Trump warns of military deployment as protests resume

President Trump threatened on Monday to deploy the United States military unless states quickly halted the violent protests that have convulsed cities from coast to coast, hours after George Floyd’s brother pleaded for peace, saying destruction is “not going to bring my brother back at all.”

The competing messages — one conciliatory, one bellicose — came as the U.S. braced for another round of violence at a time when the country is already buckling because of the coronavirus outbreak and the Depression-level unemployment it has caused.

Trump said he was recommending that governors throughout the country deploy the National Guard in sufficient numbers to “dominate the streets.” If governors fail to take action, Trump said, he will deploy the United States military and “quickly solve the problem for them.”

Trump spoke in the Rose Garden minutes after police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of peaceful, chanting protesters gathered in the park across the street from the White House.

The National Guard presence in Washington was much more overt Monday than the day before. Beige hummers blocked several downtown intersections.

But in Minneapolis, Floyd’s brother, Terrence, made an emotional plea for peace at the site where Floyd was pinned to the pavement by an officer who put his knee on the handcuffed black man’s neck until he stopped breathing.

“Let’s switch it up, y’all. Let’s switch it up. Do this peacefully, please,” Terrence Floyd said.

The crowd chanted, “What’s his name? George Floyd!” and “One down, three to go!” in reference to the four officers involved in Floyd’s arrest. Officer Derek Chauvin has been charged with murder, but protesters are demanding that his colleagues be prosecuted, too. All four were fired.

The gathering was part rally and part impromptu eulogy as Floyd urged people to stop the violence and use their power at the ballot box.

“If I’m not over here messing up my community, then what are you all doing?” he said. “You all are doing nothing. Because that’s not going to bring my brother back at all.”

The country has been beset by angry demonstrations for the past week in some of the most widespread racial unrest in the U.S. since the 1960s. Spurred in part by Floyd’s death, protesters have taken to the streets to decry the killings of black people by police.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2Mn7RGB