George Floyd: governor's vow to reclaim streets rings hollow on night of chaos
In the minutes before the curfew kicked in, state troopers sent waves of teargas into the crowd.
Related: ‘A national crisis’: how the killing of George Floyd is changing US politics
Thousands of protesters reeled back a block or two. People stumbled away gasping for breath, futilely rubbing their eyes.
For a few minutes, it looked as if Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, had delivered on his pledge to take back control of the streets of Minneapolis. He had said there would be no repeat on Friday of the previous night’s destruction, after thousands of people stormed and burned the third precinct police station at the centre of the outrage over the killing of George Floyd.
But then the crowd regrouped and the test of strength began to go its way. The police couldn’t fire teargas fast enough, and retreated block by block. Soon the demonstrators were back in control of the looted police station. It was a symbolic victory that only encouraged them.
Waltz had threatened to send in the national guard but it was nowhere to be seen and the police suddenly seemed to evaporate.
By the time the sun went down, the protesters were in control of a two-mile stretch of a busy shopping street, and much of the area around it, in the south of the city. The curfew had collapsed.
Plunder and arson escalated. So did partying and drag racing after a large crowd helped themselves to the contents of a sprawling liquor store. One group set fire to a Shell petrol station. Businesses were looted wholesale except where the owners were on guard in the mostly Latino neighbourhood.
By the time the sun rose on Saturday, a visibly furious Walz called a full mobilisation of the national guard for the first time since the second world war. He denounced the destruction as making a mockery of claims the protests were about Floyd’s death.
“The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd. It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great city,” he said.
Walz said there were “elements present” in the rioting of domestic terrorism, ideological extremism and international destabilisation. He denounced “anarchists who are burning down damn buildings that were built up by indigenous owners” and said it was overshadowing the death of Floyd.
But it was also true that large numbers of people on the streets on Friday night were from Minneapolis.
The city authorities had hoped that the homicide charges against the police officeronly third-degree murder and manslaughter charges seen kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, Derek Chauvin, would go some way to defuse anger on the streets. But there were immediate demands for the arrest of three other officers involved, and questions about why Chauvin was facing when the common view was that he is guilty of a much more serious crime.
Protests flared across the US, from New York to Denver and Los Angeles. Seven people were shot during demonstrations in Louisville, Kentucky. Another person was killed in Detroit.
Outside the White House in Washington, protesters hurled bits of brick and bottles at US Secret Service agents and police officers in riot gear. Some attempted to break through barriers and wrestled with the police.
On Saturday morning, Donald Trump tweeted: “Big crowd, professionally organized, but nobody came close to breaching the fence. If they had they would have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen. That’s when people would have been really badly hurt, at least.”
In Atlanta, protesters set fires near CNN headquarters and blocked highways. Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Martin Luther King, appealed for non-violent protest in the tradition of her father.
“Let’s do this the non-violent way to deal with the evil of our time,” she said.
But the most sustained anger was on the streets of Minneapolis.
Watching the looting of the liquor store with bemusement, a Hispanic woman who would only give her name as Valeria said Floyd’s death ignited a population already struggling with the consequences of coronavirus.
“You’ve got it all,” she said. “People lost their jobs. People been shut indoors. And then the cops kill George Floyd. It was like a lid lifted. All that steam got let out.”
Sergio Pineda, 46, stood guard over his used car lot, a block down from the burning Shell station.
“I don’t want to kill nobody,” he said, “but if somebody disrespects my business …
“We want justice too. Third-degree murder, manslaughter, is not going to cut it. But that’s not what this is about. It’s a lot of people just looking for an opportunity to loot and steal. The national guard should be here protecting. A lot of these are minority-owned businesses that aren’t insured.”
Local elected officials warned that if the violence went on the economic life of the area could be destroyed. Some residents were in fear of their lives. The owners of a coffee shop sprayed on the outside: “Kids live downstairs.”
Ayanle Hashi, a Somali migrant, stood guard in front of his building, afraid someone would set a fire after the shops at street level were looted.
“There are disabled and elderly people in here,” he said. “They would never get out. People are taking advantage of a bad situation. But I get it. People here have been protesting for so long and nothing happens. The government doesn’t do anything. They’re angry.”
A large crowd marched on another police station, the fifth precinct. The city police chief, Medaria Arradondo, said he feared a repeat of the storming of the third precinct station and sent hundreds of officers in riot gear to charge the crowd around midnight. People stampeded to get away. About 50 were arrested.
The police station was secure. But that remained the limit of the authorities control and, for another night, the streets belonged to whoever wanted to claim them.
