By Meryl Kornfield, Allyson Chiu, Teo Armus, Katie Shepherd, Lateshia Beachum and John Wagner Washington Post June 3, 2020
After a week of increasingly violent unrest in the United States, peace largely prevailed on Tuesday night. Brutal clashes between police and the public seemed to subside, and there were only sporadic reports of looting and other mayhem across the nation.
Still, the night was filled with tension in major cities where tens of thousands of protesters defied curfews to express outrage over racism and police brutality following the death of yet another a black man in police custody.
In Washington, which has been swarmed by a federal force, officers near the White House sprayed an irritant and fired pepper balls at protesters, who responded with shouts and fireworks. A similar late-night scene played out in Portland, Ore.
In Los Angeles, demonstrators massed outside the mayor’s residence and demanded the firing of the city’s police chief. And in New York, which is under curfew for the first time in 77 years, hundreds of protesters walked across the Manhattan Bridge and were met by a police blockade.
Here are some significant developments:
- The Minnesota Department of Human Rights will investigate the Minneapolis Police Department’s policies and practices over the past decade after filing a civil rights charge in response to George Floyd’s death, the state announced.
- Six Atlanta police officers face criminal charges after video captured them pulling two black college students out of a car and firing Tasers at them while enforcing a curfew on Saturday.
- Some current and former U.S. intelligence officials have expressed dismay at the similarities between President Trump’s handling of protests and the signs of decline or democratic regression they were trained to detect in other nations.
- Televangelist Pat Robertson joined other religious leaders criticizing Trump’s “law and order” response to the protests. ″It seems like now is the time to say, ‘I understand your pain, I want to comfort you, I think it’s time we love each other,’” Robertson said.
- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blocked a resolution offered by Democrats that would have condemned Trump for “ordering Federal officers to use gas and rubber bullets against the Americans who were peaceably protesting” near the White House.
Like this? Click to receive free EP Blog updates
