NEW YORK (AP) — Protesters stayed on the streets of New York City after curfew for another day Thursday, spurred by the death of George Floyd.
Actions by the protesters included gathering at Brooklyn’s Cadman Plaza, the site where police used batons against demonstrators who were out past the city-imposed curfew a night earlier.
Protesters continued past the 8 p.m. curfew Thursday, even after Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio sought to deflect criticism over harsh tactics from police enforcing it.
Thousands of protesters were out after curfew, and so were police.
At some locations, officials watched, but didn’t immediately move in. At other spots, they made orderly arrests without the batons and riot gear, like a night earlier.
ATLANTA — Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms walked with protesters in downtown Atlanta on Thursday and told the crowd through a megaphone that “there is something better on the other side of this.”
“We are in the midst of a movement in this country,” she said. “But it’s going to be incumbent upon all of us to be able to get together and articulate more than our anger. We got to be able to articulate what we want as our solutions.”
The mayor’s appearance came on the seventh straight night of protests in the city following the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. Police Chief Erika Shields also attended the protest.
When the first night of protests on Friday turned violent, an impassioned Bottoms held a news conference and urged the protesters to go home, saying those who were looting and vandalizing businesses were disgracing the city and Floyd’s life.
She told the crowd on Thursday that they “matter” to her, and before she left, she encouraged them to get tested for COVID-19.
WASHINGTON — Protests in the nation’s capital over George Floyd’s death broke up before dark Thursday as a heavy rain began to fall.
The law enforcement presence at the Lincoln Memorial, where protesters gathered, was much smaller than it had been near the White House during the previous nights’ demonstrations.
Tomora Wright, 29, of Washington, said her parents were concerned that she was coming down to protest but she wasn’t worried. “I know that my people are peaceful and I’m not scared to be around people who believe in the same thing, the same cause. I definitely felt the need to come down here and protest in solidarity.”
She wants to see the killers of George Floyd brought to justice but also reopening of past cases such as Sandra Bland in Texas. “These are unimaginable times. “
BUFFALO, N.Y. — A police commissioner has suspended two officers following video that shows a Buffalo officer appearing to shove a man who walked up to police.
Video from WBFO shows the man appearing to hit his head on the pavement, with blood leaking out as officers walk past to clear Niagara Square on Thursday night.
The station reports two medics treated the unidentified man. Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz tweeted that the man was hospitalized and stable, but his exact condition wasn’t immediately known.
WIVB-TV reports that Buffalo police initially said in a statement a person “was injured when he tripped & fell.” But Capt. Jeff Rinaldo later told the TV station that an internal affairs investigation was opened. Later Thursday, news outlets reported that Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood suspended two officers without pay.
New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office has tweeted that they’re aware of the video.
WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union and others have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging officials violated the civil rights of protesters who were forcefully removed from a park near the White House by police using chemical agents before President Donald Trump walked to a nearby church to take a photo.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday in federal court in Washington. It argues that Trump, Attorney General William Barr and other officials “unlawfully conspired to violate” the protesters’ rights when clearing Lafayette Park on Monday.
Shortly before 6:30 p.m. on Monday, law enforcement officers began aggressively forcing back the peaceful protesters, firing smoke bombs and pepper balls into the crowd to disperse them from the park.
The ACLU called it a “coordinated and unprovoked charge into the crowd of demonstrators.”
Barr said Thursday that he ordered the protesters to be dispersed because officials were supposed to extend a security perimeter around the White House earlier in the day. He said he arrived there later in the afternoon and discovered it hadn’t been done.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the group Black Lives Matter D.C., and individual protesters who were in Lafayette Park on Monday evening.
MINNEAPOLIS — Defense attorneys said Thursday that two of three Minneapolis police officers accused of aiding and abetting in the death of George Floyd were rookies barely off probation when a more senior white officer ignored the black man’s cries for help and pressed a knee into his neck.
Earl Gray said his client, former Officer Thomas Lane had no choice but to follow the instructions of Derek Chauvin, who has since been charged with second-degree murder in Floyd’s May 25 death. Gray called the case against his client “extremely weak.”
A judge set bail at $750,000 apiece for Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao, when they made their first appearances in Hennepin County District Court on Thursday.
The Minneapolis Police Department fired all four officers last week and charged Chauvin. On Wednesday, the three other officers were charged.
AUSTIN, Texas — Dozens of members of the University of Texas football team marched with Austin police officers from campus to the state Capitol to honor the memory of George Floyd.
Many of the players locked arms on the two-mile walk that stopped on the north side of the Capitol, the opposite side of the building from where protesters have gathered for several days.
Once there, the group and police officers took a knee for nine minutes to symbolize the amount of time Floyd was detained on the ground by Minneapolis police before he died.
The players were also joined by head coach Tom Herman, his wife, and several assistant coaches.
“I’m so proud,” Herman told the players, urging them to “be agents of change.”
NEW YORK — The Queens district attorney says a man seen on video charging protesters in New York while wearing a glove with four long, serrated-edge blades has surrendered to authorities.
A release from the office of District Attorney Melinda Katz says 54-year-old Frank Cavalluzzi jumped out of a vehicle Tuesday afternoon, shouting “I will kill you,” and chasing protesters who were gathered peacefully on an overpass.
The release says he got back into his vehicle and drove on a sidewalk, nearly running over the demonstrators. Cavalluzzi turned himself in Thursday and was arraigned on multiple charges, including second-degree attempted murder. He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether he had retained an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
SAN ANTONIO — The GOP chairwoman of one of Texas’ largest counties faced widespread pressure from her party to resign Thursday over a conspiracy theory on social media suggesting that George Floyd’s death was staged.
Cynthia Brehm is head of the Bexar County Republican Party in San Antonio. She also drew attention and condemnation last month for suggesting the coronavirus pandemic was a hoax intended to hurt President Donald Trump.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called on her to step down after a San Antonio Express-News columnist Wednesday tweeted an image of Brehm suggesting in a Facebook post that Floyd’s death was staged. The post is no longer on Brehm’s page. She has not publicly addressed calls for her resignation and did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
“The comments are disgusting and have no place in the Republican Party or in public discourse,” Abbott spokesman said John Wittman said.
Both Sen. John Cornyn and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas also called on her to resign, as did Texas Republican Party Chairman James Dickey.
Floyd, a 46-year-old African American, died after a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, put his knee on Floyd’s neck for several minutes as he lay handcuffed on the pavement, gasping that he couldn’t breathe. Floyd’s funeral will be held next week in Houston, where he grew up.
BARCELONA, Spain — More than a thousand people gathered in a central square in Barcelona, Spain, to protest against the death of American George Floyd and police brutality against African Americans.
The protesters held a minute of silence at the candlelight vigil on Thursday. A recording of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream speech” was played and people set up a shrine in memory of Floyd.
“I am hopeful that people are standing up now and they’ve said ‘enough is enough’,” said Jonathan Courtney, a 31-year-old American resident who organized the event. “If you go back in history when people did make change, they did go to the streets.”
FARGO, N.D. — Black leaders in North Dakota’s largest city pleaded for calm in the face of violent threats to disrupt a gathering in memory of George Floyd. They advertised the event as a celebration and not a protest.
The OneFargo event is scheduled Friday afternoon at a downtown Fargo park. Organizers had planned to march from the park to City Hall for a sit-in. They have scrapped that idea after social media threats surfaced to burn down the city offices and commit other violent acts.
Organizer Wess Philome says anyone who is looking to destroy the “positive energy” from Friday’s event should stay home.
The pledge to tone down the dissent comes after a violent protest in downtown Fargo last weekend resulted in damaged property, a dozen arrests and minor injuries to four police officers.
OAKLAND, Calif. — Police say well-coordinated criminals are capitalizing on the chaos around protests to stage widespread store thefts.
They travel by caravan and use messaging apps or social media to communicate or distract and throw police off their trail.
The wave of crime that has followed largely peaceful demonstrations over the police killing of George Floyd has happened in big and small cities and in rural areas. Thieves have targeted high-value goods as officers are assigned to prevent protests from becoming unruly and enforce curfews. In the San Francisco Bay Area, a band of thieves stole nearly 75 vehicles from a dealership.
MINNEAPOLIS — Mourners at George Floyd’s memorial service are standing for 8 minutes, 46 seconds, a span that has become a potent symbol of police brutality.
The Rev. Al Sharpton exhorted Floyd’s family, civil rights leaders, politicians, athletes and celebrities at the service Thursday to stand as a commitment to justice in Floyd’s name. Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, who died in police custody in New York City in 2014, stood on stage with Sharpton and comedian Tiffany Haddish.
Floyd, a handcuffed black man, died on May 25 as a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck, ignoring his cries and bystander shouts until Floyd eventually stopped moving.
In the days since his death, protesters have seized on 8 minutes, 46 seconds — the time given in a criminal complaint that the officer held his knee on Floyd’s neck — as a way to honor Floyd.
Sharpton says Floyd’s story has been the story of black people in America, and that he died not from common health conditions, but from a malfunction of the criminal justice system.
Sharpton says the reason black people couldn’t be who they dreamed of being is because “you had your knee on our necks.” He added: “Get your knee off of our necks!”
He also commented about the protests that have occurred across the country and the world since Floyd’s death, saying that this time is different. Sharpton said he saw white people outnumbering black people in some marches and calling for justice.
Sharpton also called out President Donald Trump for walking from the White House across the street as protests were going on in Washington so he could pose with a bible.
“We cannot use bibles as a prop,” Sharpton said. “For those that have agendas that are not about justice, this family will not let you use George as a prop.”
