Anger against racism and police brutality continued on Tuesday in the United States, despite looting, clashes with the police and the martial tone of Donald Trump, determined to restore order by resorting if necessary to l 'army. Nine days after the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a black man asphyxiated by a white police officer, the wave of historical protest knows no respite.
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At least 60,000 people paid homage to the deceased on Tuesday at a peaceful rally in Houston, the Texas city where he grew up and where he is to be buried next week. "We want them to know that George is not dead in vain," said city mayor Sylvester Turner.
Elizabeth Warren among the protesters in Washington
In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti posed with the police a knee on the ground, a symbol since 2016 of the denunciation of police violence against the African-American minority. In Washington, several thousand people, including Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, demonstrated until late in the evening, defying the city's curfew starting at 7 p.m. The surrounding area of the White House was blocked by metal barriers, preventing any direct confrontation with the police.
The US capital, where more than 300 protesters were arrested on Monday night, "was the safest place on the planet last night," Donald Trump said on Twitter as the president of "the law and the law". 'order".
Calm reigned in Minneapolis, the epicenter of this surge of anger. "I want to be brought to justice because he was good, no matter what people think, he was a good person," George Floyd's partner Roxie Washington said in tears. a press conference.
Thousands of arrests in the past week
For the past week, unrest has spread to more than a hundred American cities, with thousands of arrests and several deaths. Donald Trump paid tribute Tuesday night to a former police officer killed on a looting scene in St. Louis, Missouri.
In New York, where several department stores on famous 5th Avenue were looted Monday evening, the night curfew was brought forward at 8 p.m. and extended until Sunday. This did not prevent several hundred demonstrators, black and white, from protesting peacefully chanting "George Floyd, George Floyd" or "Black Lives Matter!" ("the life of blacks counts"), a rallying cry against police violence targeting African-Americans.
Trump threatens to send army
In a muscular speech, the American president announced Monday evening the deployment of "thousands of heavily armed soldiers" and police in Washington to put an end to "the riots" and "the looting". And he called on the governors to "dominate the streets" while threatening to send the army "to quickly resolve the problem for them" if they did not act according to his directives.
Just before his speech, the police had dispersed tear gas from many protesters around the White House to allow the president to walk to an emblematic church degraded the day before. This gesture was denounced by Protestant and Catholic leaders who condemned a "morally repugnant" coup.