Sunday, May 31, 2020
'If You Want to End Unrest, End the Conditions That Create It,' Declares Ocasio-Cortez Amid Nationwide Protest
Instead of calls for things to simply calm down and "go back to normal," said New York Congresswoman, "let's create a new world—one where all people are held to the same standard of the rule of law."
by
Jon Queally, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/30/if-you-want-end-unrest-end-conditions-create-it-declares-ocasio-cortez-amid
In a video message posted to Instagram on Saturday amidst days of nationwide protest in response to the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota earlier this week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez issued a plea to anyone calling for the end of the "unrest" stirred by brutality and oppression to focus on the root causes of poverty, distrust, and violence in American society.
"If you are calling for an end to this unrest... but you are not calling for the end to the conditions that created the unrest, you are a hyppocrite," Ocasio-Cortez said in the post.
"If you're trying to call for the end to unrest, but you don't believe healthcare is a human right. If you're afraid to say Black Lives Matter. If you're too scared to call out police brutality—then you aren't asking for an to unrest. You are asking for injustice to continue and for your people to continue to endure the violence of poverty, the violence of lack of housing access, the violence of police brutality and not say a damn thing. That's what you're asking for."
"So if you're out here," she continued, "asking for an end to unrest, you better be asking for healthcare as a human right, you better be calling for accountability in our policing, you better be supporting community review boards, you better be supporting the end of housing discrimination, you better be standing up to for-profit real estate developers that are intimidating people and trying to evict them from their homes—that's what you better be calling for. Because if you don't call for those things and you're asking for the end of unrest—all you're asking for is the continuation of quiet oppression."
Ocasio-Cortez said lawmakers, politicians, and anyone else making such calls must make sure that there is no demand for an end of protest that is not coupled with demands for "measures that actually liberate people in their lives from the oppression of economic and social inequity."
Watch the 6-minute video post:
Allowing people to struggle and die within unjust systems, said Ocasio-Cortez, is "just wrong" and should no longer be tolerated. She said none of her remarks are meant to condone the violence and property destruction by some people amid the protests in cities nationwide, but that her intent is to ask people to consider a more "holistic view of this moment" and recognize that only by centering justice and recognizing the broader systemic failures can peace and prosperity be shared by all.
As of this writing, the video had been viewed hundreds of thousands of times between Instagram and other social media platforms where it was shared.
"We have to really examine why so many people were okay ignoring these problems until a window got broken," she said. "Why does it take that for people to pay attention? Because it shouldn't."
Instead of calls for things to simply calm down and "go back to normal," said Ocasio-Cortez, "let's create a new world—one where all people are held to the same standard of the rule of law. And one where the justice a person gets for their crimes is not dependent on who they work for or how much money they have, but by the actual deed that was done."
A world like that, she concluded, "is what justice looks like."
Cornel West Says 'Neo-Fascist Gangster' Trump and Neoliberal Democrats Expose America as 'Failed Social Experiment'
"I thank God people are in the streets," said the Harvard philosopher and activist. "Can you imagine this kind of lynching taking place and people are indifferent? People don't care? People are callous?"
by
Jon Queally, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/30/cornel-west-says-neo-fascist-gangster-trump-and-neoliberal-democrats-expose-america
Harvard University philosophy professor Dr. Cornell West appeared on CNN Friday night amid nationwide protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota and offered a searing indictment not just of white supremacy, the neo-fascism of President Donald Trump, and a criminal justice system that repeatedly brutalizes the poor and people of color—but also of a deep depravity that exists within the neoliberal capitalist system of the 21st Century in the United States that dominates both major political parties.
As protests raged in Minneapolis, outside Trump's White House, and U.S. cities nationwide—including Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Cleveland, and Oakland—West told CNN's Anderson Cooper in an interview, "I think we are witnessing America as a failed social experiment."
"What I mean by that," explained West, "is that the history of black people for over 200 and some years in America has been looking at America's failure. Its capitalist economy could not generate and deliver in such a way that people could live lives of decency. The nation-state, it's criminal justice system, it's legal system could not generate protection of rights and liberties. And now our culture, of course is so market-driven—everything for sale, everybody for sale—it can't deliver the kind of nourishment for soul, for meaning, for purpose."
West explained the current anger over Floyd's murder by police—one of whom, officer Derek Chauvin, was arrested Friday and charged with 3rd-degree murder and manslaughter—adds to a "perfect storm" of multiple failures and inequities that pre-exist under an American imperial system that people like Martin Luther King, Jr. and others have been warning about since the middle of last century.
"When I saw those pictures there of Atlanta," West said, "you could see Brother Martin right there in Atlanta, saying: 'I told you about militarism. I told you about poverty. I told you about materialism. I told you about racism in all of its forms. I told you about xenophobia.' And what you're seeing in America is those chickens coming home to roost. You are reaping what you sow. And in this instant, you have Brother George—it is so clear—it was a lynching at the highest level. Nobody can deny it."
While solidarity protests erupted far beyond Minneapolis Friday night in outrage over Floyd's murder—and the killing by police of other black, brown, and other marginalized victims—West said, "I thank God people are in the streets. Can you imagine this kind of lynching taking place and people are indifferent? People don't care? People are callous?"
Watch:
West denounced President Donald Trump as the "neo-fascist gangster in the White House," but said the failure of the nation—one that allows for endemic inequality and a culture of greed and consumerism that tramples on the rights and dignity of poor people and minorities decade after decade—goes much beyond the current president.
"The system cannot reform itself," West argued and pointed to a dynamic in which identitarian representation is asked to be a stand in for class equality, shared prosperity, and a functional democracy that actually expresses the will of the people and satisfies the material needs of the working people and the poor.
"We've tried black faces in high places," he said. "Too often our black politicians, professional class, middle class become too accommodated to the capitalist economy, too accommodated to a militarized nation-state, too accommodated to the market-driven culture of celebrities, status, power, fame, all that superficial stuff that means so much to so many fellow citizens."
"You've got a neoliberal wing of the Democratic Party that is now in the driver's seat with the collapse of brother Bernie [Sanders] and they really don't know what to do," West added, "because all they want to do is show more black faces—show more black faces. But often times those black faces are losing legitimacy, too—because the Black Lives Matter movement emerged under a black president, a black attorney general, and a black Homeland Security, and they couldn't deliver. So when you talk about the masses of black people—the precious poor and working-class black people, brown, red, yellow, whatever color—they're the ones left out and they feel so thoroughly powerless, helpless, hopeless—then you get rebellion."
According to West, the nation faces a choice now between "nonviolent revolution" and continuing the status quo failures. "And by revolution what I mean is the democratic sharing of power, resources, wealth and respect," he explained. "If we don't get that kind of sharing, you're going to get more violent explosions."
While reiterating the inherent dangers of Trump, West said one benefit of the president is that he tells the world exactly who he is. On the hand, the broader failures of the system under the neoliberal capitalist economy is rarely called out or revealed for what it is.
"White supremacy is going to be around for a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long time, don't be surprised when this happens again," West said.
"But the question is we must fight," he concluded. "Even in the moment where we have a failed social experiment, we must fight. We must have an antifascist coalition against what's going on in the White House and the Republican Party. And we have to tell the truth about the milquetoast, cowardly activity too often we see too often in the neoliberal wing of the Democratic party. And we must be critical of ourselves in terms of keeping alive the highest moral and spiritual standards of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Fanny Lou Hammer and Ella Baker. And you see that work in the soul of brother George Floyd's family."
New PEN America Report Warns Surge of Anti-Protest Laws in Trump Era Is 'Danger to Expressive Rights of All'
"There has been a determined movement, occurring largely outside the public eye, to delegitimize public protest and paint demonstrators as dangerous or even criminal."
by
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/27/new-pen-america-report-warns-surge-anti-protest-laws-trump-era-danger-expressive
As protest movements against racist police violence, planet-destroying pipelines, and the policies of President Donald Trump have intensified and spread rapidly across the U.S. in recent years, so have efforts by state lawmakers from both major political parties to criminalize protest by hitting peaceful demonstrators with draconian jail sentences and financial penalties.
Nearly a third of all states have implemented restrictions on the right to protest over the past five years, the report found.That's according to a new policy paper released Wednesday by PEN America, which found that between 2015 and 2019, state lawmakers have introduced a total of 116 bills aimed at curtailing protest rights, 23 of which have become law in 15 states. In 2020, an additional 16 anti-protest bills have been introduced and four have become law.
"The right to protest is enshrined in the First Amendment, and a bedrock element of the free speech rights we enjoy as Americans," Nora Benavidez, PEN America's director of U.S. free expression programs, said in a statement. "Yet as individuals have exercised these rights more visibly and volubly in recent years, there has been a determined movement, occurring largely outside the public eye, to delegitimize public protest and paint demonstrators as dangerous or even criminal."
PEN America is part of the PEN International network which defends free expression and fights censorship and repression of artists, writers, and others worldwide.
The new report—titled "Arresting Dissent: Legislative Restrictions on the Right to Protest"—connects the sharp uptick in state anti-protest proposals in 2017 to the surge in mass demonstrations that followed Trump's election to the presidency in 2016. According to the paper, 56 anti-protest bills were introduced at the state level in 2017, up from just six such proposals in 2015 and 2016 combined.
"The sudden increase in the number of anti-protest bills introduced at the state level in 2017 coincided with a burst of public protests following the election of President Donald Trump, from the Women's March the day after the 2017 inauguration to spontaneous demonstrations against the Trump administration's travel ban at airports across the country in early 2017," the report notes. "It also followed a year of significant protests by Native American communities against the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota."
The trend of lawmakers introducing anti-protest legislation in the wake of major demonstrations has been most prominent in Minnesota, Missouri, Massachusetts, and North Dakota, PEN found.
"North Dakota is the site of the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline," the report says. "The protests in Ferguson, Missouri—as well as in Massachusetts—brought the Black Lives Matter movement to national recognition. Minnesota, meanwhile, has hosted major Black Lives Matter, anti-Trump, and environmental protests. These states are also among those that have seen the highest number of anti-protest bills introduced between 2017 and 2019: Minnesota saw nine bills, Massachusetts with thirteen, Missouri with eight, and North Dakota with seven."
In an article last October, ACLU attorney Vera Eidelman described the wave of anti-protest bills as "a direct reaction from politicians and corporations to some of the most effective tactics of those speaking out today, including water protectors challenging pipeline construction, Black Lives Matter, and those calling for boycotts of Israel."
PEN's report describes in detail a number of proposals and laws cracking down on protest at the state level, including a Texas law enacted in 2018 that makes "interference" with "energy infrastructure construction"—e.g., pipelines—"a third-degree felony punishable by two to ten years imprisonment—equivalent to the punishment for the crime of attempted murder."
"Since the law took effect, fourteen protesters and one journalist have been arrested under its provisions," PEN said.A Louisiana law passed in 2018 "targets protests near gas and oil pipelines by expanding the definition of critical infrastructure and providing for the offense of unauthorized entry of a critical infrastructure," the report notes. Protesters arrested for trespassing under the law could be hit a with felony charge carrying up to five years in prison.
PEN argues that while there may be good public health reasons to impose temporary restrictions on mass gatherings during the Covid-19 pandemic, "it is critical that such constraints occur within the boundaries of the Constitution and with a long-term view to protecting Americans' protest rights."
The group points out that the enthusiastic support that right-wing protests against coronavirus lockdown measures have garnered from Trump and other Republican politicians "is potent evidence of the political motivations that have shaded" crackdowns on protest rights in recent years.
"In some instances these measures have been tailored in ways that reveal a determination to suppress the robust expression of particular viewpoints, for example by banning protests near public infrastructure projects that have been flashpoints for environmental concerns," said Benavidez. "At the same time, the president expresses hostility towards certain protest movements, and vociferous support for others, depending on whether or not they align with his views."
"This selective approach to respect for First Amendment rights," Benavidez warned, "flies in the face of the constitution and poses a danger to the expressive rights of all."
James Tager, PEN's deputy director of free expression research and policy, said in a statement that the "explosive number of bills across so many states points to an increasingly hostile attitude among legislators toward protesters."
"Even in these unprecedented times, while some constraints on our liberties may be necessary to preserve public health," Tager said, "we must ensure that the right to publicly and peacefully express our views is safeguarded."
Of course the police won't claim this agent provacateur...
He prepared his phony 'alibi' in advance.
No one knows better how to get away with crimes like this than a police officer...
https://www.rt.com/usa/490180-pederson-provocateur-autozone-riot-minneapolis/
Minnesota PD denies undercover COP started Minneapolis riot amid avalanche of speculation
The St. Paul Police Department has categorically denied one of its officers escalated the Minneapolis riots by smashing the window of an auto parts store while undercover, after social media sleuths claimed to have identified him.
St. Paul Police Department attempted to squelch viral rumors fingering Officer Jacob Pederson as the agent provocateur who smashed the windows of a Minneapolis AutoZone earlier this week in footage widely circulated on social media. In a series of tweets posted on Thursday, they denied that the man in the footage was Pederson and attempted to shame people for spreading the rumor, insisting their officer had been “working hard, keeping people and property safe, and protecting the right to peacefully assemble.”
[...]
29 May, 2020 20:43 / Updated 1 day ago
George Floyd: US protests over police brutality intensify
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/george-floyd-protests-police-brutality-intensify-live-200530231110124.html
Several US states activate National Guard troops as protests over police killings of unarmed Black people grow.
updated 9 minutes ago
Another round of protests is gripping major cities across the United States against police brutality and violence, especially against unarmed Black people.
Several states have called in National Guard troops to help quell the protests, some of which have turned violent. Cities nationwide have also implemented curfews, but protesters appear undeterred.
Protesters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, have pledged to continue until all four officers involved in the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, are charged. Floyd died on Monday after a white officer knelt on his neck. Officer Derek Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. The other officers have not been charged.
Trump orders Pentagon to put military police on alert, saying they may be deployed to Minnesota.
Latest updates:
Sunday, May 31
14:00 GMT - Trump will not activate federal troops for now - NSA's O'Brien
President Donald Trump will not invoke federal authority over the National Guard for now, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said on Sunday.
"We're not going to federalise the Guard at this time," O'Brien told reporters at the White House, saying law enforcement decisions should rest with governors and mayors.
10:17 GMT - Police failing to ensure right to protest: Amnesty International
"In city after city, we are witnessing actions that could be considered unnecessary or excessive force. We call for an immediate end to any such use of force and for law enforcement to ensure and protect the legal right to protest,” Rachel Ward, National Director of Research at Amnesty International USA, said in a statement.
According to the human rights group, police tactics used so far can trigger escalating violence. "Equipping officers in a manner more appropriate for a battlefield may put them in the mindset that confrontation and conflict are inevitable," read the statement, adding that police "should demilitarize their approach and engage in dialogue with protest organizers."
09:35 GMT - 'Fires continue burning': La Mesa local media
Protests turned violent in the city of La Mesa near San Diego, California where demonstrators set buildings ablaze.
"Fires continue burning across the city. Protests have been ongoing since early this morning," Hunter Sowards, a reporter from local KUSI News media, said in a tweet.
Hunter Sowards
✔@huntersowards3
The City of La Mesa has enacted a curfew beginning May 31st from 1:30AM-7:00 AM. Fires continue burning across the city. Protests have been ongoing since early this morning. City leaders urge people to go home. @KUSINews
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3:34 AM - May 31, 2020 · San Diego, CA
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The city is under curfew from 1.30am (8.30am GMT) until 7am (2pm GMT).
08:19 GMT - Minneapolis protesters undeterred by curfew
"We don't need a curfew, we need change," Mia, a 20-year resident of Minneapolis told Al Jazeera.
Going home would "[send] the wrong message that they can shut us up when they want to, and that's not the case here", she said as protesters have promised to remain in the streets at least until all four officers involved in Floyd's death have been charged.
Read Lucien Formichella’s full story here.
07:58 GMT - Trump 'didn't give me the opportunity to even speak': George Floyd's brother
The brother of George Floyd said he was not given "the opportunity to even speak" when President Donald Trump called the Floyd family on Friday.
"It was so fast. He didn't give me the opportunity to even speak. It was hard," Philonise Floyd told MSNBC.
"I was trying to talk to him but he just kept like pushing me off like 'I don’t want to hear what you're talking about,'" he said.
"And I just told him I want justice, I said I can't believe they committed a modern day lynching in broad day light. I can't stand it," Philonise Floyd added. "I just want to understand, why do we have to go through this?"
07:25 GMT - Protests raise concerns over spread of coronavirus
Protesters in Atlanta said they had to take to the streets to protest against police brutality despite the dangers associated with the coronavirus pandemic.
"It’s not OK that in the middle of a pandemic we have to be out here risking our lives," Spence Ingram, a Black woman marching in Atlanta, told The Associated Press news agency.
It came as health experts and officials raised concerns over the virus’s spread during the protests that keep gripping major cities across the US.
"If you were out protesting last night, you probably need to go get a COVID test this week," Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms said, adding that "there is still a pandemic in America that’s killing Black and Brown people at higher numbers."
Protesters throw firecrackers amid tear gas during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Atlanta, US [Reuters]
06:57 GMT - Journalists hit by police in Minneapolis
Two members of a Reuters TV crew were shot with rubber bullets in Minneapolis shortly after a curfew as they were covering the protest.
"My security advisor and I were post with rubber bullets tonight. He had PRESS labeled clearly and visibly on his bulletproof vest," one of the two reporters Julio-Cesar Chavez said in a tweet as he posted a photo of a previous moment when a police officer was aiming directly at him.
Julio-César Chávez
✔@JulioCesrChavez
My security advisor and I were shot with rubber bullets tonight. He had PRESS labeled clearly and visibly on his bulletproof vest
Before being shot, at a separate incident, I was directly aimed at. I took cover https://twitter.com/mollyhf/status/1266911382613692422 …
Molly Hennessy-Fiske
✔@mollyhf
Minnesota State Patrol just fired tear gas at reporters and photographers at point blank range.
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11:33 PM - May 30, 2020 · Minneapolis, MN
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Chavez explained in a second tweet that he was shot in the arm and the back of his neck with rubber bullets, while his security adviser was shot in the face, but saved by the gas mask he was wearing.
Julio-César Chávez
✔@JulioCesrChavez
Tonight I was shot in the arm and the back of my neck with rubber bullets in the middle of covering the Minneapolis protests. My security advisor was shot in the face; his gas mask protected him.
Here’s what happened: http://reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-protest-update/reuters-cameraman-hit-by-rubber-bullets-as-police-disperse-protesters-idUSKBN237050 …
Here’s what it looks like:
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1:32 AM - May 31, 2020 · Minneapolis, MN
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No immediate comments were made as Reuters asked about the incident to Minneapolis Police Department. Spokesman John Elder who requested a copy of the video.
06:38 GMT - San Francisco to impose curfew
San Francisco Mayor London Breed has declared the implementation of a citywide curfew starting on Sunday 8pm (03:00 GMT).
"People are hurting right now. They're angry. I'm angry," she said on Twitter, as she announced the decision.
"The City and the police will support peaceful protests, as we did all day today," however, she added, "We can't tolerate violence and vandalism. Now is the time to go home."
London Breed
✔@LondonBreed
We are implementing a curfew that will start tomorrow at 8pm.
People are hurting right now. They're angry. I'm angry.
The City and the police will support peaceful protests, as we did all day today.
We can't tolerate violence and vandalism. Now is the time to go home.
1,877
1:02 AM - May 31, 2020
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04:32 GMT - Biden: We must not allow this pain to destroy us
Joe Biden, the presumptive US Democratic presidential nominee, said in a statement early on Sunday that "we are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us".
"These last few days have laid bare that we are a nation furious at injustice. Every person of conscience can understand the rawness of the trauma people of color experience in this country ... like the horrific killing of George Floyd," the former vice president said.
"Protesting such brutality is right and necessary ... But burning down communities and needless destruction is not. Violence that endangers lives is not. Violence that guts and shutters businesses that serve the community is not."
Joe Biden
✔@JoeBiden
We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us. We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us. Please stay safe. Please take care of each other. https://medium.com/@JoeBiden/we-are-a-nation-furious-at-injustice-9dcffd81978f …
We are a nation furious at injustice.
These last few days have laid bare that we are a nation furious at injustice. Every person of conscience can understand the rawness of the…medium.com
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11:28 PM - May 30, 2020
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04:00 GMT - LA calls in National Guard
The mayor of Los Angeles says the National Guard will be deployed overnight to help local law enforcement as protests continue in the country's second-largest city.
Mayor Eric Garcetti says he asked California Governor Gavin Newsom on Saturday to send 500 to 700 members of the Guard. Crowds of demonstrators have torched police cars, vandalised and burglarised shops and clashed officers. Hundreds of people have been arrested since Friday night. Police have used tear gas to disperse the crowd.
03:58 GMT - Protesters defy curfew in Salt Lake City
Protests are continuing in Salt Lake City despite a curfew issued by the mayor and National Guard troops deployed by Utah's governor.
Police officials say they are prepared to give people time to leave, but they plan to arrest people who refused to comply.
What started as a peaceful demonstration Saturday against the death of George Floyd turned destructive. A group of people flipped over a police car and lit it on fire. A second car was later set on fire.
Police officials say six people have been arrested and that a police officer was injured after being struck in the head with a baseball bat.
03:50 GMT - National Guard called in Washington, DC
The National Guard has been called out in Washington, DC, as pockets of violence erupted during a second straight night of protests.
Hundreds of protesters converged on the White House during the day Saturday and marched on the National Mall, chanting "Black Lives Matter," "I can't breathe" and "No justice, no peace". Those protests remained relatively peaceful.
Ashish Malhotra@amalhotra2
Tear gas in the air just blocks from the White House about 20 minutes who. Could honestly barely breathe for a few
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10:56 PM - May 30, 2020
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Police used pepper spray to try to disperse the crowd, but the standoff continued. Protesters dragged away barricades and some broke up concrete to use as projectiles. At one point, a rubbish bin was set on fire.
National Guard troops took up position around the White House on Saturday night.
03:45 GMT - Nearly 1,400 people arrested in 17 US cities
Police have arrested nearly 1,400 people in 17 US cities as protests continue over the death of George Floyd, according to the Associated Press news agency.
An Associated Press tally of arrests found at least 1,383 people have been arrested since Thursday. The actual number is likely higher as protests continue Saturday night.
03:00 GMT - NYC police drive into protesters
New York City Police Department cruisers drove into protesters who were standing against a barricade and began pelting the police car with objects. The two vehicles drove into the small crowd, knocking several to ground, video shared on Twitter showed.
The Associated Press news agency also reported on the incident
Warning: Graphic video
Pierre G.@pgarapon
Wtf!!! #BlacklivesMaters #brooklynprotest
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02:50 GMT - Nashville mayor declares emergency as courthouse burns
The mayor of Nashville, Tennessee, has declared a state of civil emergency after protesters set a fire inside the Metro Courthouse in the state's capital city.
Thousands had rallied near the Capitol building Saturday afternoon to peacefully protest police brutality and racism. But things turned violent after darkness fell, with protesters breaking windows in government buildings and causing other property damage.
AJ Abell (Fox17)
✔@aj_abell
People are setting the Metro City Hall on Fire #GeorgeFloydProtests #NashvilleProtest @FOXNashville
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The Tennessean newspaper says demonstrators also pulled down a statue outside the Capitol of Edward Carmack, a controversial former legislator and newspaper publisher who espoused racist views.
Police deployed tear gas and began warning demonstrators that the protest was unlawful.
Governor Bill Lee issued an order Saturday night for the National Guard to mobilize "in response to protests that have now taken a violent, unlawful turn in Nashville".
02:15 GMT - Trump continues to attack Minneapolis leaders
US President Donald Trump continued his attacks on Minneapolis city leaders as protests there continued for a fifth night.
"The National Guard has been released in Minneapolis to do the job that the Democrat Mayor couldn't do," he said as protests raged on in the city.
"Great job by the National Guard," he tweeted. "No games!" he added, appearing to cheer on the tougher tactics being used by law enforcement around the country.
02:00 GMT - What Al Jazeera correspondents and reporters are seeing in major US cities
Gabriel Elizondo in New York City: "It's pretty chaotic out here right now ... Groups of protesters are really playing cat and mouse [with police] ... Right now the bottom line is: New York City is really a city in the middle of fog right now because it's really hard to make out exactly what's happening
Natasha Ghoneim in Chicago, Illinois: "This moment is eerily reminiscent of another moment that the city of Chicago had, and it won't fade from its memory. That was in 2014 when the police shot and killed 17-year-old Laquan McDonald." (Read more about that police killing here.)
Lucien Formichella in Minneapolis, Minnesota: "There was a tense moment here in Minneapolis earlier when what was believed to be a drunk man attempted to drive his car through the protest area. The situation was de-escalated by protesters, and the man was sent back. Protesters then erected makeshift barricades to stop cars from driving down the street."
A banner with an image of George Floyd is held by protesters rallying against his death in Minneapolis police custody, in Minneapolis, Minnesota [Leah Millis/Reuters]
Rob Reynolds in Los Angeles: "As night falls the standoff between protesters and police continue."
Mike Hanna in Washington, DC: "The demonstrations here have been largely peaceful through the course of the day and indeed in the course of the evening. There had been some scuffles. At one stage demonstrators were being pushed back across the park in front of the White House, but generally, the demonstrations have been relatively peaceful."
01:45 GMT - More cities impose curfews
Eugene, Oregon, was the latest US city to impose a nightly curfew as protests over the death of George Floyd intensifies.
Eugene city officials enacted a 9pm Saturday curfew. Seattle and Portland, Oregon, also issued Saturday night curfews due to unrest.
Eugene is home to the University of Oregon.
01:30 GMT - Protests erupt on the US West Coast
Protests are rocking several cities on the West Coast of the US
Washington Governor Jay Inslee activated up to 200 members of the National Guard to respond to protests, some violent, in downtown Seattle that forced the closure of the Interstate 5 freeway and the imposition of a citywide curfew.
Inslee said the Guard personnel would be unarmed and be directed by Seattle officials, who requested the help to protect property and manage crowds who had gathered in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
A woman gestures in front of police officers during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Los Angeles, California [Patrick T Fallon/Reuters]
The mayor of Seattle, Washington, meanwhile announced a 5pm curfew for Saturday following protests that spilled onto Interstate 5, forcing its closure through the central part of the Northwest's largest city.
The mayor of Portland, Oregon declared an 8pm curfew for Saturday after that city saw fiery protests Friday night.
00:40 GMT - Protesters in Minneapolis run after man believed to have a knife
Calls of "he's got a knife" rang out as a large group of about 100 protesters followed a man out of the protest.
Many in the group were shouting "let him go". Before he walked out of the car park where he was, another man ran up and sprayed him with what appeared to be mace.
"I saw somebody run that way after him, [onto Lake Street] but I don't know if he got caught," said one witness.
Lucien Formichella@lucien_form
Calls of "he's got a knife" rang out as a large group of protesters, roughly 100, followed a man out of the #Minneapolisprotest
Many in the group were yelling "let him go." Before getting out of the parking lot, another man ran up and sprayed him with what appeared to be mace.
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7:38 PM - May 30, 2020
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00:15 GMT - Protesters defy curfew in Minneapolis, other cities
Hundreds of protesters continued to rally in Minneapolis, even as a citywide curfew took effect. Similar reports were coming from other cities across the US.
Protesters have told Al Jazeera that they will stay in the streets and continue to rally at least until all four officers involved in the death of Floyd are arrested. They are also calling for police reforms.
Hundreds of people continued to rally in Minneapolis on Saturday after a curfew began [ Lucien Formichella/Al Jazeera]
00:05 GMT - Protests intensify in Texas
As anger over the death of Floyd intensified in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott said he was sending more than 1,500 state troopers to cities where demonstrations were taking place.
Abbott said in a news release Saturday that troopers are being sent to Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said on Twitter that nearly 200 people were arrested Friday and most will be charged with obstructing a roadway as several protesters blocked an interstate road and a highway.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Austin on Saturday outside police headquarters and then marched along Interstate 35.
00:00 GMT - Protesters confront police in Chicago
Protesters were confronting police in Chicago, Illinois, for a second night as anger about police violence and the death of Floyd grew.
More than 100 arrests were made on Friday night in relation to the protests, police said.
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