Thousands of people gathered again Sunday in several cities of the United States to demand justice after the death of George Floyd in the aftermath of a night marked by riots, while President Donald Trump castigated the "anarchists "
The anger that exploded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after the death last Monday of this 46-year-old black man at the hands of a white police officer, quickly spread throughout the country, from Miami to the edge of the White House in Washington. A curfew was also declared in the city on the night of Sunday to Monday.
Thousands of National Guard soldiers have been deployed to 15 states and to Washington, while curfews have been declared in several other cities such as Houston and Los Angeles. In Saint Paul, the city which borders Minneapolis, epicenter of the movement, thousands of people demonstrated on Sunday afternoon against racism and for the police implicated in the death of George Floyd all to account.
Biden goes to a demonstration
So far, only one of them, Derek Chauvin, has been arrested and charged with manslaughter. It is him that we see in a viral video maintain his knee on the neck of George Floyd for long minutes, while the latter complains of not being able to breathe. "We have black children, black brothers, black friends, we don't want them to die. We are tired of repeating this generation, this generation will not give up. We are tired of oppression, "a Saint Paul protester, Muna Abdi, a 31-year-old black woman, told AFP.
Demonstrations were also underway in Washington, Miami and New York. "Black Lives Matter", "I can't breathe" (the last words spoken by George Floyd), hammered the crowds. Joe Biden, the former vice-president of Barack Obama and candidate for the presidential election of November, announced to have gone on the scene of a demonstration held Saturday against racism in his state of Delaware.
In Los Angeles, National Guard soldiers in combat gear and armed with assault rifles began patrolling downtown in the morning. This did not stop looters from attacking stores in an upscale shopping center in Santa Monica. And in East Coast Philadelphia, more than 50 people have been arrested for looting since Saturday, police said.
Trump wants to designate antifa as a terrorist organization
Despite the police deployment, violence spread to many cities on Saturday night, including New York, Philadelphia, Dallas, Las Vegas, Seattle, Des Moines, Memphis, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami, Portland, Chicago and the capital Washington. Roads were cut, cars and businesses burnt down, and large numbers of law enforcement officers responded with tear gas and in some cases rubber bullets.
President Donald Trump, who is facing the most serious civil unrest in his mandate, while the country is still facing the Covid-19 pandemic, has promised to "stop collective violence" and denounced the actions of "leftists radicals "and in particular the radical" antifa "(antifascist) movement, which he announced he wanted to designate as a terrorist organization. On Sunday, he notably retweeted the message of a conservative radio host saying: "It will only stop if good people are ready to use overwhelming force against the bad guys".
"His rhetoric only ignites things and he should just shut up"
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms earlier compared the situation to the clashes in Charlottesville, where clashes between white supremacist and anti-fascist activists left one dead and dozens injured in August 2017. Donald Trump then ruled that there were "very good people" on both sides. "President Trump is making matters worse," the mayor said on CBS. "His rhetoric only ignites things and he should just shut up." "It should unify our country (...) and not fan the flames," said Democratic President of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, on ABC.
The emotion has gone far beyond the borders of the United States. Hundreds of people demonstrated in London on Sunday chanting, "No justice, no peace!" “, One of the flagship slogans of American rallies. And footballers in Europe wanted to express their solidarity with the movement: after scoring a goal, striker Marcus Thuram, the son of the 1998 French world champion Lilian Thuram, knelt down, gesturing against police violence popularized by NFL (American Football League) player Colin Kaepernick. In Dortmund (Germany), star striker Jadon Sancho, 20, revealed after his first goal a t-shirt with the inscription "Justice for George".
- Donald trump
- Police violence
- Black
- Minneapolis
- United States
- World
- Racism