Donald Trump urged state governors to crack down on protests against racial inequality.
Washington, United States:
President Donald Trump urged state governors to quell protests against racial inequality that has engulfed major cities on Monday as authorities extend curfews in hopes of preventing a seventh night of looting and vandalism.
Protests, largely peaceful during the day before turning violent at night, erupted following the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American who died in police custody in Minneapolis after being trapped under the knee of a white officer for almost nine minutes.
An independent autopsy ordered by Floyd’s family and published on Monday revealed that his death was a homicide and that he died “of mechanical asphyxiation”, that is to say of a physical force which harmed oxygen supply.
These results contradict preliminary findings from the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office that Floyd, 46, died of a combination of factors, including possible substances in his system and underlying medical conditions.
The new discoveries came after Trump spoke to the governors.
“You have to dominate,” he told them in a private call obtained by media including Reuters. “If you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time – they’re going to crush you, you’re going to look like a bunch of assholes.”
Trump has said the federal government will “very firmly” crack down on violence.
Dozens of cities across the United States remain under curfew at a level never seen since the riots that followed the 1968 assassination of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. National Guard deployed to 23 states and Washington, DC
The curfew was extended to Washington, D.C., where authorities fought to put out the fires near the White House overnight; in Minnesota, which has experienced some of the worst violence, and in Los Angeles.
One person was killed in Louisville, Kentucky, on the night that police and National Guard troops responded by trying to disperse a crowd. Police in Chicago, the country’s third-largest city, responded to more than 10,000 calls for looting, said Mayor Lori Lightfoot during a briefing.
The unrest, which broke out as the country eased long closures to stop the spread of the coronavirus, began with peaceful protests against Floyd’s death.
Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old licensed officer since, has been charged with third degree murder and second degree manslaughter. He was released on $ 500,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court on June 8, according to prison records.
‘OTHER’
On Monday, dozens of people discreetly paid tribute to Floyd on the stage in front of the Cup Foods where he lost his life. Visitors left flowers and signs honoring Floyd on the sidewalk. A little girl wrote, “I’m going to fight you,” in aqua blue chalk on the road.
“It’s therapeutic. My heart was very heavy this morning, so I went down very early and when I got here, the heaviness lifted,” said Diana Jones, 40, a mother of four. “Here, let me know that everything is going to be fine.”
Terrence Floyd, the victim’s brother, said at the rally that he wanted people to be educated, to vote and not to destroy their own communities. “Let’s do it another way,” he said.
In the U.S. capital, St. John’s Episcopal Church, a historic site near the White House where many U.S. presidents worshiped, suffered minor damage while the neighboring headquarters of the AFL-CIO task force was vandalized.
Floyd’s death was the last to cause an outcry against racism in law enforcement. He rekindled outrage in a politically and racially divided country that was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with African Americans accounting for a disproportionately high number of coronavirus cases.
The United States Department of Justice has ordered the Bureau of Prisons to send riot teams to Miami and Washington, D.C., to help manage the protests, a senior department official told reporters.
Departmental investigators are interviewing people arrested during protests who may face federal charges for offenses such as crossing state borders to incite violence, the official said.
Many troubled cities are resuming normal economic activity after more than two months of residence orders to stem a pandemic that has killed more than 104,000 people and left more than 40 million people unemployed.
Trump has condemned Floyd’s murder and promised justice, but has made no major public statements to deal with the crisis. In tweets, he described the protesters as “thugs” and threatened to use the United States military.
“They are terrorists … They are Antifa and they are the radical left,” Trump told the governors, referring to the short name of a loosely organized movement of anti-fascists, but without providing any evidence.
Critics accuse the Republican president, who is seeking re-election in November, of having fueled conflict and racial tension rather than seeking to unite the country and resolve the underlying problems.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, a critic of Trump’s handling of the crisis, met with black community leaders in a church and said he would establish a police watchdog in his first 100 days at the White House.
