attended a Floyd protest Tuesday for the first time. “Being here is better than
being at home feeling helpless.”
Pastors
at the church prayed with demonstrators and handed out water bottles. The crowd
remained in place after the city’s 7 p.m. curfew passed, defying warnings that
the response from law enforcement could be even more forceful. But the crowd
Tuesday was peaceful, even polite. At one point, the crowd booed when a
protester climbed a light post and took down a street sign. A chant went up:
“Peaceful protest!”
Pope
Francis on Wednesday called for national reconciliation and peace.
Francis
said that he has ‘’witnessed with great concern the disturbing social unrest’’
in the United States in recent days.
"My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life,’’ the pope said during his weekly Wednesday audience, held in the presence of bishops due to coronavirus restrictions on gatherings.
Trump,
meanwhile, amplified his hard-line calls from Monday, when he threatened to
send in the military to restore order if governors didn’t do it.
“NYC,
CALL UP THE NATIONAL GUARD,” he tweeted. “The lowlifes and losers are ripping
you apart. Act fast!”
Thousands
of people remained in the streets of New York City Tuesday night, undeterred by
an 8 p.m. curfew, though most streets were clear by early Wednesday other than
police who were patrolling some areas. Midtown Manhattan was pocked with
battered storefronts after Monday’s protests.
Protests
also passed across the U.S., including in Los Angeles, Miami, St. Paul,
Minnesota, Columbia, South Carolina and Houston, where the police chief talked
to peaceful demonstrators, vowing reforms.
“God as
my witness, change is coming,” Art Acevedo said. “And we’re going to do it the
right way.”
More than
20,000 National Guard members have been called up in 29 states to deal with the
violence. New York is not among them, and Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he does
not want the Guard. On Tuesday, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo called what
happened in the city “a disgrace.”
“The NYPD
and the mayor did not do their job last night,” Cuomo said at a briefing in
Albany.
He said
the mayor underestimated the problem, and the nation’s largest police force was
not deployed in sufficient numbers, though the city had said it doubled the
usual police presence.
Tuesday
marked the eighth straight night of the protests, which began after a white
Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against Floyd's neck while the
handcuffed black man called out that he couldn't breathe. The officer, Derek
Chauvin, has been fired and charged with murder.
The
mother of George Floyd’s 6-year-old daughter, Gianna, said she wanted the world
to know that her little girl lost a good father.
“I want
everybody to know that this is what those officers took,” Roxie Washington said
during a Minneapolis news conference with her young daughter at her side. “I
want justice for him because he was good. No matter what anybody thinks, he was
good.”
Some
protesters framed the burgeoning movement as a necessity after a string of
killings by police.
“It feels
like it’s just been an endless cascade of hashtags of black people dying, and
it feels like nothing’s really being done by our political leaders to actually
enact real change,” said Christine Ohenzuwa, 19, who attended a peaceful
protest at the Minnesota state Capitol in St. Paul. “There’s always going to be
a breaking point. I think right now, we’re seeing the breaking point around the
country.”
“I live
in this state. It’s really painful to see what’s going on, but it’s also really
important to understand that it’s connected to a system of racial violence,”
she said.
Meanwhile, governors and mayors, Republicans and Democrats alike, rejected Trump's threat to send in the military, with some saying troops would be unnecessary and others questioning whether the government has such authority and warning that such a step would be dangerous.
A senior
White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the
president is not rushing to send in the military and that his goal was to
pressure governors to deploy more National Guard members.
Such use
of the military would mark a stunning federal intervention rarely seen in
modern American history.
Amid the
protests, nine states and the District of Columbia held presidential primaries
that tested the nation’s ability to run elections while balancing a pandemic and
sweeping social unrest. Joe Biden won hundreds more delegates and was on the
cusp of formally securing the Democratic presidential nomination.
Also Tuesday, Minnesota opened an investigation into whether the Minneapolis Police Department has a pattern of discrimination against minorities. - AP
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