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New Orleans police clash with protesters on Wednesday evening. Photo: AP

US protests latest: thousands still march in cities after police charged in George Floyd death

  • Thousands of people gather in Los Angeles, New York, Washington; autopsy reveals George Floyd tested positive for Covid-19 in April
  • Here’s the latest on the protests in the United States, sparked by the killing of unarmed black man

US protesters welcomed new charges brought Wednesday against Minneapolis officers in the killing of African American man George Floyd - but thousands still marched in cities across the country for a ninth straight night, chanting against racism and police brutality.

With a key demand met, demonstrators nevertheless staged large and mainly peaceful rallies calling for deeper change in cities from New York to Los Angeles, hours after the new indictments were announced.

In Minnesota, prosecutors had initially charged 44-year-old Derek Chauvin - the white officer filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes - with third-degree murder.

But they said Wednesday they were upgrading the charge, roughly akin to manslaughter, to second-degree murder, which does not involve premeditation but carries stiffer penalties.

Chauvin’s three colleagues at the scene of Floyd’s May 25 arrest for allegedly seeking to buy cigarettes with a counterfeit bill are accused of being complicit in the killing.

Tou Thao, 34, J. Alexander Kueng, 26, and Thomas Lane, 37, were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder, and taken into custody.

Derek Chauvin, J Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao. Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder of George Floyd. Kueng, Lane and Thao have been charged with aiding and abetting Chauvin. Photo: AP

Floyd’s family called the arrests a “bittersweet moment” and a “significant step forward on the road to justice”.

The arrest of all of the officers involved has been a persistent demand of protesters who have taken to the streets of dozens of US cities for the past nine days to condemn police brutality and demand racial justice

While condemning Floyd’s death, President Donald Trump has adopted a tough stance towards the protesters, saying they include many “bad people” and “you have to have dominant force”

“We need law and order,” he repeated on Wednesday.

Trump has also raised the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy active duty troops to quell unrest, an option rejected by Defence Secretary Mark Esper, who said the National Guard should play that role when needed.

Here are the developments:

Two New York police shot and wounded

A man armed with a knife stabbed a New York policeman in the neck on Wednesday and two officers who ran to his rescue were wounded before they shot the attacker multiple times, police said.

All four were taken to Kings County Hospital where the police were in stable condition and the suspect was in critical condition, police said.

The attack in Brooklyn came amid mass protests and some rioting in New York. It was not immediately clear if the attack was related to the protests, but Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said the police were on duty to stop looting.

A man walked “casually” up to one of the officers near Church and Flatbush avenues in Brooklyn, pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the left side of his neck, Shea said.

“It appears to be a completely cowardly, despicable, senseless attack on a defenceless police officer,” Shea said.

The two other officers heard shots fired from two blocks away and ran over and saw that the suspect had the wounded police officer’s gun, he said. The two officers were shot in their hands in the struggle.

Police in Brooklyn charged into a crowd of about 1,000 protesters defying a curfew, albeit peacefully, near an outdoor plaza, and clubbed demonstrators and journalists as they scurried for cover in a downpour of heavy rain.

The confrontation in Brooklyn seemed to be the biggest exception to a calmer night.

Duchess of Sussex speaks out on racism

The Duchess of Sussex has shared her sadness about racial divisions in the United States, telling students at her former high school that she felt moved to speak out because the life of George Floyd mattered.

Meghan told graduates at the Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles that she wrestled with what to tell them given the days of protests after Floyd’s death.

“I realised the only wrong thing to say is to say nothing, because George Floyd’s life mattered,” she said in a virtual address.

The former Meghan Markle, who has an African-American mother and a white father, said the unrest reminded her of riots that took place in her hometown of Los Angeles after police officers were acquitted in the video-taped beating of another African-American, Rodney King.

“I remember the curfew and I remember rushing back home, and on that drive home, seeing ash fall from the sky, and smelling the smoke and seeing the smoke billow out of buildings,’’ she said. “I remember seeing men in the back of a van just holding guns and rifles.

“I remember pulling up the house and seeing the tree, that had always been there, completely charred. And those memories don’t go away.”

New Orleans police use tear gas on protesters

Police in New Orleans released tear gas on hundreds of demonstrators who pushed past a line of officers to cross a Mississippi River bridge during demonstrations.

A video of the incident obtained by The Times Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate shows a crowd of protesters running, shoving past each other, and shouting “walk” on Wednesday night as smoke envelops the background of the bridge.

The encounter came hours after a rally and a march that started near the New Orleans City Hall. Some protesters were chanting curses at New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who earlier Wednesday was criticised by fellow high-profile athletes, including LeBron James, and some of his own teammates after saying in an interview with Yahoo! he opposed kneeling during the national anthem.

Washington protests peaceful amid show of force

As the National Guard and law enforcement officers stood guard near the White House, surveillance planes kept watch on protesters in the nation’s capital from the air.

At one point Wednesday night, an FBI plane, an Army surveillance plane and a Park Police helicopter were circling overhead.

The demonstrators broke up into two groups; one stayed at the White House, the other marched to the Capitol. Protesters held signs and chanted, but there were no indications of any confrontations with law enforcement.

Hundreds of protesters stood face to face with military and federal officers who had formed a perimeter around Lafayette Park across from the White House. Military vehicles were parked on nearby streets, also blocking access.

The demonstration was held to protest the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minnesota.

Military police and law enforcement officers from a variety of federal agencies were out in force. A senior Defence official said at least 2,200 Guard members would be on the streets Wednesday.

The South Carolina and Utah National Guards had forces in place. Bureau of Prisons personnel wore blue uniforms. There were also agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency, the FBI hostage rescue team and the Secret Service.

Washington’s mayor set an 11pm curfew in the city after earlier restrictions the previous two nights.

Demonstrators lay on the ground facing a police line in front of the White House on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

Ex-defence secretary Mattis blasts Trump

After long refusing to explicitly criticise a sitting president, former defence secretary James Mattis accused Trump on Wednesday of trying to divide America and roundly denounced a militarisation of the US response to the civil unrest.

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people – does not even pretend to try,” Mattis, who resigned as Trump’s defence secretary in 2018, wrote in a statement published by The Atlantic.

“Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort.”

Hongkongers divided over lessons from American unrest

Mattis, a retired Marine general who denies political ambitions, also took a swipe at current US military leadership for taking part in a Monday photo-op led by Trump after law enforcement – including National Guard – cleared away peaceful protesters.

He criticised use of the word “battlespace” by Defence Secretary Mark Esper and Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to describe protest sites in the United States.

“We must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battlespace,’” Mattis wrote.

Floyd tested positive for Covid-19 in April

A full autopsy of George Floyd was released Wednesday and provides several clinical details, including that Floyd had tested positive for Covid-19.

The 20-page report released by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office came with the family’s permission and after the coroner’s office released summary findings Monday that Floyd had a heart attack while being restrained by officers, and classified his May 25 death as a homicide.

The report by Chief Medical Examiner Andrew Baker spelled out clinical details, including that Floyd tested positive for Covid-19 on April 3 but appeared asymptomatic. The report also noted Floyd’s lungs appeared healthy but he had some narrowing of arteries in the heart.

The county’s earlier summary report listed fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use under “other significant conditions” but not under “cause of death”.The full report’s footnotes noted that signs of fentanyl toxicity can include “severe respiratory depression” and seizures.

George Floyd. File photo: AP

Anti-terror unit arrests far-right extremists

Three far-right extremists arrested by an anti-terror unit at Las Vegas protests were charged Wednesday with inciting violence, officials said.

The men allegedly belong to the “Boogaloo” movement, which has adopted Hawaiian shirts as a uniform and which promotes “a coming civil war and/or collapse of society”, said a Nevada federal prosecutor.

Reports of far-right activists, sometimes heavily armed, infiltrating the protests over the past week have included several claiming to be part of the “Boogaloo” movement.

Stephen Parshall, 35, Andrew Lynam, 23, and William Loomis, 40, all live in Las Vegas where they were arrested on Saturday by an anti-terror unit headed by the FBI.

They were in possession of a fire bomb when they were detained.

If convicted on federal charges the men face up to 30 years in prison. They were also indicted on terrorism conspiracy and other charges by state officials.

Permission refused for rallies in Norway

Authorities in Norway have turned down applications to hold rallies in the country’s three largest cities in support of protesters in the US over the death of George Floyd, citing the coronavirus restrictions on gatherings.

Rallies were planned in Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim but local authorities said that without a dispensation from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, not more than 50 people can gather in one place, Mohamed Awil, president of the African Student Association UiO said.

The association is co-organising the rally in Oslo where more than 15,000 people had said they planned to take part in Thursday’s demonstration outside the US Embassy. Awil said they were considering an alternative demonstration but details were not immediately available.

Pentagon chief rejects use of military

US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said on Wednesday he does not support invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy active duty forces to quell civil unrest, a move President Donald Trump threatened to take to stem protests that have roiled the nation.

Trump this week said he could use military forces in states that fail to crack down on sometimes violent protests over the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis.

“The option to use active duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire of situations. We are not in one of those situations now,” Esper told a news briefing. “I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act.”

The remarks generated some push back at the White House, where three Trump aides who asked not to be identified said the secretary should have moderated his comments to draw less of a distinction with the president. Nonetheless, aides said they do not expect Trump to seek Esper’s departure.

To deploy the military on US soil for law enforcement purposes, Trump would need to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act – something last done in 1992 in response to the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles.

Esper said he regretted using the term “battlespace” this week to describe areas gripped by protests.

“In retrospect, I would use different wording so as not to distract from the more important matters at hand or allow some to suggest that we are militarising the issue,” he said.

Trump threatens to end George Floyd protests with military

The military has pre-positioned 1,600 active duty forces on the outskirts of Washington to deploy if needed.

Trump’s threats to use the military – even in states that oppose its use to address civil unrest – has stirred alarm within the US military and in Congress, where a top Republican warned it could easily make troops “political pawns”.

Esper offered condolences to Floyd’s family, saying his death was a “horrible crime” and a “tragedy we’ve seen repeat itself too many times” in the US.

Celebrities help post bail for detained demonstrators

Some US celebrities are announcing big donations out of solidarity with the nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd, in particular to post bond for demonstrators who have been arrested.

The latest to do so is the cast of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, a comedy TV series set at a police station in New York, which said it is donating US$100,000 to the National Bail Fund Network.

“The cast and showrunner of Brooklyn 99 condemn the murder of George Floyd and support the many people who are protesting police brutality nationally,” they said in a brief statement tweeted by the actress Stephanie Beatriz, who plays the irascible but good-hearted cop Rosa Diaz in the series.

The showbiz couple made up of Blake Lively (Gossip Girl) and Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) said they are giving US$200,000 to the legal defence fund of the NAACP, America’s largest civil rights organisation.

“We’ve never had to worry about preparing our kids for different rules of law or what might happen if we’re pulled over in the car. We don’t know what it’s like to experience that life day in and day out,” they wrote on Instagram.

Model and TV presenter Chrissy Teigen - a regular user of Twitter to criticise President Donald Trump - is also putting up money in solidarity with the protesters.

She first announced she was donating $100,000 to pay demonstrators’ bail. Then, after somebody on the internet accused her of supporting “rioters and criminals”, she went further.

“Ooo they might need more money then. Make it $200,000,” Teigen wrote.

Many celebrities have spoken out on social media to express support for the demonstrations and outrage over the death of George on May 25 in Minneapolis.

Books about racial discrimination in US sell out

From White Fragility to The New Jim Crow, literature about the history of racial discrimination in the United States is selling out as white Americans seek to educate themselves as nationwide protests grow over the killing of unarmed black people.

As the death of George Floyd, has prompted more than a week of street protests throughout the states, Americans at home are turning to books, movies and television shows that lay bare decades of discrimination.

Non-fiction books about the black experience head the Amazon.com best-seller list, including children’s books, such as the We’re Different, We’re the Same from the Sesame Street stable. Many titles are sold out and used editions carry asking prices of up to US$50 each.

On the Barnes and Noble website, eight of the Top 10 best-sellers were previously published books, including “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo.

“This doesn’t happen everyday... The #1 and #2 overall bestsellers @amazon right now are two books challenging racism. This is you,” Ibram X. Kendi, author of How To Be an Anti-Racist, wrote on Twitter this week.

Just as the street protests have transcended colour lines, Americans have been seeking and passing on recommended reading lists to friends and followers through Twitter and Instagram postings.

Kendi, who compiled one such list for the New York Times at the weekend, wrote that the aim was to “confront our self-serving beliefs and make us aware that ‘I’m not racist’ is a slogan of denial.”

Obama calls for police reform

In his first live remarks on the unrest gripping dozens of US cities, former US President Barack Obama on Wednesday urged every American mayor to review and reform their police department’s use-of-force policies in consultation with their communities.

The country’s first black president also struck a note of optimism, even as he acknowledged the despair and anger powering the protests.

“In some ways, as tragic as these last few weeks have been, as difficult and scary and uncertain as they’ve been, they’ve also been an incredible opportunity for people to be awakened to some of these underlying trends,” Obama said via live-stream from his Chicago home.

“And they offer an opportunity for us to all work together to tackle them, to take them on, to change America and make it live up to its highest ideals.”

Former US president Barack Obama during virtual town hall event on Wednesday. Photo: My Brother's Keeper Alliance and The Obama Foundation via AP

He also directly addressed young Americans of colour, telling them:“I want you to know that you matter, I want you to know that your lives matter, that your dreams matter”.

Obama did not mention Trump on Wednesday, though he has criticised the president’s actions more frequently in recent weeks.

Obama, who saw a similar outpouring of grief and frustration while in office after a spate of police killings of unarmed black men, rejected the notion that one must choose between “voting versus protests” or “politics and participation versus civil disobedience”.

“This is not an either-or,” he said. “This is a both-and.”

Jimmy Carter calls out racial injustice

Former president Jimmy Carter called Wednesday for Americans in positions of power and influence to fight racial injustice, saying “silence can be as deadly as violence”.

The 95-year-old former president issued a statement through the Atlanta-based Carter Centre to address the angry and sometimes violent protests that have roiled the nation in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. He said his decades working to improve human rights worldwide have taught him that people of influence can’t remain silent.

Carter made no direct mention of President Donald Trump’s handling of the protests and the racial unrest that has fuelled them. But he said: “We need a government as good as its people, and we are better than this.”

Carter noted he had declared “the time for racial discrimination is over” during his 1971 inauguration speech as Georgia’s governor, and bemoaned that he’s repeating those words almost 50 years later.

02:07

George Floyd’s death reignites protests in Paris over black Frenchman’s 2016 death in police custody

George Floyd’s death reignites protests in Paris over black Frenchman’s 2016 death in police custody

Snapchat curbs Trump for inciting ‘racial violence’

Snapchat on Wednesday became the latest social network moving to curb the reach of President Trump, claiming he has been inciting “racial violence”.

The youth-focused social network said it would no longer promote Trump on its Discover platform, which it uses to curate recommended content for its users.

“We will not amplify voices who incite racial violence and injustice by giving them free promotion on Discover,” a statement from Snapchat said.

The move came days after Twitter took an unprecedented stand by hiding a Trump post it said promoted violence, heating up the White House war with Silicon Valley and social media.

Use of military helicopter at protest under investigation

US defence officials said on Wednesday they would investigate the use of a medical evacuation helicopter carrying red cross markings to harass and intimidate demonstrators in Washington.

The helicopter hovered very low and directly above peaceful protesters on Monday using its rotor wash to blow debris on them, a dangerous tactic used by the military in war situations to force people to disperse.

The act itself was criticised, as well as the use of a medical helicopter bearing the international symbol of the Red Cross, which in wartime delineates non-combatant and neutral vehicles carrying injured persons and medical personnel.

Defence Secretary Mark Esper said on Wednesday that he had ordered an inquiry into the helicopter, which was operated by the Washington DC National Guard, which is overseen by the Pentagon.

Use of military helicopter on George Floyd protesters under investigation

Esper said he understood that the helicopter was not on a medical evacuation mission, and that its movements appeared to be “unsafe.”

“There are conflicting reports. I think we need to let the army conduct its inquiry and get back and see what the facts are,” he told reporters.

Major General William J. Walker, commanding general of the National Guard for the US capital, said he had also ordered an immediate probe.

“I hold all members of the District of Columbia National Guard to the highest of standards,” he said.

Trump denies sheltering in White House bunker

President Trump on Wednesday denied media reports that he was rushed for his safety to the White House bunker while protests raged in the streets outside.

“It was a false report,” Trump told Fox News radio, before elaborating that he did go into the secure area but only for a “tiny, little, short period time”.

According to The New York Times, quoting an unidentified source described as having direct knowledge, Secret Service bodyguards took Trump into the bunker on Friday night. Outside in Lafayette Square, crowds of people protesting police brutality fought running battles with officers and set fires.

According to Fox News, Trump was taken to the bunker on Sunday.

‘Outraged’: Trump slammed for bible photo op at damaged church

Trump said he had gone down but only during the day, not the night, as reported, and that he was partly doing so to carry out an “inspection”.

“You go there, some day you may need it. You go there, I went down. I looked at it. It was during the day. It was not a problem,” he said.

“I read about it, like a big thing. There was never a problem, we never had a problem, nobody ever came close to giving us a problem. The Secret Service does an unbelievable job of maintaining control of the White House,” he said.

Trump also said he did not ask for protesters to be moved before he walked to a damaged historic church near the White House to pose for photographs with a Bible and top aides.

Pulitzer board condemns attacks on journalists

The Pulitzer Prize board has come out in support of journalists who have been harassed and assaulted by police while covering the recent protests in the United States, it announced on Monday.

Members of the press were “deliberately shot at with rubber bullets, tear-gassed, and pepper-sprayed” by police, according to a report by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of The Press (RCFP) on Sunday.

The Pulitzer Board condemned the “assaults on and suppression of a free and independent press, which is essential to an informed democracy”.

CNN reporter Omar Jimenez was detained and arrested live on television on May 29 at a protest in Minneapolis despite showing a press pass and offering to move back.

00:36

Australian news crew struck by police at George Floyd protest in Washington

Australian news crew struck by police at George Floyd protest in Washington

Another reporter, Kaitlin Rust, and photojournalist James Dobson were struck by pepper balls reportedly fired by police during a protest in downtown Louisville on Friday night, according to The New York Times.

The Pulitzer Board urged authorities to investigate the incidents and to “hold those responsible accountable for any misconduct”.

“It is crucial that journalists are safe in carrying out their critical function, protected under the First Amendment, to document public events at a time of deep division and public tension.”

The US Park Police said Wednesday that it has placed two officers on administrative leave after video showed two Australian journalists being attacked during Monday night’s protest in Washington.

Johnson says Floyd’s death ‘inexcusable’ as UK police appalled by violence

New York takes ‘step forward’ to restore order

New York City’s second night under curfew was calmer than the first, with mostly peaceful demonstrators marching to protest the death of George Floyd and sporadic reports of vandalism.

“Last night we took a step forward in moving out of this difficult period we’ve had the last few days and moving to a better time,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

The citywide curfew from 8pm on Tuesday to 5am on Wednesday was imposed to prevent the nighttime chaos and destruction that followed peaceful protests for several days in a row.

Chief of Department Terence Monahan said the order to clear the streets at 8pm, three hours earlier than Monday’s 11pm curfew, allowed police to take control of city streets and remove troublemakers.

Police arrest protesters refusing to get off the streets after curfew on Tuesday. Photo: AP

The nightly curfews will remain in effect through Sunday, with the city planning to lift it at the same time it enters the first phase of reopening after more than two months of shutdowns because of the coronavirus.

“I’d like us never to have to use it again, if we do things right,” de Blasio said.

Monahan told NBC’s Today that officers allowed peaceful protests to continue after 8pm but added, “when a group of people that were looking to cause mayhem broke off, we were able to take care of them very quickly”.

Police said they arrested about 280 people on protest-related charges, compared with 700 the previous night.

De Blasio condemned police for roughing up journalists covering the protests.

Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg and dpa

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