WASHINGTON (AP) — Massive demonstrations against racism and police brutality filled some of the nation’s most famous cityscapes Saturday, with tens of thousands of people marching peacefully in scenes that were more often festive than tense.
Wearing masks and urging fundamental change, protesters gathered in dozens of places from coast to coast while mourners in North Carolina waited for hours to glimpse the golden coffin carrying the body of native son George Floyd, the black man whose death at the hands of Minneapolis police has galvanized the expanding movement.
Collectively, it was perhaps the largest one-day mobilization since Floyd died 12 days ago and came as many cities began lifting curfews that authorities imposed following initial spasms of arson, assaults and smash-and-grab raids on businesses. Authorities have softened restrictions as the number of arrests plummeted.
Demonstrations also reached four other continents, ending in clashes in two European cities. In the U.S., Seattle police used flash bang devices and pepper spray to disperse protesters hurling rocks, bottles and explosives, just a day after city leaders temporarily banned one kind of tear gas.
The largest U.S. demonstration appeared to be in Washington, where protesters flooded streets closed to traffic. On a hot, humid day, they gathered at the Capitol, on the National Mall and in neighborhoods. Some turned intersections into dance floors. Tents offered snacks and water.
Pamela Reynolds said she came seeking greater police accountability.
“The laws are protecting them,” said the 37-year-old African American teacher. The changes she wants include a federal ban on police chokeholds and a requirement that officers wear body cameras.
At the White House, which was fortified with new fencing and extra security measures, chants and cheers could be heard in waves. President Donald Trump, who has urged authorities to crack down on unrest, downplayed the demonstration, tweeting: “Much smaller crowd in D.C. than anticipated.”
Elsewhere, the backdrops included some of the nation’s most famous landmarks. Peaceful marchers filed across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, where officers pulled back on enforcing a curfew that has led to confrontations. They walked the boulevards of Hollywood and a Nashville, Tennessee, street famous for country music-themed bars and restaurants.
They also gathered in places as far flung as a St. Louis suburb and cities in the Deep South.
Many wore masks — a reminder of the danger that the protests could exacerbate the spread of the coronavirus.
Roderick Sweeney, who is black, said he was overwhelmed to see the large turnout of white protesters waving signs that said “Black Lives Matter” in San Francisco.
“We’ve had discussions in our family and among friends that nothing is going to change until our white brothers and sisters voice their opinion,” said Sweeney, 49. The large turnout of white protesters “is sending a powerful message.”
In Philadelphia and Chicago, marchers chanted, carried signs and occasionally knelt in silence. At a massive showing near the Philadelphia Museum of Art and its famous “Rocky” steps, protesters chanted “No justice, no peace!” before heading for City Hall.
Seattle police said on Twitter that several officers were injured by “improvised explosives” thrown by a crowd. Officers responded with pepper spray. Earlier, a large crowd of medical workers, many in lab coats and scrubs, marched to City Hall, holding signs reading, “Police violence and racism are a public health emergency” and “Nurses kneel with you, not on you” — a reference to how a white officer pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for several minutes.
Atop a parking garage in downtown Atlanta, a group of black college band alumni serenaded protesters with a tuba-heavy mix of tunes. Standing within earshot, business owner Leah Aforkor Quaye said it was her first time hitting the streets.
“This makes people so uncomfortable, but the only way things are happening is if we make people uncomfortable,” said Quaye, who is black.
In Raeford, North Carolina, a town near Floyd’s birthplace, people lined up outside a Free Will Baptist church, waiting to enter in small groups. At a private memorial service, mourners sang along with a choir. At the front of the chapel was a large photo of Floyd and a portrait of him adorned with an angel’s wings and halo.
“It could have been me. It could have been my brother, my father, any of my friends who are black,” said Erik Carlos of nearby Fayetteville. “It made me feel very vulnerable at first.”
Floyd’s body will go to Houston, where he lived before Minneapolis, for another memorial in the coming days.
Protesters and their supporters in public office say they’re determined to turn the outpouring into change, notably overhauling policing policies. Many marchers urged officials to “defund the police,” which some painted in enormous yellow letters on the street leading to the White House near a “Black Lives Matter” mural that the mayor had added a day earlier.
Theresa Bland, 68, a retired teacher and real estate agent protesting at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, envisioned a broader agenda.
“I’m looking at affordable housing, political justice, prison reform,” she said.
Some change already has come.
Minneapolis officials have agreed to ban chokeholds and neck restraints and require that officers stop colleagues who are using improper force. California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the state’s police-training program to stop teaching officers a neck hold that blocks blood flowing to the brain.
The police chief in Bellevue, a wealthy city near Seattle, largely banned officers from using neck restraints, while police in Reno, Nevada, updated their use-of-force policy.
Congressional Democrats are preparing a sweeping package of police reforms, which is expected to include changes to immunity provisions and creating a database of use-of-force incidents. Revamped training requirements are planned, too, among them a ban on chokeholds.
The prospects of reforms clearing a divided Congress are unclear.
While police in some places have knelt in solidarity with protesters, their treatment of some marchers also has generated more tension.
Two officers in Buffalo, New York, were charged Saturday with second-degree assault after a video earlier this week showed them shoving a 75-year-old protester, who smashed his head on the pavement. Both pleaded not guilty.
Most protests in Europe were peaceful. In London, however, clashes with police erupted after thousands gathered amid a cold rain. In the French city of Marseille, authorities fired tear gas and pepper spray as protesters hurled bottles and rocks.
Back in North Carolina, the Rev. Christopher Stackhouse recounted the circumstances of Floyd’s death for the congregation.
“It took 8 minutes and 46 seconds for him to die,” Stackhouse said at the memorial service. “But it took 401 years to put the system in place so nothing would happen.”
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Pritchard reported from Los Angeles and Foreman from Raeford, North Carolina. Associated Press staff from around the world contributed to this report, including Jeff Chiu in San Francisco; Jill Colvin in Washington; Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio; John Leicester in Paris; and David Crary and Brian Mahoney in New York.
Curfews lift, police show less force amid peaceful protests
NEW YORK (AP) — With New York City poised to reopen after a more than two-month coronavirus shutdown, officials on Sunday lifted a curfew that was in place amid protests of police brutality and racial injustice. But they also urged that demonstrators be tested for COVID-19.
“Get a test. Get a test,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told people who have been participating in rallies and marches in memory of George Floyd. “I would act as if you were exposed, and I would tell people you are interacting with, assume I am positive for the virus.”
Cuomo said the state would open 15 testing sites dedicated to protesters so they can get results quickly. His call for demonstrators to proceed carefully is similar to those made in Seattle, San Francisco and Atlanta following massive demonstrations, with free testing for protesters.
New York has been the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, with black communities hit especially hard.
The Rev. Brandon Watts of Epiphany Church in Brooklyn, was mindful of the pandemic while organizing a “Pray & Protest” march with several other churches. He mandated that protesters wear masks, and he came with boxes of them. Attendees also were offered free coronavirus tests at one church.
“COVID-19 hit the inner city harder than anybody else,” Watts said. “And so we have to be very careful. We’re the only ones in a pandemic within a pandemic.”
In addition to suffering disproportionately from the the virus, the black community also has been roiled by the death of Floyd, a black man who died after a white officer pressed a knee into his neck while arresting him.
Floyd’s death sparked massive protests throughout the country and renewed calls to reform policing in America. A majority of the City Council in Minneapolis, where Floyd died, said Sunday they support disbanding the police department. A heavy-handed police response to protesters in many places has underscored what critics have maintained: Law enforcement is militarized and too often uses excessive force.
Cities imposed curfews as several protests last week were marred by spasms of arson, assaults and smash-and-grab raids on businesses. More than 10,000 people have been arrested around the country since protests began, sometimes after violent confrontations with officers. Videos have surfaced of officers in riot gear using tear gas or physical force against even peaceful demonstrators.
But recent U.S. protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful — and over the weekend, several police departments appeared to retreat from aggressive tactics.
Several cities have also lifted their curfews, including Chicago and New York City, which is preparing to enter its first phase of reopening after virus shutdowns. Up to 400,000 people are expected to head back to the workplace Monday.
“Last night was the best by far,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “We had the biggest number of protesters, the fewest arrests, the fewest problems and that convinced me it was time for the curfew to go away.”
In Compton, California, several thousand protesters, some on horseback, peacefully demonstrated Sunday through the city, just south of Los Angeles. The only law enforcement presence was about a dozen sheriff’s deputies, who watched without engaging.
A similar scene played out on Saturday when thousands of protesters converged on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. Tow trucks held off car traffic, and police directed vehicles caught in the middle to go around protesters.
For the first time since protests popped up in New York more than a week ago, most NYPD officers were not wearing riot helmets as they watched over marches and rallies. Police moved the barricades at the Trump hotel at Columbus Circle in Manhattan for protesters and replaced when they passed through the area.
Mayor de Blasio said police had arrested just four people and issued 24 court summonses on Saturday — in stark contrast to more than 2,000 arrests made through Friday morning.
Even at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, which has been the site of numerous faceoffs between protesters and police, officers stood by casually as hundreds of protesters gathered to observe a moment of silence for George Floyd. Some officers even shook hands and posed for photos with motorcyclists at the rally.
In Washington, D.C., National Guard troops from South Carolina were seen checking out of their hotel Sunday shortly before President Donald Trump tweeted he was giving the order to withdraw them from the nation’s capital.
At the newly renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House, protesters posed with the street sign and the yellow block lettering painted on the pavement by the city. As ice cream truck jingles mixed with protest chats, the district’s Metropolitan Police Department patrolled.
Meanwhile, a majority of city council members in Minneapolis vowed to radically overhaul policing. Council Member Jeremiah Ellison went so far as to promise the council would “dismantle” the agency.
The state of Minnesota launched a civil rights investigation of the department last week, and the first concrete changes came Friday when the city agreed to ban chokeholds and neck restraints.
“It is clear that our system of policing is not keeping our communities safe,” said Lisa Bender, the council president. “Our efforts at incremental reform have failed, period.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told protesters outside his house that he doesn’t support the “full abolition” of the police department. Protesters shouted back: “Shame! Shame!”
Floyd’s body arrived in Texas for a third and final memorial service, said Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo. A viewing is planned for Monday in Houston, followed by a service and burial Tuesday in suburban Pearland.
The 46-year-old out-of-work bouncer’s death at the hands of police has drawn new attention to the treatment of African Americans by law enforcement — in the United States and around the world.
At Atlanta Motor Speedway, NASCAR paused before Sunday’s Cup race to acknowledge the nationwide protests, in a remarkable moment for the sport with its roots in the South and one-time embrace of Confederate symbols.
During warm-up laps, the 40 cars pulled to a stop in front of the empty grandstands, and NASCAR President Steve Phelps spoke.
“The black community and all people of color have suffered in our country, and it has taken far too long for us to hear their demands for change,” Phelps said. “Our sport must do better. Our country must do better.”
Protesters in Bristol, England, tore down a statue of Edward Colston, a 17th century slave trader, and pushed it into the harbor of the port city in southwestern England.
A crowd estimated at 10,000, many in face masks, filled a square in Brussels, holding white roses and signs decrying racism. And outside the new U.S. Embassy in London, student Darcy Bourne said the demonstration was about “more than just George Floyd, more than just America, but racism all around the world.”
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Kruesi reported from Nashville, Tennessee, and Pane from Boise, Idaho. Associated Press writers around the world contributed.