After several nights of riots in Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed by a police officer on May 25, the police were more aggressive, noted the reporter for Europe 1 present on site Saturday evening. With tear gas and stun grenades, they were determined to regain control of the city.

REPORTAGE

Five days after the death of Georges Floyd, America continues to burn. The death of this 40-year-old black man, who died during his arrest by a white police officer, who has since been arrested, has revived the racial wounds of the United States. Since the beginning of the week, protest demonstrations have spread across the country, and have turned into a riot, to the point that many cities, including Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Atlanta, have announced the start place of a curfew on Saturday. 

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In Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed, parades continued into the night from Saturday to Sunday. But this time, the police were more numerous and advanced without backing up, determined to take back the areas of the city occupied by the demonstrators. "Stay put, raise your hands," shouted the protesters, but the load of the police was too heavy, the tear gas and stun grenades too numerous. 

"They yelled at us to go inside"

"On the ground", order the police who arrest those they find in the neighborhood. Tanya is still in shock: she was on her porch with friends when the police passed. "They yelled at us to go inside, and then there was one who said 'turn them on', she said, and they shot us with riot bullets," said she at the microphone of Europe 1.

>> READ ALSO -  In Minneapolis, residents in solidarity despite the violence of the riots

This kind of gesture and the charges, which force the demonstrators to disperse tear gas, are additional signs testifying to the new aggressiveness of the police. On this fifth night of unrest, they decided to regain control of the city for good. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, anxious to prevent another night of riots, warned that protesters would be in "a very dangerous situation" if they broke the curfew again. 

Mobile alert: Curfew is in effect in Minneapolis in 3 minutes pic.twitter.com/C7lKIVAV85

- Xavier Yvon (@xavieryvon) May 31, 2020

Trump and Biden speak out against violence

While traveling to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida where he attended SpaceX's first manned space flight, Donald Trump denounced the riots of last night in Minneapolis as the work of "looters and anarchists". His Democratic rival in the White House Joe Biden also denounced the violence. "Demonstrating against such brutality is a right and a necessity. It is an eminently American reaction," the candidate said in a statement. "But setting cities on fire and free destruction is not. Life-threatening violence is not," he said.