Trump Pushes Military Response as U.S. Girds for More Protests

Reuters
Tuesday 2 Jun 2020

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said U.S. troops should take to the streets of New York City to quell unrest, as authorities across the country prepared for another night of protests over the death of an unarmed black man in police custody.

Dozens of cities are under curfews. The head of the U.S. National Guard said on Tuesday that 18,000 Guard members were assisting local law enforcement in 29 states.

Lawmakers and law enforcement officials seemed taken aback by the extent of mayhem overnight in some major U.S. cities where police were shot at and pelted with rocks and projectiles as they faced hostile crowds.

Demonstrators smashed windows and looted stores in New York, including luxury retailers on Fifth Avenue, and set fire to a Los Angeles strip mall. Four officers were shot in St. Louis and one in Las Vegas who was critically wounded, authorities said.

Trump has threatened to use the military to battle violence that has erupted nightly, often after a day of peaceful protests. He has derided local authorities, including state governors, for their response to the disturbances.

"NYC, CALL UP THE NATIONAL GUARD. The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart. Act fast!" Trump tweeted on Tuesday. He deploying thousands of armed soldiers and law enforcement in the U.S. capital and vowed to do the same wherever authorities fail to regain control.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo voiced outrage at the chaos in America's largest city, saying its mayor and police force "did not do their job last night." He said he believed Mayor Bill de Blasio underestimated the scope of the problem.

The governor said he had offered the state's mayors support from state police or 13,000 National Guard who are on standby and said that with a 38,000-strong police force, New York City should be able to address its unrest on its own.

He added that Trump sought to blur the line between protesters representing a cross-section of Americans with a legitimate cause and looters. Authorities blame the looting and vandalism on a relatively small number of people protesting against police brutality.

De Blasio poured cold water on the idea of deploying the National Guard in his city.

Demonstrators have taken to the streets over the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American who died after a white policeman pinned his neck under a knee for nearly nine minutes in Minneapolis on May 25.

Derek Chauvin, the 44-year-old Minneapolis police officer who planted his knee on Floyd's neck, has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Three other officers involved have not been charged.

MARTIN LUTHER KING REMEMBERED

Floyd's death has reignited the explosive issue of police brutality against African Americans and led to a painful reexamination of race relations five months before a divided America votes in a presidential election.

Some of those who have gathered at the site of Floyd's killing have invoked the non-violent message of the late U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated in 1968, as the only way forward.

"He would be truly appalled by the violence because he gave his life for this stuff," said Al Clark, 62, a black man who drove to the Minneapolis memorial with one of King's speeches blaring from his truck.

"But I can understand the frustration and anger."

In Atlanta, six officers will face charges for an incident in which two college students were removed from their car and tased, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard told a briefing. Two of the six officers were terminated on Sunday.

A police officer in Sarasota, Florida, was placed on leave on Tuesday after video surfaced showing the officer kneeling on a man's back and neck during an arrest in May.

Officers were injured in clashes elsewhere, including one who was in critical condition after being hit by a car in the Bronx, police said.

The protests have escalated racial tensions in a country hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with African Americans making up a disproportionately high number of cases and being hard hit by job losses from lock downs to stop the spread of the virus.

Critics accuse Trump, who is seeking re-election in a Nov. 3 election, of further stoking conflict and racial tension rather than seeking to bring the country together and address the underlying issues.

"President Trump is right to be focused on law and order. He wasn't hired to be the consoler-in-chief," said Jason Miller, who advised the Republican Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden pledged in a speech on Tuesday to try to heal the racial divide in America and blasted Trump's response to the protests.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/370417.aspx

GERD Could Threaten ‘Lives and Safety of Millions of Sudanese,’ Khartoum Tells UN Security Council

Ahram Online
Tuesday 2 Jun 2020

Khartoum’s letter to the UNSC comes a few weeks after Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan agreed to resume the technical discussions on the GERD following months of disputes

Sudan has urged the United Nations Security Council to encourage all parties with a stake in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) to “refrain from any unilateral measures” that could affect regional and international peace and security.

In a letter to the Security Council on Tuesday, Sudanese Foreign Minister Asma Abdalla explained Sudan’s position on the ongoing developments related to the dam, including an initiative adopted by Sudan to resume negotiations on the disputed dam with Egypt and Ethiopia.

Sudan asked the Security Council to support its efforts to resume talks in good faith to reach a comprehensive agreement between all parties.

The letter stressed Sudan’s principled decision on “negotiating in good faith,” to which it has committed during negotiations given its belief in the importance of a solid foundation for cooperation between the three countries.

The letter listed some of the potential positive impacts of the mega-dam on Sudan, including the regulation of the flow of the Blue Nile, which would reduce annual floods during rainy seasons and enable the country to better manage its irrigation system.

The dam will also increase the power generation from existing hydropower plants, and will increase the navigation depth of the Blue Nile, the letter added.

On the other hand, listing the negative impacts of the dam, Sudan said that the GERD would completely change the flow of the Blue Nile by flattening its hydrograph.

“With this gigantic size, the GERD risks causing significant negative impacts to Sudan if not properly designed, constructed, filled and operated,” reads the letter.

“These impacts range from threatening the lives and safety of millions of Sudanese citizens living directly downstream from the GERD, to the operational safety of the Sudanese dams, to the flood-plain agricultural system of the country, and the socioeconomic and environmental impacts along the Blue Nile downstream from the main Nile River, all the way up to the border with Egypt," the letter added.

“For the positive impacts to be realised and for the negative impacts to be mitigated there has to be an agreement in place with Ethiopia on how to fill and operate the GERD, otherwise the GERD stands to cause substantial risk to Sudan," Khartoum said.

In the letter Sudan also requested the Security Council encourage all parties to refrain from taking unilateral actions such as filling the dam’s reservoir without reaching a comprehensive agreement. It also asked the Security Council to encourage the avoidance of any action which jeopardises “regional and international peace and security.”

It also asks the UN council to support Sudan’s efforts and call upon all the parties to resume immediate negotiations in good faith with “the objective of resolving the pending issues and concluding a final comprehensive agreement.”

Sudan also affirmed its commitment to the rules of international law stipulated in the UN’s Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses.

The rules mainly cover the equitable and reasonable use of watercourses and the obligation not to cause significant harm to other watercourses, and the settlement of disputes by peaceful means.

Khartoum’s letter a comes few weeks after Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan agreed to resume technical discussions on the mega-dam.

The tripartite negotiations reached a deadlock in February after Ethiopia skipped a final round of talks in Washington, leading to a diplomatic war of words between Cairo and Addis Ababa.

On 1 May, Egypt sent a memo to the Security Council blaming Ethiopia for trying to establish a deal without taking the interests of downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan, into consideration.

Egypt rejected, along with Sudan, an Ethiopian proposal put forth last month amid the ongoing discord, wherein Addis Ababa proposed a “partial agreement” that would only cover the first stage of the filling.

Addis Ababa told the Security Council in May in a letter sent in response to the Egyptian memo that it “does not have a legal obligation to seek the approval of Egypt to fill the dam.”

Egypt has said it is ready for a revival of talks but stressed the importance of "serious and constructive” talks between the three countries’ irrigation ministers to contribute to a fair, balanced and comprehensive agreement that would preserve Egypt’s water rights and the interests of both Sudan and Ethiopia.

Some 85 percent of the Nile water that reaches Egypt flows from the Ethiopian highlands, mainly from the Blue Nile.

Egypt receives 55.5 billion cubic metres of water from the Nile annually, but requires over 80 billion cubic metres to cover its needs.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/370349.aspx

Sudan Appoints  New Defense Chief Amid Tensions with Ethiopia

AP
Tuesday 2 Jun 2020

Sudan on Tuesday swore in a new defense minister more that two months after the death of the former defense chief and amid tensions with neighboring Ethiopia.

Maj. Gen. Yassin Ibrahim Yassin was sworn in before Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the ruling sovereign council, according to a statement from the council. Yassin came out of retirement to take the position.

The ceremony was held in the capital Khartoum.

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and the country's chief judge Neamat Abdullah attended the ceremony, the statement said.

Yassin replaced Gen. Gamal al-Din Omar, who died in March of a heart attack in neighboring South Sudan, while taking part in peace talks between his country's transitional government and rebel groups.

Yassin told reporters after the ceremony he would support Hamdok's government and work hard to ``achieve the goals ... of the transitional period.''

Born in 1958 in Khartoum, Yassin, a career army officer, studied in Sudan's military academy, and obtained a bachelor's degree in military science from Jordan's Mutah University. He retired in 2010, according Sudan's official SUNA news agency.

The swearing-in came amid tensions with neighboring Ethiopia over a cross-border attack allegedly conducted by a militia backed by Ethiopia's military.

At least one Sudanese army officer and one child were killed in an attack on Thursday by an Ethiopian militia group in Sudan's eastern al-Qadarif province, according to Sudan's military. Another Sudanese officer and three civilians were wounded in the incident, according to the Sudanese statement.

Sudan is on a fragile path to democracy after a popular uprising led the military to overthrow former president Omar al-Bashir in April last year. A military-civilian government now leads the country to elections in less than three years.

The transitional administration faces towering challenges, including the dire economic conditions that fueled the protests late in 2018 that eventually led the military to remove al-Bashir. Sudan's economy has been battered by decades-long civil wars and international sanctions.

Achieving peace with armed groups is crucial for the government as it would allow a reduction in military spending, which takes up to 80% of the budget, the prime minister has said.

Sudan has been convulsed by rebellions in its far-flung provinces for decades, and while a rebel alliance has joined the pro-democracy coalition, it said last month that it should be represented in the transitional government.

The August power-sharing deal has called for the government to reach a peace agreement with the rebels within six months. This deadline was not met and both sides agreed to extend the talks to reach a deal.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/370394.aspx

Egypt May Cancel Mandatory Quarantine for Returning Nationals: EgyptAir Holding Chairman

Ahram Online
Tuesday 2 Jun 2020

In May, Egypt shortened a mandatory quarantine period for Egyptians arriving from abroad from 14 days to one week

Egypt is expected to cancel the current seven-day quarantine period for Egyptians arriving from abroad, chairman of the state-owned EgyptAir Holding Company Roshdi Zakaria said on Monday.

Upon their arrival, returnees will undergo a coronavirus rapid test at the airport, and those who show no symptoms will spend a quarantine period at home, Zakaria explained in a phone call with CBC Extra TV channel.

Those who show coronavirus symptoms, however, will be transferred to isolation hospitals, he added.

In May, Egypt shortened a mandatory quarantine period for Egyptians arriving from abroad from 14 days to one week. Returnees who test negative by the end of the period were allowed to spend the rest of their quarantine at home.

The government is covering the quarantine cost of those staying at university hostels. Those willing to spend their quarantine period at designated hotels in the Mediterranean city of Marsa Alam will have to pay for their stay.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s civil aviation ministry will operate additional special flights in the upcoming two weeks to repatriate Egyptians stranded abroad.

The flights will fly to eight destinations including Beirut, Oman, Muscat, Dubai, Jeddah, Riyadh, Baghdad and Sydney.

Egypt is mainly keeping its airspace open to cargo and domestic flights during the flight suspension, which has been in place since mid-March.

Egypt is just operating flights to repatriate its citizens from abroad and has returned home at least 12,000 Egyptians so far.

The country has signaled a “gradual resumption” of international flights in the second half of June or the first half of July, according to statements by Cabinet spokesman Nader Saad earlier this week.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/370335.aspx

Egypt to Take Decision This Week on Reopening Houses of Worship, Restaurants

Ahram Online
Tuesday 2 Jun 2020

A government spokesman said the religious endowments ministry has been preparing mosques to reopen

The Egyptian government will take a decision on the reopening of houses of worship, restaurants, clubs and cinemas by the end of this week, a spokesman said yesterday.

Cabinet spokesman Nader Saad told Al-Hadath channel that the government is expected to take a decision on the reopening of houses of worship, cinemas, sports and social clubs and restaurants after a meeting this week of the committee set up to manage the coronavirus crisis.

Saad said the religious endowments ministry is “well-prepared” for the resumption of prayers in mosques, and that the cabinet would probably announce the re-opening of mosques by the end of the week.

Egypt suspended prayers at mosques in March in an effort to contain the spread of coronavirus.

The Coptic Orthodox Church, the country’s largest denomination, has also closed its churches.

It said on Saturday that it would extend the suspension of services and activities at its churches until 27 June, when it would reassess the situation.

Government spokesman Saad said that the religious endowments ministry, which runs mosques nationwide, has prepared around 320,000 metres of new carpeting for mosques, as well as disinfectants, and has been installing instructions and floor signs to allow for social distancing.

He added that all mosque bathrooms and areas for wudu, a ritual cleansing that worshippers complete before prayer, will by remain shut, and congregants will be obliged to wear masks and bring their own prayer mats.

According to Saad, the government is also expected to discuss this week the reopening of sports and social clubs, cinemas, and the resumption of in-house dining in restaurants.

Saad said that restaurants have been suffering financially as a result of the crisis. He also said that if they are allowed to open they will have to adhere to restrictive measures and will not be able to operate at full capacity.

Local authorities will supervise their commitment to the precautionary measures, and violators will have their licenses suspended, he said.

Restaurants are currently only allowed to provide delivery or takeout services.

A gradual resumption of international flights will also be announced this week or next week, according to Saad, to take place either late June or early July.

The spokesman said the government is moving towards the gradual reopening of the economy despite the daily increase in coronavirus cases; however, the speed of the reopening process would be revisited at the next meeting, given the current circumstances.

“There is no conflict between the increase in cases and the gradual reopening of economy, as long as that reopening is disciplined,” Saad said.

Egypt has recorded 26,384 coronavirus cases so far, and 1,005 deaths.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Monday that the country is expected to witness a surge in the number of new cases in the next two weeks.

Egypt has been looking in the past few weeks to pull back on some of the heavy restrictions introduced in recent months, while urging people to maintain social distancing and other preventive measures when these changes are made.

Hotels that have passed strict new safety licensing measures have been allowed to reopen to domestic tourists at 50 percent occupancy rates.

Many governmental services have also resumed, as have court sessions.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/370347.aspx

Egypt Reports a Decline in Coronavirus Infections for Second Day in a Row, a Record of 47 Deaths

Ahram Online
Tuesday 2 Jun 2020

Egypt reported on Tuesday 1,152 new coronavirus infections a decline for the second day in a row down from 1,536 on Sunday and 1,399 on Monday.

This brings the total infections to 27,536 the health ministry said in its daily statement.

The ministry also reported 47 fatalities, the highest single day death toll, bringing the total number of deaths to 1,052.

The health ministry added that 380 patients fully recovered and were discharged from isolation hospitals and quarantine facilities. The total number of recoveries from the highly contagious virus now stands at 6,827.

The number of patients whose PCR test results have turned from positive to negative, including complete recoveries, has now reached 7,642, ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said.

Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Monday Egypt is expected to witness a surge in the number of coronavirus patients in the next two weeks.

According to a televised statement by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research on Monday, it is now “scientifically impossible” to rule out that Egypt will not reach a total of 50,000 cases during this wave of the coronavirus outbreak.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/370390.aspx

Egyptian Airlines May Lower Ticket Prices, But Won’t Mandate Empty Seats Between Passengers: Minister

Ahram Online
Tuesday 2 Jun 2020

Civil Aviation Mohamed Manar Enaba said international flights will likely be resumed in the coming weeks

Egyptian Civil Aviation Mohamed Manar Enaba said on Tuesday that it was expected that airlines would drop the prices of flight tickets to encourage tourists when flights resume.

In statements to the “On My Responsibility” programme on Sada El-Balad channel on Tuesday evening, Enaba said that special incentives are being prepared for private airlines.

He also said that national carrier EgyptAir, as well as private airlines, had lost billions of pounds in revenues due to suspension of flights since March.

Enaba said that the health ministry, in accordance with the World Health Organization, would determine the standards for the resumption of international flights.

“The return of aviation depends on the return of aviation in other countries,” he also said.

The minister said he would meet on Wednesday with the head of a government committee managing the response to the coronavirus committee to determine the date when international flights would be resumed, expecting that it would be within several weeks, as a number of other countries have said they will also reopen their airspace to flights in the coming period.

“Egyptian airports are ready to receive all visitors and tourists,” he said, adding that airports would follow social distancing rules, meals would be distributed in closed packets, passengers and crew on planes would wear gloves and masks, but there would be no automatically empty seats.

There is currently a controversy worldwide about whether airlines should leave empty seats between passengers, in accordance with social distancing rules.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in May that the measure would see airlines incur huge financial losses, while it would not greatly affect passenger safety.

Enaba also met with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Enany on Tuesday to discuss the preparation for the return of international tourism and aviation.

In separate media comments on Tuesday, Enaba denied reports that the seven-day quarantine period imposed on Egyptian nationals who have returned from abroad would be lifted within hours.

“The cabinet is the one that determines this issue, not the ministry of civil aviation or EgyptAir,” he told MBC Misr 2’s morning show.

In May, Egypt shortened a mandatory quarantine period for Egyptians arriving from abroad from 14 days to one week. Returnees who test negative by the end of the period can spend the rest of their quarantine at home.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/370414.aspx

'I Am the President of Law and Order’: Trump Warns of Military Action as Protests Are Forcibly Dispersed Outside White House

By CHRIS SOMMERFELDT
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
JUN 01, 2020 | 8:01 PM

President Trump promised a forceful response to violent protests across the country on Monday and threatened to deploy U.S. military forces if cities and states fail to contain demonstrations touched off by the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis.

As flash-bang grenades and tear gas canisters could be heard going off at a chaotic protest just blocks from the White House, Trump walked into the Rose Garden and said he had recommended earlier in the day that all 50 governors activate National Guard troops in their states.

“If the city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary," Trump said, “then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them."

He added, “I am the president of law and order.”

Trump did not cite what authority would allow him to deploy armed forces within the U.S. It’s highly unlikely that he would be able to do so without congressional authorization.

The president did not lay out a plan for how to combat police brutality in the U.S. as part of his short speech.

But he did offer some condolences for the family of Floyd, an unarmed black man who died last week after a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for just under nine minutes despite the desperate cries that he could not breathe.

“All Americans are rightly sickened and revolted by the brutal death of George Floyd,” Trump said. “But we cannot allow the righteous prize and peaceful protesters to be drowned out by an angry mob.”

Without taking any questions, Trump left the Rose Garden after saying he would go and pay his “respects to a very, very special place,” prompting confusion among the assembled reporters.

Minutes later, Trump appeared again.

Flanked by Attorney General William Barr, other cabinet members and a phalanx of Secret Service agents, Trump exited the White House grounds to appear for a photo op outside St. John’s Church, which had been damaged in the previous night’s protests.

To get there, Trump had to cross Lafayette Park, which just minutes earlier had been packed with protesters, who were removed by military police firing tear gas to make way for the president.

“We have a great country,” Trump said, standing outside the boarded-up church with a bible in his hand as protesters, helicopters and more explosions could be heard in the distance. “It won’t take long. It’s not going to take long to see what is going on. It’s coming back, and it’s coming back strong. It will be greater than ever before.”

Democrats were disgusted by Trump’s military deployment threat and subsequent Bible-thumping church stunt.

“Rather than acknowledge that frustration and seek to soothe tensions, President Trump — from the Rose Garden no less — threatened to deploy armed soldiers,” said Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), "and allowed tear gas to be fired on peaceful protesters so he could walk across the street for a photo op. This is disgusting, and as far from the ‘rule of law’ and the Constitution as it gets.”

Protests expand globally as London, Berlin join U.S. cities in wake of George Floyd's death
Violent protests have broken out across the country over Floyd’s caught-on-camera death, prompting many cities, including the Big Apple, to impose mandatory curfews on top of social distancing directives already in place because of the coronavirus.

Before his Rose Garden appearance, Trump suggested on a combative conference call with the nation’s governors that curfews weren’t enough and that they needed to activate National Guard forces.

“You have to dominate or you’ll look like a bunch of jerks,” Trump fumed at the governors on the call, recordings of which were quickly leaked. “If you don’t put it down, it will get worse and worse. The only time it’s successful is when you’re weak and most of you are weak."

Widespread Property Damage Hits Manhattan Before Curfew Begins

Mayor Bill de Blasio said a citywide curfew would be imposed again on Tuesday, this time at 8 p.m. rather than 11 p.m.

Here’s what you need to know:
A curfew fails to curb widespread looting on N.Y.C.’s fifth night of protests.
The protests remained largely peaceful.
As the city’s curfew approached, many remained on the streets.
A top N.Y.P.D. official took a knee in a show of unity with protesters
As Pride Month began, a Stonewall vigil sought common cause with current protests.

New York City hit an 11 p.m. curfew on Monday after widespread looting erupted in the central business district of Manhattan, long a symbol of the city’s prominence, with shattered glass and smashed storefronts on several blocks.

Looters tried to ransack some of the city’s best-known retailers, including the Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square and a number of luxury stores along Fifth Avenue.

Mayor Bill de Blasio acknowledged that the Monday night curfew, which had been announced earlier in the day, had failed to quell the criminal violence that marred the otherwise peaceful protests of previous nights. As a result, he said, a curfew would be imposed again on Tuesday, this time starting three hours earlier, at 8 p.m.

“We’re seeing too much of this activity tonight,” the mayor said in an interview on NY1.

Just left Barclays Center. Situation there pretty calm. Now going back to Midtown. Protesters were overwhelmingly peaceful today + cops respected their right to speak out. But some people tonight had nothing to do with the cause + stole  + damaged instead. That we won’t allow.

The Monday night protests were mostly peaceful. There were few reports of clashes  between the authorities and those who had assembled to rally against police brutality and racism. The crowds had largely dispersed by the time 11 p.m. struck, although some protesters continued to walk the streets in Manhattan and near the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in violation of the curfew.

Yet even after the curfew took effect, the looting that it was meant to stop continued in parts of Midtown, a part of New York that is typically clogged with tourists, shoppers and residents alike.

The area, already hit hard by a pandemic that closed offices and brought retail to a halt, felt under siege as looters broke store windows, including at Bergdorf Goodman, the luxury retailer that has long been an anchor of Fifth Avenue. They ransacked a Microsoft store and vandalized a Barnes & Noble as helicopters whirred overhead.

Although the Macy’s in Herald Square had been boarded up, one entrance appeared to have been breached. Police officers roamed the interior of the store, which could barely be glimpsed from the outside through a narrow opening. Shortly after 11 p.m., the police seemed to be making a final arrest outside the store, as they led a young man in handcuffs to a police car.

In enacting the curfew, officials had sought to avoid the kind of looting that occurred after nightfall on Sunday in SoHo, another one of the city’s iconic shopping districts.

At around 8 p.m. on Monday, though, a group of people who had broken away from a large crowd of protesters at Union Square ransacked a Nike store on 20th Street. After smashing a window on the ground floor, young men stormed inside, sweeping sneakers off the shelves and grabbing clothes off the racks.

“They’re not with us!” shouted Steevo Anthony, 33, a supervisor at Whole Foods from Brooklyn, as he moved away from the looting. “Keep walking!”

Trembling with emotion, he added: “It’s giving a bad name to us people who are out here trying to do the right thing, the people who walked away.”

The looters continued uptown, finding another target between 36th and 37th Street: the New York Yankees Clubhouse Shop.

One young man laughed as he ran down Fifth Avenue with an armful of jerseys. He dropped a Gary Sanchez shirt, doubled back, picked it up and kept running. For about a dozen blocks north of the store, stray Yankees hats and T-shirts were strewn on the ground.

The protests remained largely peaceful.

As the protests began to take shape across the city earlier in the day, participants and observers alike said they had never witnessed expressions of grief and anger of such magnitude.

“People are not going to go home until they get what they want,” Mike Tucker, a 54-year old Bronx resident whose 21-year-old son, Stephonne Crawford, was fatally shot by the police in 2005 in Brooklyn.

But Mr. Tucker, who spoke as he watched protesters gather on the steps of Restoration Plaza in Bedford-Stuyvesant, also denounced the violence and looting that have punctuated the protests in New York.

“We don’t want it to escalate,” he said. “We don’t want people coming out here tearing up, burning up.”

New York, like cities across the United States, has been roiled by widespread protests against police brutality and systemic racism after the killing in police custody of George Floyd, a black man, in Minneapolis.

Although the protests on Monday were again mostly orderly, they were punctuated by moments of tension and confrontation.

At one standoff near Washington Square Park in Manhattan, Terence A. Monahan, the Police Department’s chief of department and the city’s highest-ranking uniformed officer, grabbed a microphone to defuse the conflict. Hundreds of police cordoned off a large group of protesters in front of Radio City Music Hall. And at least 1,000 demonstrators walked onto the F.D.R. Drive in Lower Manhattan near the Brooklyn Bridge, blocking traffic on both sides of the highway.

As the calls about the chaos across Manhattan came in, an older man in Bay Ridge stood across the street from demonstrators chanting at a tense protest.

He held a handmade orange sign aloft with both hands: “Peaceful Protest.”

As the city’s curfew approached, many remained on the streets.

The imposition of a citywide curfew, which Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had announced only hours before it was to take effect, reflected a significantly more forceful approach to civil unrest than the city had taken in its recent history.

Mr. Cuomo and Mr. de Blasio said in a statement that they saw the move as necessary to prevent looting and other violence.

“The demonstrations we’ve seen have been generally peaceful,” Mr. de Blasio said in a statement. “We can’t let violence undermine the message of this moment. It is too important and the message must be heard.”

With the imposition of the clampdown, New York joined Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington and a number of other cities across the United States that had taken similar steps.

Though officials have imposed curfews on the city’s parks in the past to address crime, such limits extending across New York’s five boroughs had not been adopted at any point in the past several decades, including as part of recent efforts to keep people at home to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

In 1943, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia imposed an emergency curfew after rioting in Harlem that was touched off when a white police officer shot a black soldier. Five people were killed during the ensuring protests. The city was also subject to a nationwide curfew on “places of public amusement” such as bars in 1945, as a fuel conservation measure.

As 11 p.m. approached, thousands of New Yorkers were left with a decision to make: Stay or go home?

In some places, the protests continued even after the curfew went into effect; in others, New Yorkers gradually began to disperse as the deadline neared.

Just after the curfew took effect, more than 200 people remained on Atlantic Avenue near the Barclays Center chanting “hands up, don’t shoot” and marching west. By around midnight, they had crossed the Manhattan Bridge, passing dozens of police officers at least once.

With the curfew 10 minutes away in Williamsburg, all but a handful of the protesters gathered outside the 90th Precinct had scattered. Some of those who remained said they had no intention of going home.

“I do not think anybody is going to be observing this curfew,” said George Daratany, 34. “It doesn’t compute for New York City to have a closing time.”

In other areas of Brooklyn, a few warnings from the police did the trick.

At Kings Plaza, officers gave the small number of remaining protesters several reminders about the curfew as the clock ticked toward 11 p.m.; all of them ultimately left the area with several minutes to spare.

Those exempt from the curfew included health care workers, people who work in groceries, pharmacies and other essential retail stores and journalists. The city’s Department of Homeless Services confirmed that outreach workers and people living unsheltered on the streets would also be exempt.

A number of elected officials criticized the curfew on Monday, saying it was announced too abruptly and without their having been consulted.

“It’s amazing when as an elected you find out that your neighborhood is going on lockdown because of Twitter,” said Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz of Queens, in a tweet.

“This has got to end. We all know Minnesota was wrong,” Chief Monahan said in the video, addressing protesters about Mr. Floyd’s death. “There is not a police officer over here that thinks Minnesota was justified. We stand with you on that.”

“But, this is our city — our city!” he continued. “Do not let people who are not from this city have you come here and screw up your city! We cannot be fighting. We have to live here. This is our home.”

After delivering his message into an amplified microphone, Chief Monahan took the hands of two protesters, one on either side, and together they dropped to one knee.

As Pride Month began, a Stonewall vigil sought common cause with current protests.

A vigil in Sheridan Square, outside the Stonewall Inn.Credit...Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Hundreds of protesters gathered on Monday for a vigil at the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan, the scene of anti-police rioting in 1969 that is widely regarded as a major turning point in the modern gay rights movement.

The event on Monday, which was organized to honor the memory of Black and Hispanic victims of police brutality, came on the first day of L.G.B.T.Q. Pride month, which would normally be commemorated with parades and events.

“We stand here today on hallowed ground,” Brad Hoylman, a Manhattan Democrat and New York’s only openly gay state senator, said at the vigil. “Our N.Y.P.D. works for us, should protect us and should protect protesters.”

As protests against police brutality and systemic racism have erupted across the country in recent days, some L.G.B.T.Q. activists have drawn parallels to the 1969 demonstrations at the Stonewall Inn.

After a violent police raid, patrons at the bar who were angry about longstanding harassment by the law enforcement authorities fought back, throwing bottles and stones at officers. The initial clash lasted about an hour, but protesters filled the Greenwich Village streets for days after.

The Police Department apologized for its actions last year, 50 years after the uprising. At the time, activists cautioned that the police needed to back up its words with actions and warned that transgender people, especially women of color, were vulnerable to police misconduct.

The vigil on Monday paid special attention to black transgender victims of violence, including Nina Pop, a woman killed in Missouri last month, and Tony McDade, a man killed  in Florida last week.

In recent years, black transgender people have experienced deadly violence in the United States at rates that activists in some cities have said qualified as an epidemic.

As helicopters monitoring protests across the city flew overhead, those gathered at the Stonewall Inn read the names of police brutality victims. “Say their names!” the crowd chanted after each one was read.

Chants, Clashes and Hundreds of Arrests: What Happened at the Protests in New York City
Thousands of people gathered across the city over the weekend at protests prompted by the death of George Floyd, who died last week after a police officer in Minneapolis knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

Two officers were hurt in Buffalo after an S.U.V. drove through a police line
The driver of an S.U.V. barreled through a line of law enforcement officers at a protest on late Monday in Buffalo, injuring two of them in a confrontation that was caught on video, the authorities said.

The injured included a Buffalo police officer and a New York State trooper, according to Captain Jeff Rinaldo, a Buffalo Police Department spokesman. Both were in stable condition.

The driver and the passengers in the S.U.V. were taken into custody, the Erie County executive, Mark Poloncarz, wrote on Twitter.

The episode took place around 9:45 p.m., as the officers, wearing riot gear, were responding to protests related to the death of Mr. Floyd, the authorities said. It was not immediately clear whether the people in the S.U.V. were part of the protest.

On Sunday, the driver of a tanker truck sped through a group of protesters on an interstate in Minneapolis. There were no serious injuries and the driver was arrested. The mayor’s daughter was arrested. A police union publicized her personal information.

Among the hundreds of protesters who were arrested over the past four days, only one was highlighted by name by a police union known for its hostility toward Mr. de Blasio.

The union, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, used Twitter to post a police report documenting the arrest on Saturday night of Ms. de Blasio, 25.

The Police Department does not normally release internal police reports, and Ms. de Blasio’s contained personal details, including her height, weight, address, date of birth and driver’s license information. Twitter removed the post was removed because it violated the platform’s rules violation, and the union’s account was suspended on Monday.

Edward D. Mullins, the union’s president, said the intent of his post on Twitter was to question the mayor’s strategy toward policing the protests.

“Is that why you’re tying our hands, because your daughter is out there?” Mr. Mullins added. “This needs to be looked at.”

On Monday, Mr. de Blasio on Monday called the disclosure of his daughter’s information “unconscionable.”

Mr. Mullins said he did not leak the report about Ms. de Blasio, but rather, copied a screenshot of the report from a Twitter post by a Daily Mail reporter that was subsequently deleted.

Mr. de Blasio said he learned of his daughter’s arrest from the media.

Protests Near Me—List of City Rebellions, States Where National Guard Has Been Deployed

BY SOO KIM
6/1/20 AT 9:08 AM EDT

Following mass protests across the country after the death of George Floyd, the National Guard has been deployed in 15 states and Washington, D.C., the National Guard confirmed.

"As of this morning [Sunday], approximately 5,000 National Guard Soldiers and Airmen were activated in response to civil disturbances in 15 states and D.C., with another 2,000 prepared to activate if needed. The situation is fluid so those numbers can change rapidly," the National Guard confirmed in a statement Sunday.

Protests have erupted in more than 30 cities across the nation, as of Friday, while at least 25 cities have imposed curfews and activated their National Guard forces, CNN reported Sunday.

"The civil unrest response mission is expected to grow as governors assess the fluid situations in their states and call on the National Guard to assist," National Guard noted on Sunday.

Nearly 62,000 National Guard soldiers in total have been activated in 24 states and Washington, D.C. "This number represents activations for civil unrest, COVID-19 response, as well as state-specific disasters such as wildfires, flooding and other natural disasters," the National Guard confirmed on Sunday.

On Monday, a man driving a semi-truck was reported to have driven toward a crowd of protesters marching down a closed interstate in Minneapolis. The truck eventually came to a stop on the bridge where many protesters were located.

"Minnesota's Multi-Agency Command Center (MACC) joined Guard members on an aerial reconnaissance flight of areas hardest hit during recent unrest," the Minnesota National Guard confirmed in a post Monday on its official Twitter account.

"The MACC coordinates law enforcement and public safety agencies assuring a unified response. #MACCMN," the post added.

Washington, D.C.
Protesters sparked several fires across the city near the White House, including at St. John's church, a U.S. National Historic Landmark built in 1815.

On Sunday, Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser requested 500 National Guard soldiers, while later on Sunday Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy ordered the rest of the Guardsman (around 1,200 soldiers) to be deployed, the Associated Press (AP) reports.

Los Angeles and other cities in California
California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles and authorized the deployment of the National Guard.

Demonstrations have been taking place in several cities in California, where the state's Department of Human Resources on Monday has ordered the closure of all California state buildings "with offices in downtown city areas." The mandate includes all offices that license workers and provide health care, the AP reports.

Protests have also erupted in San Francisco, San Diego, Oakland and Sacramento.

New York City
Nearly 790 people in New York City have been arrested following protests, including the daughter of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, 25-year-old Chiara de Blasio. His daughter was reported to have been arrested after refusing to leave a street in Manhattan that had been ordered to be cleared by police. She was later given a court summons and released, the AP reports.

The state's National Guard was reported to be on standby on Sunday, with hundreds of additional troopers being made available in Rochester and Buffalo, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo confirmed on Sunday.

"We expect additional protests tonight [Sunday] and we're preparing for such," Cuomo said at his daily briefing.

Boston
The Massachusetts National Guard was deployed in Boston on Sunday after several mostly peaceful protests were reported to have turned violent by the evening.

"Those now protesting in the streets of Boston have surrendered the moral high ground as efforts to hurt and harm police officers continue to intensify in our city. Men and women of BPD [Boston Police Department] doing their best to restore order and keep the peace," the BPD noted in a post Monday on its official Twitter account.

Louisville
Police were reported to have shot a man dead on Monday amid protests in Louisville, the largest city in Kentucky.

More than 400 Kentucky National Guardsmen are reported to be on duty in the state, according to a post Sunday from the official Twitter account of the Kentucky National Guard.

Chicago
Illinois Gov. Jay Robert Pritzker has authorized the deployment of 375 National Guard soldiers following violent protests in Chicago.


The demonstrations saw "four shootings in the Loop [neighborhood of Chicago] last night [Saturday] from 7 to 11 p.m. [local time]. Six people were shot. One person killed," Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot confirmed.

Atlanta
Up to 3,000 members of the state's National Guard have been authorized to provide assistance amid the protest, the Georgia National Guard confirmed. Several have been deployed across downtown Atlanta, including at the Georgia State Capitol Building, Centennial Olympic Park and the Savannah Civic Center, the Georgia National Guard.

Houston, Dallas and more cities in Texas
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott activated the state's National Guard on Saturday, in response to protests across the state, including in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin.

He declared a state of disaster across all Texas counties on Sunday amid the violent protests as well as damaged and lost properties across the state.

Denver
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has approved the request of Denver Mayor Michael Hancock to activate the National Guard.

"To those peacefully protesting at a safe social distance, know that I see you and I am listening. Mayor Hancock has requested the support of the National Guard to help keep people safe and prevent further destruction and I have granted that request," Polis said in a statement Saturday.

A nightly curfew was imposed in Denver between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. local time, from Saturday to Monday, Hancock confirmed in a statement.

Seattle
The National Guard has been deployed in Washington state, according to a statement Sunday from the office of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

At least 600 troops have been authorized to help with protests that have exploded in Seattle and Bellevue.

Phoenix
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Sunday issued a statewide "Declaration of Emergency," imposing a curfew across the state.

"The curfew is in effect from 8:00 p.m. until 5:00 a.m. [local time] and shall expire on Monday, June 8, at 5:00 a.m. [local time] unless further extended," the governor's office confirmed in a statement.

"Today's [Sunday's] declaration also authorizes an expanded National Guard mobilization to protect life and property throughout the state. Our office will continue to communicate with local law enforcement to provide whatever resources we can," Ducey said in the statement.

Charlotte
The North Carolina National Guard confirmed on Sunday: "Today, the Governor has authorized 450 Guardsmen to support local authorities and help safeguard the lives and property of North Carolinians and the ability for individuals to exercise their right to peacefully demonstrate. Our Guardsmen are always ready to assist our community," in a post on its official Twitter account.

Over 15 people were arrested during protests in Charlotte on Sunday night, including four who were arrested for assaulting officers, while three others were arrested on illegal weapon charges, the city's police department said, AP reports.

Columbia
As protests continue in Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, the National Guard has been deployed in response to the unrest.

"Our Soldiers and Airmen will augment these civilian entities to enhance law enforcement agencies' ability to provide continued public safety and critical infrastructure security to allow citizens to peacefully protest," the South Carolina National Guard confirmed in a post Sunday on its official Twitter account.

Detroit
At least one person was reported to have been shot dead during the protests in Detroit, the largest city in Michigan.

"Members of the Michigan National Guard are serving the communities of Grand Rapids and Lansing this evening to provide support to civil authorities in order to ensure the safety of people and to mitigate and repair property damage," the Michigan National Guard confirmed in a post on its official Twitter account.

Kansas City, St. Louis and Ferguson
The Missouri National Guard was activated by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Friday.

"Despite the many peaceful assemblies, there are other events occurring throughout Missouri that have created conditions of distress and hazards to the safety, welfare, and property of residents and visitors in our communities that are beyond the capacities of local authorities," the governor's office confirmed in a statement.

Will Today’s Rebellions Spur Electoral Backlash Like 1967’s?

Ed Kilgore
New York Magazine

A policeman stands guard in a Detroit street on July 25, 1967 as buildings are burning during riots that erupted in Detroit following a police operation. Photo: -/AFP via Getty Images
Protests against racial injustices with a tinge (or more than a tinge) of violence haven’t matched the long history of white-mob outrages against African-Americans, but they are better known, augmenting old stereotypes of “roving bands of youths” burning buildings and police cars after initially peaceful protests were mishandled by authorities and spun out of control. It’s happened as recently as 2015 in Baltimore, 2014 in Ferguson, and 1992 in Los Angeles. But those “race riots” were too isolated to exert any large effect on American politics.

For a possible analogy of the current nationwide explosion of unrest in response to the killing of George Floyd, you have to go back to the 1960s, particularly to the “long, hot summer” of 1967, when civil unrest occurred in 150 cities (most violently in Detroit and Newark) and the National Guard was called out in 34 states, and then the sometimes-violent protests in 1968 in more than a hundred locations (the most destructive occurring in Chicago and Washington) following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. These large waves of riots were preceded by the spectacularly destructive Watts Riot of 1965 in Los Angeles and smaller but intense 1964 uprisings in Harlem, Rochester, and Philadelphia.

In the riots prior to 1968, racism in its many forms (particularly outside the South) contributed to the waves of rebellion, but more often than not the violence was triggered by incidents of police misconduct, at a time when police forces in most major cities remained overwhelmingly white.

Another notable phenomenon in American society could be nicely bookended by 1964 and 1968: a radical decline in public support for the Democratic Party, which was the national political party associated with the interests of African-Americans. In 1964, Lyndon Johnson (and running mate Hubert Humphrey) won 61.1 percent of the national popular vote. In 1968, Humphrey won 42.7 percent — the lowest percentage of the vote won by a major-party nominee since Alf Landon, FDR’s victim in 1936.

This dive in support (which continued through the 1972 presidential election) cannot be attributed directly or exclusively to white reaction to “black” riots. The Deep South’s long-developing alienation from Democrats was clearly more the product of peaceful protests, successful civil-rights legislation, and court decisions and was offset partly by the steady enfranchisement of African-Americans following the Voting Rights Act of 1965. But in other parts of the country, where white people were used to viewing civil rights as a drama confined to the South, riots were a shock to the political system.

And while many other disturbing things were occurring during those years — most notably the rapid expansion of the Vietnam War — the sights and sounds of inner cities becoming “war zones” with helmeted white cops and National Guard troops battling black protesters amid burning buildings and looted shops were indelible images of the era. Without question, many regular white Democratic voters were frightened or infuriated by all this chaos and began listening to conservative law-and-order politicians like Richard Nixon and his running mate, Spiro Agnew (who rose to fame after a tough-talking response to disturbances in Cambridge, Maryland), third-party 1968 presidential candidate George Wallace, and Ronald Reagan (who made white and nonwhite student protesters the main object of his law-and-order demands).

Then and now, the question arose as to whether backlash-prone white Americans really distinguished between peaceful civil-rights demonstrations and violent rioting, or between the civil-rights movement’s pacific, universalistic goals and the disruptive and divisive means sometimes utilized to advance them. After the Baltimore riots of 2015, my colleague Jonathan Chait looked into the historical evidence and cited some convincing research that violence really does speed backlash:

[T]he question is not whether rioting ever yields a productive response but whether it does so in general. Omar Wasow, an assistant professor at the department of politics at Princeton, has published a timely new paper studying this very question. And his answer is clear: Riots on the whole provoke a hostile right-wing response. They generate attention, all right, but the wrong kind.

Wasow uncovered a very direct link between awareness of violent racially tinged disturbances and a decline in Democratic vote share in 1968 and 1972 — in sharp contrast to the impact of peaceful civil-rights demonstration:

Wasow finds that nonviolent civil-rights protests did not trigger a national backlash but that violent protests and looting did. The physical damage inflicted upon poor urban neighborhoods by rioting does not have the compensating virtue of easing the way for more progressive policies; instead, it compounds the damage by promoting a regressive backlash.

The Nixonian law-and-order backlash drove a wave of repressive criminal-justice policies that carried through for decades with such force that even Democrats like Bill Clinton felt the need to endorse them in order to win elections.

As New York Times columnist Ross Douthat notes, riots weren’t the only types of “urban violence” that fed a racial backlash in the 1960s and beyond; violent crime rates were rising rapidly, as well. Current crime rates are relatively low in most cities, but conservative race-baiters have become adept at using selective crime spikes to conjure the specter of terrifying “waves.”

Nixon and Reagan were shrewd manipulators of white racial fears and deft deployers of racist dog whistles, but both were arguably pikers compared to Donald J. Trump.

That a wave of “race riots” has broken out as Trump is in the throes of an existential fight to stay in power has to be looked on as a gift from heaven by many in his camp. That today’s Democrats are (to their credit) feeling much more pressure to identify with the victims of racial injustice than were their forbears over a half-century ago is just fuel for the backlash fires. Perhaps the current protests will subside or be channeled constructively, or they will be overshadowed by the daily violence of coronavirus cases and families and lives torn apart by the collapse of the economy. But when push comes to shove in October, you can bet that Republican campaign ads and social-media messaging will be aflame with images of rioters along with their alleged Democratic allies, the criminal illegal aliens.

But as the brilliant chronicler of law-and-order politics Rick Perlstein points out at Mother Jones, that there’s nothing inevitable about the success of racial-backlash appeals, particularly if they are unsubtle:

Unlike any Republican president before him, Trump is risking the consequences of being openly racist. Nixon—and even, in his 1968 and 1972 presidential runs, George Wallace—at least paid lip service to the goal of racial justice. That’s because even white people who regularly said and did things harmful to Black Americans didn’t want to believe that association with a particular candidate marked them as racist.

If Trump goes overtly racist, he may not only squander the effort he has put into peeling young African-American men away from the Democratic Party but could do himself damage among white supporters who are embarrassed by white identity politics.

Either way, it could be a long, hot autumn.

Shattered Glass in SoHo as Looters Ransack Lower Manhattan

New York Times

As the protesters moved north, fringe groups hung back, setting fires, breaking windows and grabbing goods from a string of luxury boutiques.

All Sunday night, the scene repeated itself as protesters moved through Lower Manhattan. After the main marchers would advance, fringe groups would hang back, and then the shattering glass would begin.

By morning, the devastation in Manhattan was unlike anything New York had seen since the blackout of 1977. Block after block of boutiques in the Flatiron district had their windows shattered and’ their goods looted.

All down Broadway and through the side streets of SoHo, the destruction was widespread and indiscriminate, from chain drugstores to the Chanel boutique, from the Adidas outlet to Dolce & Gabbana.

Looters moved from storefront to storefront, picking through the rubble to fill garbage bags with shoes, clothes, electronics and other goods. The SoHo outpost of Bloomingdale’s was ransacked.

The police said that more than 400 people were arrested in New York overnight on Sunday, mostly for looting and burglary.

“I don’t think this has anything to do with Black Lives Matter,” said a 24-year-old man at the corner of Houston and Broadway, some time after midnight. “It’s just chaos. People are just using this as an excuse to act crazy, do stuff they never dreamed of doing before.”

The man declined to give his name, because he, too, was looting, and because he said he worked during the day as a security guard.

After hours of mostly peaceful protests, the streets of Lower Manhattan grew frenetic around 10 p.m., after police confronted and dispersed a large group that had crossed over the Manhattan Bridge from Brooklyn.

When the march was met by the police near Canal and Church Streets, the crowd grew tense as marchers became separated from one another, kept apart by flanks of riot police. Gradually, protesters splintered into smaller groups, fanning across several blocks and continuing uptown.

But as the march frayed, small bands of violent actors on its fringes began escalating. First, they threw trash cans into the street. Soon, they lit piles of trash on fire, eventually igniting scaffolding on an apartment building near the Strand bookstore. By the time the stragglers had reached the stretch of Fifth Avenue between 14th Street and the Flatiron Building, they were smashing almost any glass in sight.

One small group of young men tore through a CitiBike terminal, yanking bikes from their docks and twisting the plastic. Nearby, the windows of an Anthropologie clothing boutique were smashed. An older protester, visibly distraught, rushed over and begged them to stop. They sprinted onward, shattering windows as they went. One man carried a partly clothed mannequin down the street with him.

Police officers in riot gear sprinted after the group, often just a few stores behind, as peaceful demonstrators yelled, “No protection for looters!” It continued this way uptown for blocks, where protesters dispersed across empty streets brought to life only by ghostly red and blue patrol car lights and the periodic clatter of riot police giving chase.

After midnight, a second protest march from Brooklyn crossed the Manhattan Bridge after having clashed with the police outside the Barclays Center. Once they reached Manhattan, the protesters immediately began smashing windows of stores on the Lower East Side.

Not long after this group arrived in Manhattan, gunshots rang out along Crosby Street in SoHo, and people scrambled for cover. Two men dove into an idling car, which sped off. An ambulance soon arrived and picked up a man, who the police said had been shot. It is unclear whether the incident was connected to the looting or protests.

As the looting continued, police seemed to abandon whatever enforcement they had attempted elsewhere. They sat in their cars as looters, often in full view of police, brazenly walked in and out of stores.

“We’re robbing everybody!” one young man yelled on Houston and Broadway at 2:24 a.m.

It was not only luxury franchises that were targeted: On Lafayette Street, Jason Ackerman, 45, stood in front of his small business, Soho Ink, a tattoo and clothing shop. He said shoplifters stole $1,000 cash, all his clothing merchandise and smashed his display cases.

“I feel anger, disgust; I feel shame for my city that we’ve resorted to destroying,” he said. “New Yorkers, we’re supposed to come together.”

Mr. Ackerman said he considered himself a supporter of the protests, and was troubled that the looting had tried to commandeer its mission.

The destruction waned by 3 a.m., but it brought a new wave of panic: Looters, many of whom had crossed over the bridge from Brooklyn, realized they had no means of transport home. The city’s subways have been shut down overnight because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ubers were scarce, and cellphones were dying. Looters accosted anyone with a visible cellphone, and begged for rides from random, stopped cars. One woman pleaded with a driver on Houston Street: “Please let me in, please let me ride, I have cash, lots of cash.”

At 5:18 a.m., Joseph Holder, 65, a maintenance worker who sweeps the streets, surveyed the damage and was horrified.

“I’m fearful for my life,” said Mr. Holder, who is black. “Yes, black lives matter, but what example are you setting for the next generation?”

“Let me do what I have to do,” he said, preparing to go work. “Because I don’t want to be on these streets too long.”

Ali Watkins is a reporter on the Metro desk, covering crime and law enforcement in New York City. Previously, she covered national security in Washington for The Times, BuzzFeed and McClatchy Newspapers. @AliWatkins

Protests Raise Questions About Police-Community Relations in Chicago

Dan Andries
June 1, 2020 7:40 pm
 
The killing of George Floyd has brought the conversation about policing people of color in America front and center — again.

While the charges filed against officer Derek Chauvin, who kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes, and the swift firing of the other three Minneapolis police officers on the scene demonstrate authorities are not covering up or condoning the killing, the ensuing protests and riots show that many people feel justice is a long way from being served.

What can be done to change the relationship between the police and the people they are sworn to serve and protect?

Retired police officer Richard Wooten, founder of the nonprofit Gathering Point Community Council, believes that the problem lies in what he calls the original pandemic.

“Racism is the pandemic. This is enough. Every time a situation like this occurs we always focus on the wrong questions, and it distracts us from the main purpose,” he said. “Unless we solve that, we are never going to be at the point we need to be to unify this country.”

Activist Ja’Mal Green thinks the issue is at a boiling point.

“Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, a riot is the language of the unheard. There has to be accountable and justice for this to change,” Green said.

He points out that the other three officers on the scene in Minneapolis when Floyd was killed have been fired, but not charged. “Until there is justice, folks are going to continue protesting. You can’t talk about reform and justice until you get the accountability portion out there,” Green said.

Theater director Wardell Julius Clark, who’s worked at TimeLine Theatre Company, Shattered Globe Theatre and Berwyn’s 16th Street Theater, says it would take a reimagining of the job of the police for any real change to occur.

“When I was doing research for ‘Kill Move Paradise,’ a play about black men killed by police, I came to understand that the police are trained to fear black and brown people. And if the officer is black, they are trained to be blue,” he said. “That color blue comes before any race. We are in an epidemic of killing black men, who has always been seen as dangerous simply for existing. They needed to be trained to be compassionate service to their community. We need a large, optimistic leap forward.”

Note: We invited the Chicago Police Department to participate but they declined. Police union President John Catanzara was expected to participate but canceled.

Chicago Looting, Protests: Hundreds Protest in Uptown, CTA and Metra Suspend Service

June 1, 2020
NBC Chicago

Protesters, many peaceful, gathered and marched in Chicago again Sunday, though looting, fires and vandalism continued even as a citywide curfew took effect for a second night.

One day earlier thieves targeted businesses and vandals smashed windows and set fires throughout the downtown area, but with the city's Loop locked down, only residents and essential workers allowed, the protests spread to other parts of the city. Still, the Loop was the scene of some demonstrations as area transit agencies canceled service.

Here are the latest headlines from across the Chicago area:

9:15 p.m.: Lake Shore Drive Blocked by Protesters Near Addison
Protesters on Chicago's North Side have blocked both sides of Lake Shore Drive near Addison Monday evening.

Video shows protesters on the roadway, chanting slogans and blocking traffic.

Protests have been going on all evening all over the North Side, with large gatherings reported in Uptown and other locations.

7:53 p.m.: CTA, Metra Suspend Service Again
CTA personnel say that the agency will suspend all rail and bus service effective at 9:30 p.m. due to safety concerns.

Service is expected to resume at 6 a.m. Tuesday, but the agency will provide updates on whether that resumption will be able to take place.

Metra officials also said that their rail service will be suspended once again on Tuesday. Service was also suspended Monday and had been halted at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, and there's no indication of when the agency will resume service at this time.

6:45 p.m.: Hundreds Gathered on Chicago's North Side
Demonstrators have gathered in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood near the intersection of Broadway and Montrose on Monday afternoon.

Sky 5 was over the scene, and Chicago Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa posted a photo of the huge crowds.

4:30 p.m.: Pritzker Issues Disaster Proclamation as Looting, Civil Unrest Continue Throughout State
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has issued a disaster proclamation for numerous counties throughout the state to help with recovery efforts following looting and civil unrest over the weekend.

The proclamation covers Champaign, Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Madison, Macon, Sangamon and Will counties, Pritzker announced during a press conference Monday.

“(This order) will allow us to coordinate with state agencies and resources to assist local governments with response and recovery efforts,” Pritzker said.

12 p.m.: Aurora Mayor, Police Chief to Speak After Protests, Looting in Western Suburb
Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman and other city officials plan to hold a news conference to discuss damages done during vandalism and looting in the west suburban city Sunday night.

11:20 a.m.: Chicago Officials ‘Have Not Made Any Decision’ About Phase 3 of Reopening
Chicago officials have not yet decided whether the city will enter the third phase of its reopening plan amid the coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday as planned, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said.

"We have not made any decision one way or another about that," Lightfoot said, citing concerns over protests and gatherings potentially spreading the deadly virus, as well as businesses preparing to reopen now dealing with fallout from looting and vandalism.

11:15 a.m.: Quarantine for 14 Days If You Attended Protests or Gatherings, Chicago Health Officials Urge
Chicago health officials urged anyone who attended a protest or gathering over the weekend to self-quarantine at home for 14 days if possible, warning residents that the coronavirus pandemic is not over - even if it's not at the top of mind.

"While we continue to make progress, I am concerned we may see ourselves take a step backward down the line against COVID-19," Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said at a news conference Monday with Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other city officials to discuss the protests, looting, vandalism and unrest that gripped the city over the weekend.

"That's because COVID-19 is caused by a virus, and that virus doesn't care about what's going on in the city," Arwady continued, adding that COVID-19 still does not yet have a cure or effective treatmeant and "still takes every opportunity it can to spread."

10:45 a.m.: 699 Arrested Sunday in Looting, Unrest Across Chicago, Police Say
Chicago police arrested at least 699 people Sunday as vandalism, looting, violence and unrest gripped the city once again, Supt. David Brown said Monday.

Brown said the majority of those arrests were made for looting, and 461 of the arrests were made on the city's South and West Sides.

At least 48 people were shot, 17 fatally, across the city, according to police.

10:40 a.m.: Oakbrook Center Mall Closed Again
Oak Brook Police said Oakbrook Center mall will remain closed for a second day Monday.

"Any business wishing to stay open or closed is based on them and not on the Oak Brook Police Department," the department tweeted. "We will protect and serve anyone in our community."

10:30 a.m.: Chicago Saw 65K 911 Calls in 24 Hours
Chicago emergency dispatchers received roughly 65,000 calls to 911 in a 24-hour period as protests, looting, vandalism and violence gripped the city Sunday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said.

That figure was more than 50,000 calls than dispatchers typically receive in that time frame, Lightfoot said Monday during a news conference to discuss the weekend unrest.

"The police department was responding to these calls as best they could," she said. "The challenge was, it was everywhere. Everywhere.

"If we had a police department three times the size, we would've had a difficult time responding," Lightfoot added. "This is an all-hands-on-deck moment and not just for law enforcement but also for city government and also for you."

7 a.m.: Reopening of Driver Services Facilities Delayed
The scheduled reopening of five Illinois driver services facilities in Chicago and the suburbs, planned for Monday, has been delayed.

Those facilities include Chicago North at 5401 N. Elston Ave., Chicago South at 9901 S. Martin Luther King Dr., Chicago West at 5301 W. Lexington Ave., Diversey Express at 4642 W. Diversey Ave. and Lockport at 1029 E. 9th St. in Lockport.

The facilities, along with several others, will reopen Tuesday, officials said.

Facilities across the state have been closed since March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

6 a.m.: CTA, Pace Service Resume, Bypassing Downtown
CTA service resumed at 6 a.m. but will not operate near the downtown area, the transit agency said. Service on multiple train lines was suspended into the Loop, while bus service will not run from Western Avenue to the lakefront and Fullerton Avenue to 47th Street.

Most Pace services resume at 6 a.m., though the transit agency said the following services will not operate until further notice.

10 p.m.: CPS Suspends Meal Pick-Ups
Chicago Public Schools is temporarily suspending its program allowing families to pick up meals for students after another night of unrest across the city.

"Based on the evolving nature of activity across the city, we are suspending grab-and-go meal sites and all other school and administrative office activities tomorrow," CPS wrote on its Facebook page late Sunday night.

"This decision was made out of an abundance of caution and in recognition of the potential challenges families and staff could face trying to reach school buildings and offices tomorrow," the statement continued, adding that staff will work from home and remote learning will proceed as scheduled.

Meal delivery will proceed, the district said, advising anyone looking to sign up for delivery or seeking assistance from CPS to call 773-553-KIDS (5437) or email familyservices@cps.edu. The district planned to give an update on the status of activities on Tuesday, its statement said.

9:45 p.m.: More Roads Closed in City and Suburbs
Illinois State Police reported several road closures across the Chicago area as protests spread from the city to the suburbs one night after violent unrest left buildings and stores in Chicago's downtown destroyed.

Here's a full list of road closures.

9 p.m.: Mostly Peaceful Protesters March in Chicago
A group of largely peaceful protesters are marching in downtown Chicago shutting down traffic as they go.

The group made its way onto Lake Shore Drive for a second time Sunday evening, heading north before exiting the major roadway and continue to block traffic as they marched.

Meanwhile, Chicago's curfew took effect at 9 p.m. and continues until 6 a.m.

8:30 p.m.: State of Emergency Declared in Aurora, Putting Curfew in Place
Aurora's Mayor Richard Irvin declared a State of Emergency in the city Sunday, putting a curfew for the municipality "due to the widespread incidents of violence, vandalism and stealing throughout the area."

“Today we hosted a peaceful protest at the Aurora Police Department,” Irvin said in a statement. "However, once the protest ended, the crowd dispersed and then grew substantially with other participants throughout the streets of Aurora. While Chief Ziman and I were honored to participate in the initial protest, we will not tolerate lawlessness in our city.”

The curfew began at 8:30 p.m. Sunday and ends at 6 a.m. Monday. Residents were asked to remain at home.

In addition, all Interstate 88 entrance ramps to Aurora will be closed during the curfew. Aurora residential or employment identification will be required to enter from the interstate.

8 p.m.: Metra Suspending All Service Monday
Metra suspended all service for Monday, the rail agency announced Sunday evening, citing public safety concerns for both riders and employees.

"For the safety of the public and our employees, and because of municipal restrictions that are limiting the ability of our workers to reach job sites, Metra is suspending all service on Monday, June 1," the rail agency tweeted. "We will provide updates on Monday about Tuesday service."

7:45 p.m.: Police Block Demonstrators at 53rd and Lake Park
Video from NBC's Sky 5 chopper showed police blocking streets near 53rd and Lake Park as a growing group of protesters convened in the area. Watch live in the player above.

7:30 p.m.: Protesters March Onto Lake Shore Drive, Block Traffic
A group of protesters marched onto Lake Shore Drive, blocking traffic for several minutes despite police barricades at entrances to the major Chicago roadway.

The group walked along the shoulder as many cars were forced to turn around, making for a heavy traffic jam in the area.

The group left the roadway after nearly 20 minutes.

7:22 p.m.: Two Strip Mall Fires Reported
One fire was reported at a strip mall near West 59th Street and Ashland Avenue while a second occurred at 55th Street and Kedzie Avenue. Information about potential injuries wasn't immediately available.

5:30 p.m.: All CTA Trains, Buses Shut Down
According to the Chicago Transit Authority, all bus and train service was suspended at 6:30 p.m., and will remain suspended for the remainder of the evening:

The CTA had already suspended all bus and train service through the Loop in anticipation of more protests on Sunday, but now has expanded that suspension to its entire system.

Buses and trains are expected to resume running on Monday morning.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Police have mobilized approximately 80 officers, including members of the Hostage/Barricade team, to assist the Chicago Police Department, and suburban police departments, in response to protests around the area Sunday.

The news comes as numerous suburbs report potential looting and protesting Sunday, while others, including Tinley Park and Blue Island, have imposed mandatory curfews in response to the unrest.

In Chicago, officers are working 12-hour shifts to help deal with protests and looting, while all days off have been temporarily postponed, according to Superintendent David Brown.

3:45 p.m.: Tinley Park Issues Citywide Curfew Amid Unrest
Things are heating up outside of Chicago as well, as several suburbs have urged residents to stay in their homes due to protests and scattered looting on Sunday.

In Tinley Park, authorities have imposed a city-wide curfew beginning at 8 p.m. due to looting. The curfew will remain in effect until 6 a.m. Monday.

Louisville Police Chief Fired After Black Man Is Shot To Death

June 1, 2020 5:30 PM ET
AUSTIN HORN

Louisville, Ky., resident David McAtee was shot and killed during a police response to a curfew violation early Monday. Both police and National Guard members were on the scene and fired shots. The incident has led to the firing of the police chief.

State and local leaders called for the release of police body-camera footage, but Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer announced Monday that officers on the scene had not activated their body cameras. Fischer also said that Louisville Police Chief Steve Conrad was relieved of command in the wake of the shooting. Conrad was already due to retire amid criticism related to the controversy surrounding the death of Breonna Taylor in March.

According to member station WFPL, the incident that resulted in McAtee's death took place at a gas station in Louisville's predominantly black West End. McAtee, who was black, operated a barbecue business nearby. No protests were taking place there, but the National Guard and Louisville police were called in to respond to a large gathering and enforce the city's 9 p.m. curfew. Before being relieved of his post, Conrad said that the police and National Guard were shot at first and that the shots that killed McAtee were fired in response.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear tweeted in a statement that "[the Louisville Metro Police Department] and the Kentucky National Guard returned fire resulting in a death."

The incident is now under investigation by local and state authorities, according to a report from Louisville's Courier-Journal. According to the mayor, the two Louisville police officers who fired their weapons in the altercation have been put on administrative leave pending the investigation.

Widespread Property Damage at Bay Area Stores Taking Place

By BAY AREA NEWS GROUP
June 1, 2020 at 3:10 p.m.

Looting and vandalism was reported at stores around the Bay Area on Saturday and Sunday, resulting in the imposition of curfews in several cities. To see details on the map, zoom to the area where you want to see more detail.

Crowds of looters were reported at Walnut Creek’s Broadway Plaza; San Francisco’s Union Square also saw multiple high-end stores targeted.

A tweet reportedly urged looters to target Santana Row and Valley Fair in San Jose/Santa Clara, but police shut down those areas. The closest looting was at a CVS and a BevMo at Winchester and Stevens Creek boulevards.

Stores and shopping centers at which looting was reported:

San Francisco (Union Square area): Saks Fifth Avenue, Coach, Salvatore Ferragamo, Urban Outfitters, Swatch, Crate & Barrel, Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, CVS

Walnut Creek (Broadway Plaza): Nordstrom, Neiman-Marcus, H&M, Urban Outfitters, Macy’s, Ray-Ban, Victoria’s Secret

Emeryville: Best Bay, Powell Street Center

Oakland: Fruitvale Station (GameStop, AT&T, K&G Fashion), Walgreens near Lake Merritt

Pleasant Hill: Crossroads

Hayward: CVS

San Leandro: Walmart, Bay Fair Mall, Marina Square

Union City: Union Landing

Milpitas: Neiman-Marcus (Great Mall)

Santa Clara: BevMo, CVS (Winchester/Stevens

Oakland, San Leandro Report Widespread Looting, OPD Makes 60 Arrests

Bay City News Service
7:07 am PDT, Monday, June 1, 2020

Oakland police on Monday morning reported that about 60 people were arrested during Sunday's demonstrations over the death of black man George Floyd under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer last week.

The arrests were for crimes including shooting at officers, vandalism, looting and illegal possession of firearms, according to police.

One specific incident reported at 12:09 a.m. Monday involved shots fired at the Oakland police headquarters at 455 Seventh St. No injuries were reported, and police detained three people on suspicion of the shooting.

Lootings and break-ins were was reported around the city, which also had multiple reports of sideshow activity that led to an arrest of one person and towing of a vehicle, police said.

One Oakland police officer suffered injuries not considered life-threatening during the demonstrations and was taken to a hospital.

San Leandro police also reported looting of numerous shopping centers in their city overnight, with several dozen businesses impacted.

The protests and looting over Floyd's death prompted the Alameda County Sheriff's Office to advise all residents to stay home Sunday night and early Monday morning.