As a police station burned, Trump threatened violence in opposition to these protesting a dying in police custody.A Minneapolis police precinct sta
As a police station burned, Trump threatened violence in opposition to these protesting a dying in police custody.
A Minneapolis police precinct station was overrun and set ablaze by protesters Thursday night time as damaging demonstrations raged within the metropolis and unfold throughout the nation in a single day Friday following the dying of George Floyd, an African-American man, in police custody.
He died after pleading, “I can’t breathe,” whereas a white police officer pressed his knee into his neck. The dying set off days of constant protests and scattered looting of shops within the Minnesota metropolis, as demonstrators denounced one other in an extended line of deadly encounters between African-Individuals and legislation enforcement officers.
President Trump, who beforehand known as the video of Mr. Floyd’s dying “surprising,” later known as the protesters “thugs” on Twitter and mentioned that “when the looting begins, the capturing begins,” prompting the social media community to attach a warning to the tweet, saying that it violated the company’s rules about “glorifying violence.”
The spectacle of a police station in flames and a president appearing to threaten violence against those protesting the death of a black man in police custody — set against the backdrop of a coronavirus pandemic that has kept many residents from engaging with one another directly for months — added to the anxiety of a nation already plagued by health and economic crises.
Tera Brown, Mr. Floyd’s cousin, has said: “I want to see action. This was clearly murder.”
The demonstration near the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct grew more intense in the hours after prosecutors said they had not decided whether to charge the officer videotaped pressing his knee into Mr. Floyd’s neck for about eight minutes.
The protests have spread across the state, leading to the evacuation on Thursday afternoon of lawmakers and employees from the State Capitol in St. Paul as a precaution.
Other protests — many peaceful, some convulsed by violence — were reported across the country.
The State Capitol in Denver was put on lockdown after someone fired a gun near a peaceful demonstration, and protests in Columbus, Ohio, turned chaotic as crowds surging up the steps of the State Capitol and broke windows, videos posted by news outlets confirmed. The Columbus Dispatch reported that officers additionally used pepper spray on massive crowds of demonstrators downtown after a couple of protesters tossed smoke bombs and water bottles at strains of officers.
In Phoenix, a whole bunch of protesters marched towards the State Capitol with relative calm, in keeping with information reviews, earlier than tense face offs with law enforcement officials erupted later within the night time.
The anger and the craze in Minneapolis have been constructing for days.
After prosecutors introduced on Thursday that that they had not determined whether or not to cost the police officer who was caught on video together with his knee pressed against the neck of George Floyd as the man begged for air, that rage turned to chaos.
Outside the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct station, the crowds surged, with some people tossing fireworks and other items at officers, while the police fired projectiles back.
The standoff soon spiraled out of control, with officers retreating from the police station in vehicles just after 10 p.m. Thursday local time as protesters stormed the building — smashing equipment, lighting fires and setting off fireworks, according to videos posted from the scene.
“We’re starting fires in here, so be careful,” one man could be heard shouting as sprinklers doused protesters who had burst inside. Flames rose from the front of the building as hundreds of protesters looked on, and soon smoke was billowing from the roof.
Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis said at a news conference Friday morning that he had made the call for officers to flee the Third Precinct, saying, “The symbolism of a building cannot outweigh the importance of life.”
Mr. Frey, a Democrat, said he understood the anger of the city’s residents but pleaded with people to stop destroying property and looting stores. “It’s not just enough to do the right thing yourself,” he said. “We need to be making sure that all of us are held accountable.”
Mr. Frey also gave a fiery retort to Mr. Trump’s tweets during a news conference Friday morning.
“Weakness is refusing to take responsibility for your own actions,” he said. “Weakness is pointing your finger at somebody else during a time of crisis.” He added, “Donald Trump knows nothing about the strength of Minneapolis.”
“Unfortunately, some individuals have engaged in unlawful and dangerous activity, including arson, rioting, looting, and damaging public and private property,” Mr. Walz wrote in his proclamation. “These activities threaten the safety of lawful demonstrators and other Minnesotans, and both first responders and demonstrators have already been injured.”
The company prevented users from viewing Mr. Trump’s message without first reading a brief notice describing the rule violation. Twitter also blocked users from liking or replying to Mr. Trump’s post.
But Twitter did not take the message down, saying it was in the public interest for the President’s words remain accessible.
For police trainers and criminologists, the episode appears to be a textbook case of why many police departments across the country have sought to outright ban or limit the use of chokeholds or other neck restraints in recent years: The practices have too often turned fatal.
“It is a technique that we don’t use as much anymore because of the vulnerability,” said Mylan Masson, a former police officer who ran a training program for the Minneapolis police for 15 years until 2016. “We try to stay away from the neck as much as possible.”
Department records indicate, however, that the Minneapolis police have not entirely abandoned the use of neck restraints, even if the method used by Officer Chauvin is no longer part of police training.
The Minneapolis Police Department’s manual states that neck restraints and chokeholds are basically reserved only for when an officer is caught in a life-or-death situation. There was no such apparent threat during Mr. Floyd’s detention.
Criminologists viewing the tape said that the knee restraint not only put dangerous pressure on the back of the neck, but that Mr. Floyd was also kept lying on his stomach for too long. Both positions — the knee on the neck and lying face down — run the risk of cutting off the oxygen supply.
Peaceful protests against the death of George Floyd turned chaotic in several cities on Thursday night into Friday morning, with the Denver State Capitol put on lockdown after someone fired a gun near a demonstration and crowds in Columbus, Ohio, surging up the steps of the State Capitol and breaking windows.
Leslie Herod, a state representative in Colorado, said she had heard several shots near the Denver Statehouse. The Police Department said no injuries were immediately reported.
In Ohio, the police could be seen rushing to the Capitol and ordering protesters to disperse, while downtown, officers used pepper spray on large crowds.
Similar episodes occurred in Phoenix, where hundreds of protesters marched toward the State Capitol relatively calmly before gatherings grew more tense throughout the night, as some protesters threw stones at the city’s Police Department.
Near the Phoenix State Capitol, a pregnant woman was photographed in apparent pain on the ground. A reporter wrote on Twitter that she had been pepper sprayed.
A video taken on the Denver protest appeared to indicate the driving force of a black S.U.V. driving by way of a crowd of protesters who had blocked site visitors close to the Statehouse. As a protester jumped off the automobile, and the driving force sped up and knocked the protester him. It was unclear whether or not he was injured.
“I share the immense anguish all of us really feel concerning the unjust homicide of George Floyd,” Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado mentioned in an announcement. “However let me be clear, mindless violence won’t ever be healed by extra violence.”
Greater than 40 folks have been arrested on Thursday night time in Manhattan as a whole bunch of New Yorkers joined the nationwide protests. One lady taken into custody at Union Sq. yelled, “Black lives matter!” as officers dragged her to a police wagon, a video posted on-line confirmed.
Photographs on social media confirmed sometimes-chaotic scenes in New York because the largely younger protesters clashed with uniformed officers. Some protesters carried indicators that learn, “No Justice, No Peace” and chanted, “I can’t breathe.”
The investigation shall be led by the U.S. lawyer in Minnesota, Erica MacDonald, and by F.B.I. brokers in Minneapolis. Lawyer Normal William P. Barr and the pinnacle of the Justice Division’s civil rights division, Eric Dreiband, are carefully monitoring their inquiry, a Justice Division spokeswoman mentioned.
“The Division of Justice has made the investigation a high precedence and has assigned skilled prosecutors and F.B.I. felony investigators to the matter,” the division said in a statement.
The department noted that is a violation of federal law for an officer acting in an official capacity to deprive another person of his or her constitutional rights, including the right to be protected from cruel and unusual punishment.
State and federal prosecutors are running simultaneous investigations into Mr. Floyd’s death after a video showed Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pressing his knee on the neck of Mr. Floyd, who is black, as Mr. Floyd’s body became limp.
Mr. Chauvin and three other officers at the scene, who did nothing to stop Mr. Chauvin, were fired on Tuesday, and Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis has called for Mr. Chauvin to be arrested and charged. The Minneapolis Police Department has identified the other officers as Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng.
State prosecutors said early Thursday night that they had not yet decided whether to charge any of the four Minneapolis police officers.
The Justice Department has declined to charge police officers in other high-profile cases in which a black person has died in their custody.
In July, after a five-year investigation, the department said it would not bring federal civil rights charges against Daniel Pantaleo, the Staten Island police officer who killed Eric Garner by wrapping his arm around his neck. The killing was caught on video and widely circulated online.
The decision bitterly divided the Justice Department’s civil rights division lawyers, who wanted to charge Mr. Pantaleo, and prosecutors in Brooklyn, who believed they could not win the case at trial.
Mr. Barr ultimately sided with the Brooklyn prosecutors, who had argued that they did not have enough evidence to prove that Mr. Panataleo committed a federal civil rights violation because they could not prove that he had made a clear decision to use a chokehold, which the New York Police Department had banned, when he killed Mr. Garner.
Like Mr. Floyd, Mr. Garner also gasped, “I can’t breathe” before he died.
Lawmakers and employees at the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minn., were told to evacuate the building as a precaution on Thursday afternoon, after looting continued at nearby stores.
St. Paul police officers encountered large groups of people stealing merchandise from a Target store and other businesses in the city’s Midway neighborhood, said St. Paul Police Department spokesman Steve Linder.
Some threw rocks, liquor bottles and bricks at the responding officers, while another group of people rushed into a Foot Locker, he said, noting that a fight broke out in the parking lot.
“Our officers have been busy trying to keep things calm and de-escalate when possible, and protect people and property,” Mr. Linder said.
As crowds of protesters gathered in increasing numbers a few blocks away from the Capitol, the secretary of the Senate ordered staff members and legislators to leave the building at about 1:30 p.m. local time, according to staff members. About an hour later, the Capitol Security Department of Public Safety ordered all Capitol staff and employees to evacuate.
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee asked the Justice Department on Thursday to investigate Mr. Floyd’s death along with the recent killings of two other black people: Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot after being pursued by white men near Brunswick, Ga.; and Breonna Taylor, who was killed by police officers in Louisville, Ky., during a “no-knock” raid of her apartment. On Thursday night, seven people were struck by gunfire at a protest in Louisville, Ky., over the death of Ms. Taylor.
The committee members asked the department to open so-called pattern and practice investigations into potential police misconduct in all three cases. Federal law prohibits law enforcement officers from engaging in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives people of their constitutional rights.
They also asked that the department investigate the local prosecutors who were involved in Mr. Arbery’s case. The two armed men who chased Mr. Arbery had connections to local law enforcement and were not arrested for 74 days, until after a video of the shooting was widely circulated.
Mr. Arbery’s death and the subsequent local investigation “are reminiscent of early 20th century lynchings in the Jim Crow South,” the committee members wrote.
Jerry Nadler, the chair of the committee, said it is considering legislation to address racial profiling and the excessive use of force by police officers.
He noted that the Justice Department has uncovered rampant police abuses in Ferguson, Mo., Baltimore, Cleveland and Chicago, which led the police departments in those cities to negotiate consent decrees with the federal government.
The police said they were investigating a fatal shooting near a looted pawnshop within the space the place Wednesday night time’s protests occurred.
In a information convention early Thursday morning, a Minneapolis Police Division spokesman, John Elder, mentioned two officers responded to a name close to the Cadillac Pawn & Jewellery store, the place they discovered the sufferer in grave situation on the sidewalk. He was taken to a hospital, the place he died.
Mr. Elder declined to substantiate media reviews that the sufferer was concerned in looting, or whether or not the shop proprietor was the shooter.
“That is without doubt one of the theories we’re wanting into,” he mentioned, noting that the crime continues to be below investigation. “We need to make it possible for we do in truth have all the info shifting ahead. We don’t need to solid aspersions on any person if in truth they weren’t doing something flawed.”
A suspect was taken into custody, Mr. Elder mentioned, however he declined to offer the suspect’s id, citing investigative protocol.
The violence got here on the finish of what had been a tense interval.
Protesters started gathering Wednesday afternoon outdoors the Third Precinct headquarters, however by early night, officers have been attempting to disperse the crowds utilizing flash-bang grenades and tear gasoline.
Some residents of the world mentioned Thursday that they believed folks from outdoors town had been accountable for a big portion of the fires and looting.
“That is simply painful,” mentioned Cynthia Montana, 57. “I don’t assume the individuals who did the looting and all this destruction are the identical because the peaceable protesters which have been at Cup Meals,” the place Mr. Floyd was arrested on Monday.
“I’m a protester,” Ms. Montana mentioned. “It was so peaceable over there.”
She mentioned the close by neighborhood is numerous, however within the broader Twin Cities group, there are large racial disparities.
“It’s like layer and layer and layer of gunpowder constructing over a very long time,” she mentioned, “and once you develop into an grownup, it’s this stick of dynamite.”
Mr. Floyd’s sister, Bridgett Floyd, known as for justice on NBC’s “Immediately” present.
“I would love for these officers to be charged with homicide as a result of that’s precisely what they did,” Ms. Floyd mentioned.
“I don’t need the protests to be for simply present,” mentioned Tera Brown, Mr. Floyd’s cousin, who appeared with two of Mr. Floyd’s brothers. “I need to see motion.”
“This was clearly homicide,” she added. “We need to see them arrested; we need to see them charged; we need to see them convicted for what they did.”
Stephen Jackson, the previous N.B.A. participant and now podcast host, advised “The Immediately Present” on Thursday that the dying of Mr. Floyd, a longtime pal, “destroyed” him.
“I jumped up, screamed, scared my daughter and nearly broke my hand punching stuff as a result of I used to be so mad,” Mr. Jackson mentioned, describing his response when he realized the information.
Mr. Jackson advised “The Breakfast Membership” podcast that he grew up with Mr. Floyd within the Houston space. He joked that they appeared a lot alike that they may have the identical father, so would refer to one another as “Twin.”
“Neighborhoods, all of them get beefing,” Mr. Jackson mentioned. “However you at all times have one man that may go to all of the neighborhoods and everyone will rock with him. Floyd was that man.”
Extreme drive complaints in opposition to Minneapolis officers have develop into commonplace, particularly by African-American residents. One of many officers concerned in Mr. Floyd’s dying, Mr. Chauvin, 44, had a number of complaints filed in opposition to him, three of which led to reprimands for his language and tone.
Mr. Chauvin shot a person who was attempting to seize an officer’s gun in 2008, in keeping with The Pioneer Press. He was additionally current at two different shootings, one in all them deadly, but it surely was unclear if he fired his weapon in these circumstances, in keeping with Communities United Towards Police Brutality, an area group advocating police reform.
African-Individuals account for about 20 % of town’s inhabitants, however they’re extra prone to be pulled over, arrested and have drive used in opposition to them than white residents, Police Division knowledge reveals. And black folks accounted for greater than 60 % of the victims in Minneapolis police shootings from late 2009 by way of Could 2019, knowledge reveals.
But there’s a deep rift between town’s police drive — which is also predominantly white — and the group, one which appears to develop bigger with every killing.
Reporting was contributed by Marc Santora, Elian Peltier, Raymond Zhong, Russell Goldman, Mike Wolgelenter, Victoria Bekiempis, Katie Benner, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Audra D.S. Burch, Sopan Deb, John Eligon, Matt Furber, Jack Healy, Dan Levin, Edgar Sandoval and Neil Vigdor.