The protests are spreading in the United States. After several nights of riots in Minneapolis because of the death at the beginning of the week of a black American during his arrest in the city of Minnesota, demonstrations broke out in several large American cities, Friday, May 29, despite the indictment for manslaughter of police officer arrested after several days of riots.

Hundreds of people gathered across the country, such as in front of the White House in Washington but also in New York with nearly a thousand demonstrators, Dallas, Denver, Houston, city of origin of the victim, or Las Vegas, Des Moines, Memphis and Portland. In Atlanta, police patrol vehicles were burned. And in Louisville, Kentucky, clashes took place as residents sought justice for Breonna Taylor, a black woman killed by police in her apartment in March.

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A curfew has been in effect since Friday in Minneapolis, defied by demonstrators who were subjected to tear gas.

The family of 46-year-old George Floyd, whom President Donald Trump announced he had spoken to, hailed the police officer's arrest as a first step on "the road to justice", but deemed it "late" and insufficient . "We want a charge of premeditated intentional homicide. And we want to see the other (implicated) agents arrested," she said in a statement.

"We're already dead, so we might as well die for a good cause, right?"

So far, only police officer Derek Chauvin "has been detained," said Commissioner John Harrington of the Minnesota Department of Civil Protection. He is accused of having committed a cruel and dangerous act causing death and manslaughter, said the prosecutor of the county of Hennepin, where Minneapolis is located.

The face of this agent has been around the world, since a video that went viral shows him violently calling on Monday for a minor crime George Floyd, and placing his knee on his neck. George Floyd begs and complains: "I can't breathe anymore", we hear him say.

Derek Chauvin and the three other agents involved in the tragedy were dismissed and federal and local investigations were opened to establish their responsibilities.

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The National Guard was also deployed to Minneapolis to try to restore calm and a curfew decreed from Friday evening, from 8 p.m. local until 6 a.m. the next day, when a police station was set on fire in the previous night and several businesses looted.

"We've been crashing for far too long. We die, brother, with someone's knee on our neck when we haven't done anything (...). So it's over, we're fed up "I mean, we're already dead, so we might as well die for a good cause, right?" Said a protester in Minneapolis, who only wanted to be identified by his first name, Chicago.

With AFP

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