From:
slider@anashram.com
Protesters angered by the death of African-American man George Floyd in
police custody broke in to a Minneapolis police station during a third
straight night of violent protests.
Live-streamed video showed the protesters entering the 3rd Precinct
building, where fire alarms blared and sprinklers ran as fires burned.
Police appeared to have left the building, located not far from where Mr
Floyd died on Monday (local time).
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-29/minneapolis-violence-protests-scorch-city-police-precinct/12299136
Footage of Mr Floyd gasping for breath during his arrest showed an officer kneeling on his neck for almost eight minutes. It went viral after being published online.
In the video recorded by a bystander, Mr Floyd can be heard pleading that
he can't breathe until he slowly stops talking and moving.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz earlier called in the National Guard as a
wounded Minneapolis braced for more violence, one day after rioting
damaged parts of a neighbourhood, with burned buildings, looted stores and angry graffiti demanding justice.
The unrest ravaged several blocks in the Longfellow neighbourhood, with scattered clashes reaching for miles across the city.
Some stores closed early on Thursday while the city shut down its light
rail system and planned to stop all bus services "out of concern for the
safety of riders and employees", a statement said.
In a strip mall across the street from the 3rd Precinct police station,
the focus of the previous night's protests, the windows in nearly every business had been smashed. Only the 24-hour laundromat appeared to have
escaped unscathed.
"WHY US?" demanded a large expanse of red graffiti scrawled on the wall of
the Target. A Wendy's restaurant across the street was charred almost
beyond recognition.
"We're burning our own neighbourhood," said a distraught Deona Brown, a 24-year-old woman standing with a friend outside the precinct station,
where a small group of protesters were shouting at a dozen or so
stone-faced police officers in riot gear.
"This is where we live, where we shop, and they destroyed it.
"What that cop did was wrong, but I'm scared now."
But others in the crowd saw something different in the wreckage.
Protesters destroyed property "because the system is broken," said a young
man who identified himself only by his nickname, Cash, and who said he had
been in the streets during the violence.
He dismissed the idea the destruction would hurt residents of the largely
black neighbourhood.
"They're making money off of us," he said angrily of the owners of the destroyed stores. He laughed when asked if he had joined in the looting or violence — "I didn't break anything."
The protests that began on Wednesday night and extended into Thursday were
more violent than Tuesday's, which included skirmishes between offices and protesters but no widespread property damage or looting.
Protests also spread to other US cities. In California, hundreds of people protesting against Mr Floyd's death blocked a Los Angeles freeway and
shattered windows of California Highway Patrol cruisers.
Memphis police blocked a main thoroughfare after a racially mixed group of protesters gathered outside a police precinct. The situation intensified
later in the night, with police donning riot gear and protesters standing shoulder-to-shoulder in front of officers stationed behind a barricade.
Amid the violence in Minneapolis, a man was found fatally shot Wednesday
night near a pawn shop, possibly by the owner, authorities said.
Fire crews responded to about 30 intentionally set blazes during the
protests, including at least 16 structure fires, and multiple fire trucks
were damaged by rocks and other projectiles, the fire department said.
Nobody was hurt by the fires.
### - attacking/burning down the cop-shop is a bit different/new innit
tho...
let's just hope that doesn't become a trend in other cities too?
or all-hell really will break loose!
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)