Protesters gathering in front of a burning fast food restaurant on May 29, 2020, in Minneapolis. Protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody Monday, broke out in the city for a third straight night. (Photo: AP)
The fatal arrest of a black man who complained of suffocation as a white police officer knelt on his neck plunged the U.S. city of Minneapolis into chaos this week and sparked nationwide protests.
In Minneapolis, furious demonstrators set a police station ablaze on Thursday, the third day of violent protests that have now spread to the Minnesota state capital, St. Paul. Other buildings in the area were also torched. So was a car. A discount store was looted.
MUST READ | In U.S., cameras increasingly expose racism
Elsewhere in the city, citizens marched peacefully to ask for justice for George Floyd, 46, who died on Monday. Four police officers who were involved in the incident have been dismissed from duty.
There’s also worrying news from Louisville, the capital of Kentucky state, where police say seven people were shot during protests demanding justice for Breonna Taylor, a black woman fatally shot by police earlier this year.
Protesters setting fire to the entrance of a police station in Minneapolis, on May 28, 2020. (Photo: Reuters)
A protester carries a U.S. flag upside down — a sign of distress — in Minneapolis, on May 28, 2020. (Photo: AP)
U.S. President Donald Trump said he would send National Guard troops and “get the job done right” if Minneapolis’s mayor couldn’t bring things under control.
“Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” he tweeted.
The Minnesota National Guard said it had “activated” more than 500 soldiers to assist local authorities, and mainly the fire departments, in Minneapolis, St. Paul and surrounding areas.
The parking lot of an AutoZone store in flames in Minneapolis, on May 27, 2020. (Photo: AP)
Protesters seen from the roof of the Minneapolis police 3rd Precinct building, on May 28, 2020. (Photo: AP)
The death of George Floyd case was reminiscent of the 2014 killing of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man in New York City who died after being put in a banned police chokehold.
Like Floyd, he, too, was heard to mutter, “I can’t breathe.”
Eric Garner’s dying words became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement that formed amid a wave of killings of African-Americans by police.
A liquor store on fire. (Photo: Reuters)
Inputs from agencies
