indica News Bureau-
“I can’t breathe! Please, the knee on my neck,”
These were some of the last words from George Floyd who died shortly after being admitted to the nearby hospital, on Monday, May 25.
This was the incident that has sparked the chaos in Minneapolis.
The protest erupted after the video an officer kneeling on 46-year-old’s neck went viral. It showed the white officer pinning Floyd to the ground outside Cup Foods on Chicago Avenue and East 38th Street for more than seven minutes. Floyd died a short time later at Hennepin Healthcare.
Thousands flooded the streets at that same intersection on Tuesday afternoon to protest Floyd’s death. They packed the area but were also spread out to try to be socially distant.
While it began as a peaceful protest, it soon turned violent, as people started vandalizing the building, shattering a window and spray-painting squad cars.
That’s when officers showed up in riot gear and started firing tear gas and flash grenades as protesters hurled rocks, water bottles and anything they could get their hands on towards the officers. The unruly crowd measured in the hundreds, a far cry from the peaceful group at the start of the protest.
Soon the protests spread nationwide, like in Atlanta, broke into police headquarters in Portland, Oregon, and chanted curses at President Donald Trump outside the White House.
Demonstrators on the West Coast blocked highways in Los Angeles and Oakland, California.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Thursday declared a state of emergency and activated the Minnesota National Guard to restore order.
Gavin Newsom, Governor of the State of California, proclaimed a state of emergency to Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles and have requested the California National Guard to handle the civil unrest since it is out of hand of the local authorities.
“In California and across the country, there are indications that violent actors may be attempting to use these protests for their own agendas. We are closely monitoring organizing by violent extremist organizations ahead of tonight. To those who seek to exploit Californians’ pain to sow chaos and destruction, you are not welcome. Our state and nation must build from this moment united and more resolved than ever to address racism and its root causes,” said Newsom.
President Trump said in regards to the protests, “Radical left criminals, thugs, and others, throughout our country and throughout the world, will not be allowed to set communities ablaze,” Trump said. “We won’t let it happen.”
He also said the National Guard has been released in Minneapolis to do the job that the ‘Democrat Mayor couldn’t do’. The National Guard should have been deployed a few days earlier to prevent the damage of police headquarters by the violent demonstrations, he added.
With National Guard deployed across the country, the United States looks a warzone, especially with a deadly virus already ravaging the country.
