“I stand with people peacefully exercising their First Amendment Right after the murder of George Floyd and hundreds of years of institutional racism,” she said online. Washington DC’s Mayor Muriel Browser said she rejected the president’s calls for violence. In a statement published on 31st May 2020, Attorney General Barr announced that anti- terrorism powers would be used in response to civil unrest. Trump said on Twitter that he watched the protests from his window and that if protestors had breached the White House’s exterior security, "they would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen". Trump was rushed to a bunker and the Secret Service ordered the White House to be locked down on 29th May 2020 as thousands of protestors demonstrated in the city over the death of Floyd. In a speech in the White House garden, he threatened to mobilise the military to end the protests. Rather than respond to the growing sentiment of indignation over racial injustice, US President Trump repeatedly used a language of unrest and violence to discredit the demonstrations, calling protestors “ thugs” and encouraging law enforcement to respond forcefully. By 3rd June 2020, approximately 9,000 people had been detained for participating in the protests, mostly for violating the curfews which multiple cities implemented to limit protests. Three alleged right-wing extremists were arrested for deliberately sparking violence during a protest in Nevada. Reports of property fires, looting and vandalised businesses were widespread in the first days of protests, with many unconfirmed claims that undercover police officers and white nationalists had incited violence and been involved in some of the damages. Press advocates also documented over 230 incidents of assault against journalists covering the protests, including a photographer in Minneapolis who said she was blinded in her left eye after being struck with a police officer’s rubber bullet. On 2nd June 2020, the Associated Press reported that at least 11 people had been killed during the wave of protests. By 2nd June 2020, at least 23 states had deployed National Guard troops in numbers that, according to news media, rival US troops in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. In several cities protestors were met by militarised law enforcement wearing riot gear, often using disproportionate force, including indiscriminate use of tear gas and rubber bullets. Instagram: /ajwWCCtwUJ- Brittany Miller May 31, 2020 Go to my IG page for the FULL VIDEO and more details (it’s too long for Twitter). “The pain that the Black community feels over this murder and what it reflects about the treatment of Black people in America is raw and is spilling out onto streets across America,” said Floyd’s family in a statement. In Minneapolis, New York City, Denver, Memphis, Austin and in cities in all 50 states, people blocked streets, marched and chanted "no justice, no peace" and "say his name: George Floyd" while calling for an end to police brutality and demanding that police officers be held accountable. A harrowing video filmed by witnesses shows the officer pressing his knee into the handcuffed man's neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe.” Outrage brimmed over, bringing hundreds of thousands to the streets to protest entrenched racism and the US’s long history of killings of Black and Brown people by law enforcement agents. Massive protests erupted in cities across the United States following the death of George Floyd, a Black man, by a Minneapolis police officer on 25th May 2020.
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