US protests latest: thousands defy curfews as Pope Francis deplores racism, violence
- Pope called Floyd’s death ‘tragic’ as tens of thousands of people took to the streets of US cities for an eighth consecutive night
- Here’s the latest on the protests in the United States, sparked by the death of George Floyd
Protesters defied curfews across the United States Tuesday night as leaders scrambled to stem anger over police racism.
Standoffs between police and demonstrators stretched into the night in cities from New York to Los Angeles over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man whose killing has brought once-in-a-generation protests to the nation for the past week.
But there were fewer reports of the looting and violence that had soured street demonstrations in previous nights.
Tens of thousands gathered earlier in Houston to pay a hometown tribute to Floyd, who grew up in the Texas city and is to be buried there next week.
Large marches and rallies also took place in Philadelphia, Atlanta and Seattle as the Pentagon mobilised about 1,600 US Army troops into the Washington DC region, after several nights of violent protests in the city.
“Active duty elements are postured on military bases in the National Capitol Region but are not in Washington DC,” Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman said.
He said the troops were on “heightened alert status” but “are not participating in defence support to civil authority operations”.