by Kara Machowski
As Saturday’s riots heat up, here's a look at the riots around the country since the death of George Floyd.
All week protests have sprung up around the country since George Floyd’s death on Monday, Memorial Day. On Friday the officer who kneeled on George Floyd’s neck was arrested and charged with third degree murder and manslaughter. Friday night riots ramped up calling for the other three officers arrest and in justice of George Floyd, saying that the third degree murder charge should have been first degree.
On Thursday riots sprouted in Phoenix, Denver and mainly in St. Paul, Minneapolis, where the murder of Floyd occurred. The Minneapolis police department’s third precinct was set ablaze along with the AutoZone across the street, a Domino's and many other business were either destroyed or damaged by rioters. Target was broken into and looted, but Target released a press statement stating that property can be replaced, but not people's lives, siding with protesters.
On Friday morning a black CNN reporter was arrested on camera and apprehended for 90 minutes while being told that police officers were trying to identify him as a reporter. Omar Jimenez offered officers his CNN credentials and even cooperated with officers, trying to move where they wanted him. While he was being arrested he questioned the police officer why he was being cuffed and the police officer told him, “I’m just doing what I was told to do”.
In Detroit a man was killed. According to a police department spokesperson, “A grey Dodge Durango pulled up and fired into the crowd, striking a 19-year-old man”. In Oakland, Calif., a security guard lost his life. Another shooting occurred at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building.
Friday night’s riots seemed to ramp up against many cities curfews as a chaotic scene of protesters collected outside of CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta, breaking through the bottom floor’s floor to ceiling windows. The NYPD was in full force as they blocked the protesters from entering the building. A protestor with a skateboard bashed his board into the building’s windows as a fellow protester was apprehend and brought into CNN by police officers. When the protester was asked why he was there he commented that more had to be done by police departments to stop police brutality.
Saturday morning’s and afternoon riots have ramped up all over the country. In L.A. numerous police vehicles have been vandalized and many were set ablaze. Several fires lived in Baltimore and in Chicago the bridges were lifted in an attempt to keep protesters away from the shops on Michigan Ave. and in River North. Chicago’s police department brought in city buses in an attempt to block protesters.
While few protests seem more chaotic than others, a very powerful statement was made by protestors who waved their arms in the air and even groups of people who sat down to show that they were not there to escalate, but to demonstrate.
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