ACROSS AMERICA — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Wednesday elevated charges brought against a fired Minneapolis officer last week and also charged the other three officers connected to the death of George Floyd, according to court documents.
On Friday, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in connection with the death of Floyd, who died following an arrest on Memorial Day. Chauvin is the officer who was seen in a viral video with his knee on Floyd’s neck during the arrest.
Chauvin is now charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. The other three officers who were on scene — Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane — are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter.
All four officers were earlier fired from the Minneapolis Police Department.
READ: More Charges Filed Against Ex-Minneapolis Cops
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Americans of all colors march for justice for George Floyd, and for fulfillment of the promises of landmark 1960s civil rights legislation.
Meanwhile, thousands of Americans continued to protest Wednesday. Protests were mostly peaceful, with far less looting and destruction on streets across the country.
Breaking with President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Wednesday he opposes using military forces as a means to contain current street protests.
Esper said the Insurrection Act, which would allow Trump to use active-duty military for law enforcement in containing street protests, should be invoked in the United States “only in the most urgent and dire of situations.” He declared, “We are not in one of those situations now.”
Esper joins multiple elected officials hitting back at Trump’s threat to send military forces into cities and states to quell violence and looting.
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser said her administration is preparing for a potential legal challenge to Trump’s authority over security operations in the District of Columbia, according to The Associated Press.
Bowser’s comments come after Trump directed what he characterized as a full-scale federal response on Monday night to quell protests over the Floyd’s death.
Bowser voiced her disagreement with Trump’s suggestion that governors should deploy the National Guard to “dominate the streets.”
Trump, however, appears to be privately backing off.
According to White House officials, the response to demonstrations across the country indicates local governments should be able to restore order themselves, AP reported. The shift came as protests in Washington and other cities proceeded Tuesday with relative calm.
Former President Barack Obama, who until recently has remained silent on most national issues, held a virtual town hall event with young people Wednesday to discuss policing and the civil unrest following Floyd’s death.
During the event, he rejected a debate about “voting versus protests, politics and participation versus civil disobedience and direct action.”
“This is not an either-or. This is a both and to bring about real change,” he said. “We both have to highlight a problem and make people in power uncomfortable, but we also have to translate that into practical solutions and laws that could be implemented and monitored and make sure we’re following up on.”
Obama then called for turning the protests over Floyd’s death into policy change to ensure safer policing and increased trust between communities and law enforcement.
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At least nine people have died in the unrest, including a restaurant owner in Louisville, Kentucky, who was killed by police and National Guard members enforcing a curfew and whose death prompted the firing of the city’s police chief. Police officers in Las Vegas, St. Louis and New York City have been seriously injured.
More than 5,600 people nationwide have been arrested over the past week for such offenses as stealing, blocking highways and breaking curfew, according to a count by The Associated Press.
Several police officers have been shot or run over by vehicles plowing through crowds of protesters. One police officer was shot shortly before midnight near the Circus Circus casino in Las Vegas. Police had no immediate word on the officer’s condition. Four officers were shot in St. Louis; they were expected to recover.
In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that a citywide curfew will remain in place until Sunday.
However, elected officials in the state seem to be at odds with each other, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on de Blasio to deploy all 38,000 of the NYPD’s officers Tuesday night to crack down on looters.
The governor announced earlier this week that both the New York State Police and National Guard are on “standby” should be called on to help quell the looting and rioting in New York City. On Tuesday, de Blasio said he would not request aid from the National Guard.
Cuomo added that if de Blasio refuses aid from the National Guard, there isn’t much the state can do to force the mayor’s hand, but he did say it would be within his power to “displace” de Blasio using emergency powers.
In Minneapolis, a memorial service for George Floyd is planned Thursday in the city where George Floyd died while in police custody. Gov. Tim Walz called the service “an opportunity for leadership” and a chance for Minneapolis, Minnesota and the country to celebrate “a life that was taken in front of us.”
The Floyd family held a peaceful vigil earlier this week at the site where he died, now surrounded by flowers. The unrest there seemed to stabilize after Floyd’s brother’s impassioned plea for protests going forward to be peaceful.
Standing at the spot where his brother was arrested before dying on Memorial Day, Terrence Floyd called for peace and an end to violent protests. He asked if his own family isn’t destroying things, why would others do it.
“I understand you’re upset,” Floyd told a crowd at 38th Street and Chicago in Minneapolis.
He said that looting and riots are “not going to bring my brother back at all. It may feel good for the moment, like when you drink. But when you are done, you’re going to wonder what did you do.
“My family is a peaceful family. My family is God-fearing,” he added. “In every case of police brutality, the same thing has been happening. Ya’ll protest. You destroy stuff.”
For more updates on cities in this story and elsewhere in the United States, see The New York Times.
In Illinois, at least 60 people have been arrested and two people confirmed killed after more unrest in Cicero, where police are expecting continued unruly crowds through Wednesday.
Police are describing the crowd as “outside agitators” who came to Cicero to stir up trouble after days of protests.
In Aurora, hundreds of people are expected to demonstrate Wednesday afternoon outside the Aurora Police Department after officers arrested a man at his home the day before.
Jabari Walker was charged with two misdemeanors after police arrested him Tuesday. According to video of the arrest shared on social media by Walker’s wife, officers did not provide an explanation to his family about why he was being arrested.
In Joliet, police officers tucked flowers in their shirt pockets in a show of unity with demonstrators. The three-hour Black Lives Matter rally began loudly with some demonstrators trying to provoke confrontations with police but ended on a conciliatory note.
Two demonstrators showed up with about four dozen brightly colored flowers and handed them out to other protesters and police.
In Cook County, nearly 700 people have been arrested, including a notable number of people with home addresses in Indiana, several of whom were arrested on charges of illegal firearms possession, according to officials from the Chicago Police Department or the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.
In New Jersey, police officers took a knee with protesters in a gesture that replicated the protest against police brutality started several years ago by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
The officers represented multiple departments in Newark, Orange, South Orange, Caldwell, Bloomfield and several others in Essex County. The event also included Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura and Essex County Prosecutor Theodore Stephens.
In Asbury Park, police also knelt in Kaepernick fashion with protesters. The rally was civil until the last hour, when there were several clashes with police. One police officer was hurt as she captured live video of the scene. One person threw a metal object and was handcuffed.
In Toms River, joined by local law enforcement, a couple hundred demonstrators marched to the Ocean County Courthouse on Tuesday in a peaceful protest.
Toms River Police Chief Mitch Little, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer and members of their respective agencies joined the group, which chanted, “Say his name — George Floyd,” “Black Lives Matter,” “Hands up — Don’t Shoot” and “I can’t breathe” as they marched through the streets.
In New York, protesters will use an 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew imposed on the city as another chance to protest police violence, simply by stepping outside their homes.
Hundreds of New Yorkers have signed onto a Facebook event asking city dwellers to step outside at 8:01 p.m. and stand, or kneel, for nine minutes to represent the nine minutes Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck before he died.
Organizers say it could become a nightly tradition as long as the curfew remains.
De Blasio lauded the curfew Wednesday, saying the city has taken a “step forward” in restoring order.
New York City police worked to keep a tense city under control Tuesday after looters plundered Manhattan businesses, including Macy’s Herald Square flagship store, ignoring curfews Monday night. Earlier in the day, three people accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at a police cruiser were arraigned.
MORE: George Floyd’s Brother Skips Appearance With NYPD’s Top Cop
In Philadelphia Tuesday morning, a 24-year-old man died trying to blow up an ATM, and explosions were heard across the city in similar attempts. Police used tear gas Monday evening to disperse protesters who overtook a portion of I- 676 near the Ben Franklin Parkway.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said at a news conference Monday that from Saturday to Monday, 429 people have been arrested. She said some of those arrests are multiple people arrested in the same incidents. Outlaw said she expects that number to increase as more people are processed.
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In Massachusetts, a protest planned for Thursday in Peabody was put on hold after a conversation between the protest group and local mayor.
“I just spoke with Mayor Ted Bettencourt regarding our event this Thursday. After careful consideration of some of the risks associated with the current event as planned, we have decided to POSTPONE this demonstration,” Nicholas Blaisdell of Peabody for Racial Justice said Tuesday in a Facebook message.
Additional updates from around the country from The New York Times.
In California, demonstrators took to the streets for the eighth straight day, heedless of the heatwave bringing triple digit temperatures to parts of Los Angeles County.
The protests targeted LA’s wealthier Westside communities, part of broader strategy to breach the barriers that inoculate elites from the suffering caused by police brutality and racism, according to Black Lives Matter organizers.
“We want to go to places of white affluence so that the pain and outrage that we feel can be put right in their faces,” said Melina Abdullah, one of the leaders of Black Lives Matter, told the Los Angeles Times.
The countywide curfew was pushed back to 9 p.m. after a day without violence or looting Tuesday.
Hours into Tuesday’s peaceful protests, the LAPD tweeted, “This afternoon we saw the best of Los Angeles. Thousands of demonstrators marched in solidarity. We will continue to facilitate everyone’s First Amendment right to assemble peacefully… we will continue to listen, learn, and grow.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared a statewide disaster Sunday following weekend protests that turned violent and destructive.