- Minneapolis, in commemoration of George Floyd the mayor kneels and cries
- Death Floyd. Pope: "Don't close your eyes on racism, but no violence"
- Death Floyd, the head of the Pentagon: no to the army to quell the protests
- Case Floyd, the charge for Chauvin is voluntary murder. Three more agents charged
- 3 other agents involved in Floyd's death are also in prison. In San Francisco young man killed by mistake
- Fortnite also kneels for Floyd
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05 June 2020 Former Pentagon chief James Mattis ' leads' the generals' uprising against President Donald Trump. For military leaders, traditionally non-deployed and basically Republicans, the tycoon has crossed the red line by threatening to use armed forces against protesters protesting the death of African American George Floyd, killed by police in Minneapolis.Trump did not limit himself to invoking the Insurrection Act, a law signed in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson which attributes to the President of the United States - in exceptional cases - the power to use the army for police duties. While the commander-in-chief in the Rose Garden proclaimed the edict, the police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters in front of the White House, to disperse the crowd and allow the president to walk undisturbed to the nearby episcopal church of St John and pose with the Bible in hand.
If US defense minister Mark Esper , a former army officer, immediately distanced himself, Mattis' was an excommunication. Trump "wants to divide the US," he thundered in an editorial on the Atlantic, "we witness the consequences of this deliberate effort, three years without mature leadership. We can be united without him, drawing on the internal strength of our civil society ". "Militarizing our response as we saw in DC - attacked Mattis - creates a conflict, a false conflict, between the armed forces and civil society".
Against Trump also ex-general John Kelly , his former head of cabinet and ex-minister for national security, and John Allen , a former commander of the US forces in Afghanistan. "It was not enough for him to deprive the peaceful demonstrators of their rights sanctioned by the first amendment - observed Allen - with that photo he tried to legitimize that gesture with a religious halo". Among others, Mike Mullen , a former joint chief of staff, also lashed out at Trump, warning that it undermines America's values.
Mattis, Kelly and General Herbert Raymond McMaster, appointed as national security adviser after the lightning resignation of another general, Michael Flynn (overwhelmed by Russiagate), were considered the "strong men" of the president.
"We train our men to become war machines," said Trump via Twitter in October 2019. It would have been this image of the military 'Rambo' version, says Peter Bergen in his book "Trump and his generals: the price of chaos" , to push the head of the White House to surround himself with generals at his inauguration. He had not taken into account their resistance on the easy use of force (let alone against the demonstrators) or on the withdrawal of US troops from the still hot areas, not to mention the support for NATO. By the end of 2018, McMaster, Kelly and Mattis were all already home. What wobbles now is Esper's armchair.
Another former US senior officer - General Martin Dempsey - also attacked US President Donald Trump for threatening to use the army to crack down on protests following police killing of black citizen George Floyd in Minneapolis. The BBC reports it. The former chief of staff told National Public Radio (NPR) that Trump's statements are "very worrying" and "dangerous". "The idea that the president can take charge of the situation using the military is worrying to me," said Dempsey. "The idea - he added - that the armed forces are called to dominate and suppress what, for the most part, have been peaceful protests - it must be admitted that however some have been instrumentally violent - and that the armed forces in some way come and calm down the situation is very dangerous in my opinion ".
Trump shared a letter on Twitter in which the protesters who were missing Monday night from security forces after they gathered in a park near the White House to protest the killing of George Floyd are called "terrorists". The letter, signed by former Trump attorney John Dowd, appears to be addressed to former defense secretary James Mattis. "The false demonstrators near Lafayette were not peaceful and are not real," reads Dowd's letter. "They are terrorists who use hateful students to burn and destroy. They were abusing and disrespecting the police," the text continues.
Twitter has disabled a video posted by the president's election campaign team pays tribute to George Floyd, stating that the decision was made on a copyright issue. The Guardian reports it. The video, which lasts three minutes and 45 seconds, had been posted on social media on June 3 and had been retweeted about 7,000 times, even by Trump himself and his son Donald Jr. In response, the president of the president's campaign accused Twitter and its co-founder Jack Dorsey to censor a "comforting and unifying message from President Trump" and urged tycoon followers to viralize another YouTube video. The muted video shows images of peaceful protests as Trump talks about a "serious tragedy", then frames the president who warns against the violence of "radical leftist groups" against the backdrop of scenes of unrest and looting.