– International outrage is growing over the death of George Floyd and police brutality in the United States.
– New York City has extended its nighttime curfew until Sunday as officials prepare for further protests.
– US President Donald Trump faced backlash over a photo-op in front of a church that meant peaceful protesters in Washington DC were tear-gassed.
All times in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC/GMT)
20:25 The state of Minnesota filed a civil rights complaint against the Minneapolis Police Department over the death George Floyd at the hands of police officers.
Governor Tim Walz said the state’s Department of Human Rights will probe the police department’s practices, reviewing the last 10 years of policies and procedures.
The investigation will determine whether officers engaged in systemic discrimination towards people of color and also propose solutions on how to stop it from happening in the future.
“Silence is complicity. Minnesotans can expect our administration to use every tool at our disposal to deconstruct generations of systemic racism in our state,” Walz said.
“Being black should not be a death sentence,” he emphasized.
20:00 In an op-ed, DW’s Miodrag Soric notes that writes that black Americans face an uphill battle in the fight for equal treatment in US society.
“Black people are not protesting in dozens of cities across the US because they feel they are being treated as second-class citizens, as one commentator claimed. They’re protesting because they really are second-class citizens.”
“On paper, every American citizen is equal before the law. But in reality, US police stop people on the street simply because of their appearance, even when they’re not seen as suspects.”
Read more of his op-ed here: Opinion: US racism part of everyday life
19:40 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took a full 20-second pause before answering a reporter’s question on President Donald Trump’s handling of the protests in the US.
The silence came when a journalist asked the Canadian leader during a press conference to comment on Trump’s threat to use the military on protesters.
After taking a long pause, Trudeau eventually answered: “We all watch in horror and consternation what’s going on in the United States.”
“It is a time to pull people together, but it is a time to listen, it is a time to learn what injustices continue despite progress over years and decades,” he said, noting that Canada must also work to address racial inequality and discrimination.
19:30 New York City’s new curfew that is due to come into force on Tuesday has already been extended until the end of the week.
The 8:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. (0000 to 0900 UTC) curfew will now run until June 7, Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters.
A curfew on Monday that began at the later time of 11:00 p.m. failed to deter people from looting several stores in Manhattan, he said.
The mayor added that officials would not be deploying National Guard soldiers as in other states, saying the New York Police Department’s 36,000 officers could handle any unrest. The police
Nighttime curfews are also in effect for dozens of cities across the US, including Washington, Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. Depending on the area, protesters could face fines or jail time for staying out past the curfew.
19:20 US presidential hopeful Joe Biden has launched a withering attack on Donald Trump in the wake of the protests across the United States.
“He thinks division helps him,” Biden said in a speech at Philadelphia’s City Hall. “This narcissism has become more important than the nation’s wellbeing.”
Biden spoke of the moment law enforcers drove back peaceful protesters near the White House on Monday so Trump could pose with a Bible. “If he opened it instead of brandishing it, he could have learned something,” Biden said as he criticized authorities for using “tear gas and flash grenades in order to stage a photo op.”
“We can be forgiven for believing the president is more interested in power than in principle,” Biden added. “More interested in serving the passions of his base than the needs of the people in his care.”
He said the killing of African-American George Floyd at the hands of the police that sparked the protests, was a “wake-up call” for the country and it must now address the issue of systemic racism.
“We can’t leave this moment thinking we can once again turn away and do nothing,” Biden said. “We can’t.”
19:00 German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that the anti-police brutality protests in the US were “more than legitimate” and that he hopes they will spark change.
“I can only express the hope that the peaceful protests don’t turn violent, and even more the hope that they will have an impact,” he added.
He also called for press freedom for reporters covering the protests, saying that the German government will contact US authorities to support a DW journalist who was fired at and hampered from doing his job.
“Any violence that occurs in this context not only has to be criticized — above all it has to be properly followed up and investigated so that journalists are protected when they are doing their work,” Maas said.
Read more: Germany’s top diplomat: George Floyd protests ‘legitimate,’ urges press freedom
DW’s Stefan Simons was shot at by police on two separate occasions while covering the Minneapolis protests. He was wearing a press jacket during both incidents and had identified himself as a journalist.
18:45 Thousands of protesters gathered at Paris’ main courthouse to show solidarity with US protesters denouncing the killing of George Floyd and to condemn the death of a black man — Adama Traore — in French police custody.
Paris police banned the gathering a few hours before it was supposed to begin, citing coronavirus restrictions prohibiting gatherings of more than 10 people.
Traore — a French citizen — died shortly after his arrest in 2016. His family says he died from asphyxiation in the hands of police and, echoing Floyd, that his last words were: “I can’t breathe.”
Investigations into Traore’s death are still ongoing four years after his death due to conflicting medical reports.
The lawyer for two of the three police officers involved claims that Traore didn’t die as a result of the conditions of his arrest but due to a pre-existing medical condition.
Similar protests honoring Traore and Floyd are also taking place in other cities throughout France.
18:25 The European Union’s top foreign policy official has said the bloc is “shocked and appalled” by the killing of George Floyd, describing his death as an “abuse of power.”
“All societies must remain vigilant against the excessive use of force,” Borrell told reporters in Brussels.
He emphasized that Europeans “support the right to peaceful protest, and also we condemn violence and racism of any kind, and for sure, we call for a de-escalation of tensions.”
18:00 Welcome to DW’s rolling coverage of the protests sweeping the US in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd. The 46-year-old African American died in Minneapolis last week after a police officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes, despite crying out “I can’t breathe.” Since then, the US has experienced its worst civil unrest since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
ls, rs/rt (AP, dpa, Reuters)
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/us-protests-latest-eu-condemns-george-floyd-killing-as-abuse-of-power/a-53661621?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf