MINNEAPOLIS — Officials in Minnesota say no protesters appear to have been hit after a semitrailer drove into a crowd demonstrating on a freeway near downtown Minneapolis.
The Minnesota State Patrol says in a tweet that the action appeared deliberate. The patrol says the driver was injured and taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Very disturbing actions by a truck driver on I-35W, inciting a crowd of peaceful demonstrators. The truck driver was injured & taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. He is under arrest. It doesn’t appear any protesters were hit by the truck. #MACCMN
It wasn’t clear how the driver was hurt. TV footage showed protesters swarming the truck, and then law enforcement quickly moving in.
Other TV footage showed the tanker truck moving rapidly onto the bridge and protesters appearing to part ahead of it.
The protesters were demonstrating against the death of George Floyd.
Holy crap.
A crowd of protestors dispersed as a truck was dangerous driving at full speed on the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis. The driver eventually stopped. pic.twitter.com/8g59EIu84L
UPDATE: Truck driver under arrest and taken to hospital after driving towards protesters on closed interstate in Minneapolis, after which he was pulled from the vehicle pic.twitter.com/9KmMPcioc2
The Atlanta cops who tased and pulled Spelman and Morehouse students out of their car on live television have been fired and others put on desk duty.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Sunday that the video of the officers using “excessive force” against Messiah Young, 22, and Taniyah Pilgrim, 20, kept her up all night. The altercation took place after a 9 p.m. curfew was instituted by the mayor in response to the ongoing protests over the death of George Floyd and police brutality. Police stopped and surrounded the car the students were in at approximately 9:13 pm Saturday evening.
Mayor of Atlanta Keisha Lance Bottoms. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Essence)
WATCH: here’s my video of when two young people were tased, dragged out of their car in downtown Atlanta Saturday night. We’re working to find out why this happened and what led up to it @cbs46https://t.co/JL4nMFCnlspic.twitter.com/USRby69Kp2
In footage that was captured live by CBS 46, the car windows were broken and officers began an aggressive posture toward the HBCU students. They were assaulted, arrested, and taken into custody at the Fulton County Jail. He was charged with eluding/flee police and driving without a license.
A GoFundMe was set up for their bail money by Samaiya Butler. It has thus far raised almost $100K and the funds will be going to Young’s family. The Georgia NAACP and the JUSTGeorgia Coalition also immediately organized to help. They used the #WeAreDoneDying to call attention to the fact that this state of emergency was jeopardizing more lives.
We are working to secure the release of these two local college students who were ripped from a vehicle and tased tonight in Atlanta. This is the exact kind of policing behavior thousands have been protesting.
“This uprising has been a result of the inabilities of elected officials to ensure proper judgment necessary to arrest, indict, and convict officers who repeatedly murder innocent, unarmed Black bodies,” they stated in a press release Sunday.
“As if the global pandemic was not enough harm on the Black and Brown community, we now have to endure the pain and hurt from the grim displays of modern lynching going viral every week,” the release continued.
Lance Bottoms responded to the outrage by announcing during a Sunday news conference that two of the officers involved in the incident had been fired. One had a tenure of 20 years on the force and the other 16. Three others who were involved have been taken off street duty pending review.
“After a review of that footage, Chief Shields and I made the determination that two of the officers involved in the incident last night will be terminated immediately. The other three officers right now are on desk duty pending further determination of what, if any appropriate action, disciplinary actions should be taken against them,” the mayor said.
“The release of that bodycam footage and the corresponding police report should be available to the media immediately.”
The students have since been released from police custody. All charges were dropped against her but they may be pending against him according to the Georgia NAACP. It was also confirmed that they did not suffer any injuries.
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As people of all races and backgrounds took to the streets to express outrage over the death of George Floyd, I was on the ground in Minneapolis reporting as similar protests and demonstrations took place around the U.S.
The discontent of protesters was not just for Floyd but with the continued murders of Black people by the hands of police.
Floyd, 46, died on Memorial Day after then-officer Derek Chauvin was seen on video with his knee on Floyd’s neck for several minutes as he cried out to Chauvin that he could not breathe.
Signs, artwork and flowers were placed by people showing up to pay their respects and to protest at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in South Minneapolis, in front of the CUP Foods where George Floyd died earlier in the week, Saturday, May 30 2020. (Scott Takushi / MediaNews Group / St. Paul Pioneer Press via Getty Images)
Although four of the arresting officers, including Chauvin, were immediately fired only Chauvin has so far been charged. City unrest has led to the damage of businesses and even the Minneapolis Third Police Precinct being vandalized and set on fire.
Two days after Chauvin’s arrest, however, protests in America have continued around the U.S.
(Photo: Tina Samepay)
“We are a quiet state, most people don’t even know we exist. There are too many crimes happening and it is not Black on Black, it is the White police against us and we are sick of it, ” said Keke G, an independent artist, and songwriter from Minneapolis told me.
Keke G, an artist and songwriter. (Photo: Tina Samepay)
“After so long, we have to speak up and we have to stand up for something. Everybody is pissed, everybody is mad. This is not just this situation. It goes back 250 plus years.”
Many of the protests in Minneapolis started off peacefully until some individuals began taking goods from stores. In Minneapolis, at least 140 businesses have been either burned or broken into; including the Cubs Foods where the store’s owner initially called the police on Floyd to allege that he tried to use a fake $20 to buy cigarettes.
Many are questioning the role of some White people among the protestors who are being seen as provocateurs enticing rising tensions.
A now-viral video shows a White man dressed in all black with an umbrella breaking windows. Although he was among protestors he caused a lot of attention to himself and the man is seen on camera trying to get away from a Black man who appeared to be trying to get his identity.
Video shows a suspicious white man breaking windows at the Minneapolis Auto Zone and then walking away from the scene. This looks like an effort to instigate trouble in order to blame the protesters for the consequences.
On Friday night in Los Angeles over 400 people were arrested in Downtown LA and at least two officers were injured from the protest. In Atlanta, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has requested support from the National Guard after protestors stormed CNN headquarters, breaking windows and holding a massive protest in front of the building.
A man waves a Black Lives Matter flag atop the CNN logo during a protest in response to the police killing of George Floyd outside the CNN Center on May 29, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)
Republican congressional candidate Joe Collins traveled from South Central, LA to Minneapolis to stand in solidarity with the family of Floyd. He told me he is familiar with the 1992 riots which saw Los Angeles go up in flames, specifically businesses meant to service Black and minority communities.
Barbershop in Minneapolis with the words “Black-owned business” on its boards. (Photo: Tina Samepay)Burned down building in Minneapolis. (Photo: Tina Samepay)
“As a Black leader, we must come together and stand with those across the country who are being oppressed to show them that they are not alone,” Collins told me. “We are tired of them having their knees on our necks just as Floyd was. We are just as tired of them murdering our Black babies in Los Angeles just like they are in Minneapolis. We are stronger together than we are alone.”
The death of Floyd is within the backdrop of Ahmaud Arbery’s fatal shooting by community vigilantes Gregory McMichael and Travis McMichael, along with the police shooting of Breonna Taylor, who was killed in her own home by Lousiville police.
Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd (Credit: Arbery family, Instagram/@keyanna.guifarro and Benjamin Crump)
The massive demonstrations going on across the country is not only about Floyd. They are about the systemic issues of racism in this country and people have reached their breaking point.
Maya Santamaria is the owner of El Nuevo Rodeo Club on Lake Street in Minneapolis. She revealed that both Floyd and Chauvin worked at Rodeo Club as security in 2019, although it is unclear if they knew each other. Santamaria also says that Chauvin was known to have a bad temper and be intimidated and fearful of African-American males.
Derek Chauvin (screenshot from video)
Minneapolis native TJ Deen told me that he is sad over what is currently happening in his city. His family is from Sierra Leone but he was born in the U.K., where he says that police murdering people is close to none.
The United Kingdom does not allow its police to use deadly force unless it is requested and necessary.
“For you to retrieve your weapon you actually have to put a request in and have it approved. In the United States, carrying a gun is the norm. So as a citizen you think carrying a gun is normal. Shooting people is normal. You are desensitized.”
Deen said that police in the U.S are taught more combat tactics than they are de-escalation tactics.
“I want to see more people like me involved in politics and the police force. Black people always want to own something and I love the sole proprietorship. I love us being owners and the boss,” he said.
“Sometimes though, you have to be a lawyer. Go to school and become a lawyer because our people need lawyers. Go to school and become a psychologist because your people need psychologists.”
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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Americans awoke Sunday to charred and glass-strewn streets in dozens of cities after another night of unrest fueled by rage over the mistreatment of African Americans at the hands of police, who responded to the violence with tear gas and rubber bullets.
Tens of thousands marched peacefully through streets to protest the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died Monday after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck until he stopped breathing. But many demonstrations sank into chaos as night fell: Cars and businesses were torched. The words “I can’t breathe” were spray-painted all over buildings. A fire in a trash bin burned near the gates of the White House.
The fury sparked by Floyd’s death was compounded by the coronavirus pandemic, which has left millions out of work and killed more than 100,000 people in the U.S., including disproportionate numbers of Black people.
“We’re sick of it. The cops are out of control,” protester Olga Hall said in Washington, D.C. “They’re wild. There’s just been too many dead boys.”
It feels like we are living in the 1960s. We are PEACEFULLY protesting and chanting. Then police charged us with batons, clubs, horses, and pepper spray!!! The police were the AGGRESSORS! THIS IS HAPPENING IN 2020!!! #BlackLivesMatter#DCProtestpic.twitter.com/ZlRdbzxt4k
People set fire to squad cars, threw bottles at officers and busted windows of storefronts, carrying away TVs and other items even as some protesters urged them to stop. In Indianapolis, multiple shootings were reported, including one that left a person dead amid the protests, adding to deaths in Detroit and Minneapolis in recent days.
In Minneapolis, the city where the protests began, police, state troopers and National Guard members moved in soon after an 8 p.m. curfew took effect to break up the demonstrations.
At least 13 police officers were injured in Philadelphia , and at least four police vehicles were set on fire. In New York City, dangerous confrontations flared repeatedly as officers made arrests and cleared streets. A video showed two NYPD cruisers lurching into a crowd of demonstrators who were pushing a barricade against one of them and pelting it with objects. Several people were knocked to the ground. It was unclear if anyone was hurt.
“The mistakes that are happening are not mistakes. They’re repeated violent terrorist offenses, and people need to stop killing black people,” Brooklyn protester Meryl Makielski said.
Overnight curfews were imposed in more than a dozen major cities nationwide, including Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Seattle.
Few corners of America were untouched, from protesters setting fires inside Reno’s city hall, to police launching tear gas at rock-throwing demonstrators in Fargo, North Dakota. In Salt Lake City, demonstrators flipped a police car and lit it on fire. Police said six people were arrested and an officer was injured after being struck in the head with a baseball bat.
By daybreak, cleanup had already began in Nashville along Broadway Street — known for its famous honky tonks — after protesters broke windows, lit fires and destroyed light poles. Police said in a tweet that at least 30 businesses and buildings were damaged.
As of now (before sunrise) we count 30 businesses and buildings that the protestors (vandals) damaged in our city Saturday night. pic.twitter.com/twIX88auyY
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) May 31, 2020
Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp authorized the deployment of up to 3,000 National Guard troops to Athens, Savannah and any other cities where more demonstrations were planned Sunday. Kemp had already approved up to 1,500 Guardsmen to help enforce a 9 p.m. Saturday curfew in Atlanta.
“The protesters need to know we’re going to support their efforts in a peaceful, nonviolent protest,” Kemp told television station WSB-TV late Saturday. “The agitators need to know that we’ll be there … to take them to jail if they’re destroying lives and property.”
President Donald Trump appeared to cheer on the tougher tactics Saturday night, commending the National Guard deployment in Minneapolis, declaring “No games!” and saying police in New York City “must be allowed to do their job!”
The National Guard has been released in Minneapolis to do the job that the Democrat Mayor couldn’t do. Should have been used 2 days ago & there would not have been damage & Police Headquarters would not have been taken over & ruined. Great job by the National Guard. No games!
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden condemned the violence as he continued to express common cause with those demonstrating after Floyd’s death.
“The act of protesting should never be allowed to overshadow the reason we protest,” Biden said in a statement Saturday night.
In Ferguson, Missouri, where Michael Brown, Jr. was shot and killed by a white police officer in 2014, sparking a wave of protests throughout the country, six officers were hurt after being hit with rocks and fireworks.
Police have arrested nearly 1,700 people in 22 cities since Thursday, according to a tally by The Associated Press. Nearly a third of those arrests came in Los Angeles, where the governor declared a state of emergency and ordered the National Guard to back up the city’s 10,000 police officers as dozens of fires burned across the city.
This week’s unrest recalled the riots in Los Angeles nearly 30 years ago after the acquittal of the white police officers who beat Rodney King, a Black motorist who had led them on a high-speed chase. The protests of Floyd’s killing have gripped many more cities, but the losses in Minneapolis have yet to approach the staggering totals Los Angeles saw during five days of rioting in 1992, when more than 60 people died, 2,000-plus were injured and thousands arrested, with property damage topping $1 billion.
But not all protests were marred by violence. In Juneau, Alaska, local police joined protesters at a rally in front of a giant whale sculpture on the city’s waterfront.
“We don’t tolerate excessive use of force,” Juneau Police Chief Ed Mercer told a gathering where most people wore masks and some sang Alaska Native songs.
The show of force in Minneapolis came after three days in which police largely avoided engaging protesters, and after the state poured more than 4,000 National Guard troops into Minneapolis. Authorities said that number would soon rise to nearly 11,000.
“The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd,” said Gov. Tim Walz, who also said local forces had been overmatched the previous day. “It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities.”
Some residents were glad to see the upheaval dissipating.
“l live here. I haven’t been able to sleep,” said Iman Muhammad, whose neighborhood saw multiple fires set Friday night. Muhammad said she sympathized with peaceful protests over Floyd’s death but disagreed with the violence: “Wrong doesn’t answer wrong.”
___
Associated Press journalists across the U.S. contributed to this report.
As someone who lives in the second-largest city on the East Coast, Philadelphia has a long history of systemic racism despite having a well-represented Black population and political leadership. Seeing locals down my timeline disrupt Center City (the downtown area of Philly) was a testament to a town that’s sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Although they have nearly 30 years of a majority Black and brown population, Philadelphia has yet to seriously tackle the inequities afflicting them. Black Philadelphians have seen no major improvement in poverty; biased stop-and-frisk policies; and witnessing intense racial segregation via gentrification. Outside of political leadership, Black people are underrepresented in business, education, tech, and nonprofit leadership in a city in which they hold the plurality.
In regards to economics, Black people are neglected in terms of financial access and opportunity, despite making up over a third of Philly’s population. A 2019 Pew Charitable Trusts report titled “State of the City” reported that only 2.5 percent of businesses in Philly are Black-owned (despite this demographic making up 43 percent of the city’s population). In comparison, white people — with 34 percent of the population in Philadelphia — are overrepresented in terms of city jobs, healthcare, higher education attainment, wealth generation, property-ownership, business growth, and more.
So no, it was no surprise for me to witness Philly residents protest as hard as they did. It was a long time coming for a city that has continued to either turn a blind eye or break promises to its Black citizens.
For example, in 2017, local protesters and Philadelphia Councilwoman Helen Gym called for the infamous Frank Rizzo Statue to be removed following an act of domestic terrorism in Charlottesville, Virginia. The late Frank Rizzo was a former mayor of Philadelphia who had a racist and homophobic history of terrorizing Black and brown people with police. For his statue to remain in Center City for nearly three decades painted a racist legacy in the longtime Democratic elected powerhouse.The current Mayor Jim Kenney promised to remove the statue, only to later tell residents that metal monstrosity was staying put for several more years. Which can explain why protesters made sure to set it on fire without any complaint.
It’s hard not to ignore these protests are also happening during the 35th anniversary of the MOVE Bombing in which the City of Philadelphia authorized a bomb to drop in a Black neighborhood as a response to a Black protesting group. The state-sanctioned violence killed eleven Black people, including five children, and burned down 61 houses.
No one was arrested or held legally accountable for the decision. And yes, this happened under the leadership of Philadelphia’s first Black mayor, Wilson Goode, who finally called on the city to issue a formal apology this year.
It should be noted that just two week ago, Philly Mayor Jim Kenney, couldn't even offer an official city apology on behalf of the MOVE Bombing, in which 5 Black children were killed after the City authorized a bomb to be dropped in a Black neighborhood in 1985.#PhillyProtest
So for many around the world who are wondering why it seemed to be a lot going on in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection on Saturday — this is why. The senseless killings of Black lives nationwide reminded our city that we, too, have white supremacy in our own backyard to take care of.
Ernest Owens is the Writer at Large of Philadelphia magazine and CEO of Ernest Media Empire, LLC. The award-winning journalist has written for The New York Times, NBC News, USA Today and several other major publications. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram and ernestowens.com.
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