Crowds gathered in dozens of American cities last night to protest the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd.
They broke out on Friday after Floyd, an unarmed black man, died on Monday. An ex-Minneapolis Police officer is charged with third degree murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death.
Multiple media outlets say dozens of people were arrested in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area last night. The Minnesota National Guard began sending out almost 11,000 troops to respond to protests.
We now have more than 4,100 – quickly moving toward 10,800 – Minnesota Citizen-Soldiers and Airmen supporting our friends and neighbors in the Twin Cities. This is a significant increase over the 700 on-duty Friday. We live here. We work here. We serve here. We’re all in. pic.twitter.com/WorKOI9ZCa
— MN National Guard (@MNNationalGuard) May 31, 2020
The Minneapolis Police tweeted protesters threw objects at officers, but none were seriously injured. They have arrested “dozens” of people since last night.
Reports say a crowd of protesters gathered in front of the White House for a second night in a row. In Los Angeles, the governor declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County.
CBS says one of their journalists and another staff member covering protests were hit by police’s rubber bullets in Minneapolis.
In New York City, a Twitter video shows two police cruisers knocking down several demonstrators, prompting outrage from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
NYPD officers just drove an SUV into a crowd of human beings. They could’ve killed them, &we don’t know how many they injured.
NO ONE gets to slam an SUV through a crowd of human beings.@NYCMayor these officers need to be brought to justice, not dismissed w/”internal reviews.” https://t.co/oIaBShSC1S
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 31, 2020
