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    Tuesday, May 14, 2024

    US cities erupt in more violence amid threats from Trump

    Protesters raise their fists during a rally Monday, June 1, 2020, in Las Vegas, over the death of George Floyd, a black man who was in police custody in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)

    WASHINGTON — American cities erupted in violence and destruction in a seventh straight night of unrest, with several police officers shot or run over, amid boasts and threats from President Donald Trump to send in troops to “dominate the streets.”

    In New York, nonviolent protests Monday night were punctuated by people smashing shop windows near Rockefeller Center and breaching the doors of Macy’s flagship store on 34th Street, littering the pavement with broken glass. A vehicle plowed through a group of law enforcement officers at a demonstration in Buffalo, injuring at least two.

    Demonstrations also broke out in such places as Philadelphia, where hundreds of protesters spilled onto a highway in the heart of the city; Atlanta, where police fired tear gas at demonstrators; and Nashville, where more than 60 National Guard members put down their riot shields at the request of peaceful protesters who had gathered in front of Tennessee’s Capitol to honor George Floyd.

    Bystander Sean Jones, who watched as people ransacked luxury stores in New York over the weekend, said: “People are doing this so next time, before they think about trying to kill another black person, they’re going to be like, ’Damn, we don’t want them out here doing this ... again.’”

    The unrest in Minneapolis appeared to stabilize on the same day Floyd’s brother made an impassioned plea for peace at the spot where a white police officer put his knee on the handcuffed black man’s neck until he stopped breathing last week.

    The death toll from the unrest rose to at least nine, including two people killed in a Chicago suburb. The police chief in Louisville, Kentucky, was fired after a beloved restaurant owner was killed by police and National Guard members enforcing a curfew.

    More than 5,600 people nationwide have been arrested over the past week for such offenses as stealing, blocking highways and breaking curfew, according to a count by The Associated Press.

    An officer was shot shortly before midnight near the Circus Circus casino in Las Vegas. Police had no immediate word on the officer's condition. Four officers were shot in St. Louis; they were expected to recover.

    Trump, meanwhile, portrayed himself as a hard-nosed, law-and-order president, with police under federal command using tear gas to clear peaceful demonstrators from a park near the White House so that he could walk to a church and pose with a Bible.

    Emerging after two days out of public view, he threatened from the White House Rose Garden to deploy “thousands and thousands” of U.S. troops.

    The photo op at the house of worship known as the Church of the Presidents was condemned by Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde.

    “The president just used a Bible and one of the churches of my diocese as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that our church stands for,” she said.

    For nearly a week since Floyd's death, largely peaceful protests by day have turned to chaos at night.

    “We have been sitting on a powder keg for some time and it has burst,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said.

    Trump warned that if governors don't deploy the National Guard in sufficient numbers to “dominate the streets,” the U.S. military will step in to “quickly solve the problem for them.”

    “We have the greatest country in the world,” the president declared. “We’re going to keep it safe.”

    As Trump spoke, tear gas canisters could be heard exploding.

    A military deployment by Trump to U.S. states would mark a stunning federal intervention rarely seen in modern American history. It drew comparisons to 1968, when Richard Nixon ran as the law-and-order candidate in the aftermath of riots following the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

    Trump made little effort to address the grievances of black Americans and others outraged by Floyd’s death and the scourge of police brutality, undermining what his reelection campaign had hoped would be increased appeal to African American voters.

    Federal law allows presidents to dispatch the military into states to suppress an insurrection or if a state is defying federal law, legal experts said. But officials in New York and other states asserted that the president does not have a unilateral right to send in troops against the will of local governments.

    Sullivan and Morrison reported from Minneapolis. Associated Press journalists across the U.S. contributed to this report.

    President Donald Trump walks from the White House through Lafayette Park to visit St. John's Church Monday, June 1, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
    A person enters a store through a broken window Monday, June 1, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
    O'Fallon (Mo.) police Chief Tim Clothier, center, walks arm-in-arm with Ryan Staples, left, and Jalen Thompson, right, at the front of a march for George Floyd in O"Fallon on Monday, June 1, 2020. Thompson and some friends helped organize the march with the help of the police. Clothier said he took part in the demonstration to show solidarity with the marchers and he condemned the officer's actions in Minneapolis as an "embarrassment to our profession." Floyd died May 25 after being detained by police in Minneapolis. (David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)
    A person about to emerge from a store comes face-to-face with a St. Louis police officer and his K9 at a Fresh Image store Monday night, June 1, 2020, in St. Louis. As officers moved in on the looted building, those inside were allowed to leave without being arrested. (Robert Cohen/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)
    A man runs from police officers in Oakland, Calif., Monday, June 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
    Police surround and detain hundreds of protesters who marched onto the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge while demonstrating against police brutality on Monday, June 1, 2020, in Dallas. The protesters were transported to the Dallas County Jail where they were later released. (Ryan Michalesko/The Dallas Morning News via AP)
    In this June 1, 2020, photo, protesters march to the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge as they demonstrate against police brutality in Dallas. Protests continue over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. (Ryan Michalesko/The Dallas Morning News via AP)
    Police deploy smoke bombs and tear gas as they surround protesters who marched onto the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge while demonstrating against police brutality on Monday, June 1, 2020, in Dallas. The hundreds of protesters were surrounded and detained by police on the bridge and transported to the Dallas County Jail where they were later released. (Ryan Michalesko/The Dallas Morning News via AP)
    A man takes part in a protest rally in Richmond, Va., Monday, June 1, 2020, against the death of George Floyd, who died May 25 after being restrained by Minneapolis police. (James H. Wallace/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)
    Protestors at Washington Square Park in New York take part in a demonstration Monday, June 1, 2020, as they and others gather to protest the death of George Floyd, who died May 25 after he was pinned at the neck by a Minneapolis police officer. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

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