2020 civil unrest after the murder of George Floyd
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The White House was on lockdown the night of May 29 in response to protests reaching the gates.[2] The protests began at 7:00p.m. By 8:30p.m., the White House lockdown was lifted as demonstrators began to leave. At 10:00p.m., the protesters returned, however by 3:30 am Saturday they were more subdued. The protesters came into conflict with the United States Secret Service. At one point the protesters were pepper sprayed.[3] Protesters reportedly threw "rocks, urine and alcohol"[4] at Secret Service agents injuring over 60 of them, including 11 hospitalized and treated for non-life-threatening injuries.[5]
As a result of the protests, the Secret Service rushed President Donald Trump to shelter in the White House underground bunker, where he remained for almost one hour.[6][7] This occurred after some protesters crossed temporary barricades set up near the Treasury Department buildings. Around that time, the Secret Service alert level was raised to "red". The president's wife and son were also brought to the bunker.[8] Trump later claimed falsely that he had only gone to the bunker for an "inspection", and also claimed that he was in the bunker "for a tiny, little short period of time".[9][10] Attorney General William Barr later stated that the May 29 protests "were so bad that the Secret Service recommended that the President go down to the bunker".[11]
Trump responded to the White House protesters on Twitter, saying that if they had crossed the White House fence they would have been attacked by "the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons". He also stated that "many Secret Service agents [are] just waiting for action", and accused the protesters of being "professionally organized".[12]
Before the curfew went into place multiple arsons occurred including attacks at St. Johns Episcopal Church in Lafayette Square and at the AFL CIO office building.[19][20][21]
A BBC cameraman, Peter Murtaugh, was purposely attacked by police outside the White House. Murtaugh filmed a line of police officers charging without warning, whereby a shield-wielding officer tackled Murtaugh to the ground. A fellow BBC journalist said the attack had occurred before a curfew was imposed.[22][23]
In response to violent protests, riots, and arson, Mayor Bowser announced a citywide curfew from 7pm to 6am, which remained in effect through June 3. An additional curfew from 11pm to 6am was added for the night of June 3.[24][25]
Local resident Rahul Dubey, was widely praised by protesters after he allowed over seventy of them to spend the night in his row home after being boxed in by police officers.[29] At least one of the protesters inside the home live streamed the incident and the interactions between the police and Dubey after the police refused to leave from his doorstep, and created a large social media following of the story.[30]
June 2
National Guard and U.S. Marshals at the Lincoln Memorial on June 2, 2020
On Tuesday, up to 2,000 people demonstrated, the largest crowd up to that date. Senator Elizabeth Warren and her husband Bruce H. Mann spoke with protesters. The protests centered on Lafayette Square in front of the White House, and also included a march to the Capitol Building.[31]
Overall, federal law enforcement presence was notably increased, which Mayor Muriel Bowser said was not the result of a request by the city.[31] In contrast with previous days, little violence occurred.[34]
Over 5,000 were estimated to have taken part in peaceful demonstrations across the city, including those well past curfew into Thursday morning. No arrests were made, and no confrontations with police or damage to police property occurred.[35]
One group of protesters marched a route through the city, with National Guard troops and federal agents monitoring. Barricades had been erected around certain areas of the capital and were maintained by Capitol Police. The names of those who had died in previous police encounters were read aloud, and protesters had demonstrated in front of the Capitol building and the Trump International Hotel. In the evening protesters gathered in Lafayette Park or staged a die-in on Pennsylvania Avenue for about eight minutes chanting, "I can't breathe".[36]
Barr announced that he would "flood the zone" in D.C. by bringing in law enforcement agents from multiple federal agencies. Barr himself was supervising the operation from an FBI command center in Washington's Chinatown.[37] The deployment involved at least 5,800 troops, agents, and officers including personnel from the National Guard, US Secret Service, US Park Police, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Administration, US Marshals Service, Bureau of Prisons, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Protective Service and the Transportation Security Administration.[38] The heavily armed officers wore uniforms with no name badges and no insignia to show what agency they worked for, and they refused to answer questions.[39]
June 4
Installation of a fence around Lafayette Park on June 4
Thursday was the first day the municipal government did not impose a curfew since Sunday.[40] Protests on June 4 were peaceful and D.C. police did not make a single arrest.[41]
During the day, several hundred protesters gathered peacefully, kneeling with raised fists at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, which in previous days had been blocked off by National Guard soldiers.[40] A large die-in was held for over eight minutes at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial as well.[35] Around 8pm,[40] a thunderstorm rolled in and dispersed protesters at the White House.[40] Two National Guardsman, non-critically injured by a lightning strike in Lafayette Square shortly after midnight, were the only reported casualties of the protests.[35]
Mayor Bowser asked Trump to "withdraw all extraordinary law enforcement and military presence from Washington, D.C.", noting that protests the night before had been peaceful and she has ended the protest-related state of emergency in the city.[41] The Pentagon later that day announced it was withdrawing 1,600 active-duty troops it had deployed near the city.[47]
June 6
Protesters on June 6
Demonstrations on Saturday featured over 10,000 people, the most of any in the city up to that point. Among the protesters that day were Senators Mitt Romney, Elizabeth Warren, and Representative John Lewis.[48] The largest were centered around the White House, as in previous days, specifically several blocks running up to it on 16th Street. Other gatherings occurred intermittently at various locations, including 14th & U Street, Meridian Hill Park, the Lincoln Memorial, the Capitol Building, Chinatown, and Thomas Circle.[49][50] Some of these marches subsequently converged on 16th Street.[51]
Law enforcement presence was heavily scaled back, and the atmosphere resembled what some participants characterized as resembling a "block party" or "festival", in sharp contrast to the previous weekend.[49] Some individuals spray-painted "Defund the Police" on the street where "Black Lives Matter" had been painted earlier the previous day, in a move intended to criticize Mayor Bowser, who also spoke at the protests near the White House.[49][48]
Police reported one arrest, for property damage, related to the protests on the 6th.[51]
June 7
Protests continued on Sunday June 7. Protests at the new Black Lives Matter Plaza on 16th Street in front of the White House remained peaceful in the evening.[52] The atmosphere of the protests was described in media as less tense than in previous days. In a tweet, Trump said he had ordered the National Guard to withdraw.[51]
June 19
On the night of Juneteenth protesters gathered at the Albert Pike Memorial in Judiciary Square and using ropes and chains toppled the statue of Pike. The statue was set on fire and a few minutes later local police extinguished the flames.[53] The statue was removed the following day by the National Park Service (NPS).[54] In response to the Pike statue being toppled, Trump tweeted: "The D.C. police are not doing their job as they watch a statue be ripped down & burn. These people should be immediately arrested. A disgrace to our Country!" Because the memorial is in a federal park, it is under jurisdiction of the NPS and U.S. Park Police, not the local police.[53]
Hundreds of protesters gathered near Clark Mills' 1842 equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square within President's Park. Protesters spray painted "killer" and other phrases on the pedestal. Rioters then affixed ropes to the statue and unsuccessfully attempted to pull it down. Police used batons and pepper spray to disperse the crowd.[55]
Several days later, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) charged four men with destruction of federal property for allegedly trying to bring down the statue. The Justice Department alleged that a video showed one of the men breaking off and destroying the wheels of the cannons located at the base of the statue as well as pulling on ropes when trying to bring down the statue.[56]
Soon afterwards, the DOJ announced the arrest and charging of a man who was not only allegedly seen on video climbing up onto the Jackson statue and affixing a rope that was then used to try to pull the statue down, but also had on June 20 helped destroy Gaetano Trentanove's 1901 Albert Pike Memorial statue near Washington's Judiciary Square by pulling it from its base and setting it on fire. The DOJ's complaint alleged that the man had been captured on video dousing the federally-owned Pike statue with a flammable liquid, igniting it as it lay on the ground and using the fire to light a cigarette.[57]
Unknown individuals vandalized the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the Indian independence movement. The incident prompted the Indian Embassy to register a complaint with law enforcement agencies. Taranjit Singh Sandhu, the Indian Ambassador to the United States called the vandalism "a crime against humanity".[70][71] U.S. President Donald Trump called the defacement of Mahatma Gandhi's statue in D.C. a "disgrace".[72]
Blackout hoax
The #dcblackout hoax was an internet hoax shared by millions or tens of millions during the 2020 George Floyd protests. NPR described the hoax as "well funded and well organized".[73] The hoax described a US government shutdown of all civil communication channels in the District of Columbia and in some cases was accompanied by images of a burning Washington Monument. A disinformation expert at Clemson University hesitated to attribute the campaign to a specific actor but said it was "a classic Russian move".[73] BBC reported "Some of the most shared posts were sent by users who were not based in Washington DC or even in the US."[74] Twitter suspended hundreds of accounts spreading the hashtag.[75]
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Starting in May 2020, protests following the murder of George Floyd were held in the city of Portland, Oregon, concurrent with protests in other cities in the United States and around the world. By July 2020, many of the protests, which had been held every day since May 28, drew more than 1,000 participants. Protests continued into August, September, and October 2020, often drawing hundreds.
This is a list of protests over the murder of George Floyd that took place in the state of Washington in 2020.
This is a list of George Floyd protests in Virginia. Following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer, protests spread from Minneapolis to other parts of the United States, including Virginia. Protests broke out in Richmond on the night of May 28 and spread to over 50 other cities over the following days.
On June 1, 2020, amid the George Floyd protests in Washington, D.C., law enforcement officers used tear gas and other riot control tactics to forcefully clear peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square, creating a path for President Donald Trump and senior administration officials to walk from the White House to St. John's Episcopal Church. Trump held a Bible and posed for a photo op in front of Ashburton House, which had been defaced by graffiti and damaged by a fire set during protests the night before.
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Individuals and organizations throughout the United States and the world responded to the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent protests and riots.
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