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The U.S. Justice Department moved swiftly to bring federal charges against 53 individuals accused of violence during nationwide protests that swept across the United States calling for an end to police brutality. Attorney General William Barr promised a crackdown on members of the anti-fascist movement known as antifa and other “extremists” he blamed for helping to drive the violence. But a Reuters examination of federal court records related to the charges, social media posts by some of the suspects and interviews with defense lawyers and prosecutors found mostly disorganized acts of violence by people who have few obvious connections to antifa or other left-wing groups. Reuters reviewed only federal cases, both because of the allegations by the Justice Department about the involvement of antifa and similar groups, and since federal charges generally carry harsher penalties. In some of the charging documents reviewed by Reuters, no violent acts are alleged at all. The Department of Justice declined to comment on Reuters’ findings and referred to an interview that Barr gave to Fox News on Monday. He said there that while his department had some investigations under way into antifa, it was still in the “initial phase of identifying people.” FILE – Members of the Georgia National Guard stand in front of shattered glass at the CNN Center in the aftermath of a demonstration against police violence on May 30, 2020, in Atlanta.Looting and violence broke out at some of the hundreds of largely peaceful demonstrations over the past week sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd, an African American, after a white Minneapolis police officer pinned him with a knee to the neck for almost nine minutes. The policeman, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with second-degree murder, and three other officers with aiding and abetting. Attorney General William Barr, center, stands in Lafayette Park across from the White House as demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd, June 1, 2020, in Washington.While Barr and President Donald Trump have repeatedly singled out antifa, an amorphous movement of primarily leftist anti-authoritarians (the name is derived from “anti-fascist”), as a major instigator of the unrest, the term does not appear in any of the federal charging documents reviewed by Reuters. It is possible that more evidence could emerge as the cases progress. Only one group was called out by name in a federal complaint: the so-called boogaloo movement, whose followers, according to prosecutors, believe in an impending civil war. Hate group experts say boogaloo’s followers are largely an assortment of right-wing extremists. Prosecutors alleged three men affiliated with “the movement” plotted to set off explosives in Las Vegas in the hopes of touching off rioting before a protest. The three suspects are scheduled to appear in federal court on Monday and have not yet entered a plea. Their lawyers did not respond to requests for comment. No claims of allegiance In three other criminal complaints, individuals told police about their ideological leanings without claiming allegiance to any particular group. In Massachusetts, 18-year-old Vincent Eovacious was charged with possession of a Molotov cocktail and — according to the complaint against him — told his arresting officer he was “with the anarchist group.” The U.S. attorney’s office in the state said there was no additional information on what that meant. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Another man, Brian Bartels, arrested in Pennsylvania for spray painting and destroying a police vehicle, described himself as “far left” and said he lashed out in a “fuck-it moment,” according to the charging documents. His lawyer, Joseph Otte, declined to comment. A man in Lubbock, Texas, 25-year-old Emmanuel Quinones, brandished an assault rifle at a protest and shouted: “This is a revolution” and “President Trump must die” as he was arrested, according to prosecutors. He admitted to posting messages on social media aimed at intimidating Trump supporters. Quinones’ attorney declined to comment. On social media, 17 individuals espoused violence — like threatening to start riots or harm police — or organized themselves using encrypted communications, the complaints alleged. Social media profiles reviewed by Reuters showed a range of views, including anarchism, anti-racism and anti-government messages. Ca’Quintez Gibson, 26, was arrested for allegedly using Facebook live posts and emoji-filled messages to encourage people to loot in Peoria, Illinois. But John Milhiser, the U.S. attorney in Springfield, Illinois, whose office is prosecuting the case, told Reuters that Gibson had “no connection” with any political group or motive. Gibson’s attorney could not immediately be reached for comment. Barbara McQuade, who was U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan during President Barack Obama’s administration, said prosecutors were generally cautious about making allegations based on someone’s ideology, owing to constitutional guarantees of free speech. Michael German, a former FBI agent and current fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice, said the government could produce more evidence at trial, but the “lack of clear indications of involvement of anti-fascists in these protests I think shows they are not leading in any way the protest violence.” Still, Trump’s campaign for re-election in November is sending out pleas for campaign donations touting the president’s “100%” stand against antifa. Molotov cocktails  Most of the individuals charged — about 40 — were accused of violent acts around the protests, from throwing Molotov cocktails to setting fires or looting stores, according to photographs and affidavits included in the criminal complaints. In the rest of the cases, no serious violence was alleged, Reuters found. Some of those arrested were charged only with possessing illegal drugs or firearms. One man arrested in Florida, John Wesley Mobley Jr., was charged with impersonating a police officer when he was found carrying a BB gun that looked like a Glock pistol and a fake U.S. Marshal’s badge, according to the federal charging documents. Mobley had a history of felonies and had impersonated police in the past, the complaint said. His attorney, Karla Mariel Reyes, declined to comment. A man arrested in Madison, Wisconsin, Kyle Olson, was carrying a loaded handgun, which he said he brought to the protests “for protection,” court records stated. Joseph Bugni, the public defender who is representing Olson, said his client had “no political motivation.” Another man charged in Wisconsin, Anthony Krohn, was found by police lying intoxicated on the grass near the Wisconsin state capitol with a serious gunshot wound to his leg, which he said he had accidentally inflicted on himself. Krohn’s attorney, Peter Moyers, said his client had “no history of political activism.” Attorneys for some of the individuals charged said they were surprised the FBI was getting involved in cases that would usually be handled by state prosecutors. The FBI referred questions to the Justice Department. The head of the New York Police Department’s intelligence unit, John Miller, told reporters at a briefing there were definitely signs of organized violence by “anarchist groups” that came “prepared to commit property damage” in “high-end stores run by corporate entities” and developed a “complex network of bicycle scouts” to report on police movements. But none of the eight people charged by the Justice Department in New York were alleged to have ties to specific anarchist groups, according to court papers. The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Reuters’ findings.  
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As protests over the death of a black man while in police custody continued into its third week, President Donald Trump again took to Twitter in posts that appear aimed at stoking division and glorifying police violence. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara looks at how Trump’s combative approach might fare at a time when there is remarkable national outpouring of empathy for the African American community.Camera: Taris Iman, Laurentius Wahyudi    
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Family members, politicians and celebrities mourned George Floyd at his funeral in Houston Tuesday. An African American, Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. The death has prompted protests around the United States and in many other countries. Mike O’Sullivan reports. 
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The body of George Floyd arrived at the cemetery in Pearland, Texas, where he will be buried next to his mother — whose name was among the last words he was heard saying.  Floyd is the African American man whose death while in the custody of Minneapolis police two weeks ago lit the fuse of protests against racism around the world. Hundreds endured the legendary Texas sun and heat to line the streets and watch a horse-drawn carriage bring Floyd’s gold casket from his funeral service at the Fountain of Praise Church to his final resting place.  More than 500 people — family, friends and some who never knew him— filled the church pews Tuesday.  Philonise Floyd, brother, of George Floyd pauses at the casket during a funeral service for Floyd at The Fountain of Praise church, June 9, 2020, in Houston.They included actors Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum, Houston Texans football star J.J. Watt, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo. The crowd jumped up and cheered when Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced he would sign an executive order banning chokeholds by police.  Democratic Congressman Al Green declared “George Floyd was not expendable.” “This is why we’re here. His crime was that he was born black. That was his only crime. George Floyd deserved the dignity and respect that we accord all people just because they are children of a common God,” Green said. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who met with Floyd’s family Monday, taped a eulogy played at the funeral.  “No child should have to ask questions that too many black children have had to ask for generations: Why? Now is the time for racial justice. That is the answer we must give to our children when they ask why,” Biden said. Award-winning singer Ne-Yo performed, saying Floyd “changed the world.” A mourner adjusts his protective face mask as he waits for the funeral for George Floyd at the Houston Memorial Gardens cemetery in Pearland, Texas, June 9, 2020.There are also calls across the country for cities to defund police departments. The Minneapolis city council overwhelmingly backs such a plan in the face of opposition by Mayor Jacob Frey.  Along with Houston’s Mayor Turner, other state and city leaders have banned police chokeholds, including California Governor Gavin Newsom and the Denver police chief.  Washington state Governor Jay Inslee says he wants to make it mandatory for police officers to report bad behavior by other officers and not just stand by while an atrocity may be committed. 
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Four Republican U.S. senators on Tuesday urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to review whether to revise liability protections for internet companies after President Donald Trump urged action.Trump said last month he wants to “remove or change” a provision of a law that shields social media companies from liability for content posted by their users and directed a U.S. Commerce Department agency to petition the FCC to take action within 60 days.Senators Marco Rubio, Kelly Loeffler, Kevin Cramer and Josh Hawley asked the FCC to review Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and “clearly define the criteria for which companies can receive protections under the statute.”FILE – FCC Chairman Ajit Pai testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 5, 2019.Last week, an advocacy group backed by the tech industry sued, asking a judge to block the executive order.FCC Chairman Ajit Pai — who in 2018 said he did not see a role for the agency to regulate websites like Facebook Inc , Alphabet Inc’s Google and Twitter — declined to comment on potential actions in response to Trump’s executive order. He told reporters on Tuesday it would not be appropriate to “prejudge a petition that I haven’t seen.”FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said on Tuesday the order poses a lot “of very complex issues.”O’Rielly tweeted earlier “as a conservative, I’m troubled voices are stifled by liberal tech leaders. At same time, I’m extremely dedicated to the First Amendment which governs much here.” 
 
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday shared an unfounded conspiracy theory suggesting that an older protester police pushed to the ground last week in Buffalo, New York, could have been an anti-fascist “provocateur” trying to disrupt police communications.On Twitter, Trump repeated a version of the incident broadcast on the Trump-leaning One America News Network. “Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment.”Trump added, “I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?” A lawyer for Gugino, who remains hospitalized with a concussion, quickly condemned Trump’s tweet, saying it was “a dark, dangerous and untrue accusation” that the man had been part of a “set up” coordinated by anti-fascist demonstrators.“Martin has always been a PEACEFUL protester because he cares about today’s society,” attorney Kelly Zarcone said. “He is also a typical Western New Yorker who loves his family. No one from law enforcement has suggested otherwise.”New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news conference, May 27, 2020, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo also condemned Trump’s tweet.“There’s no fact to any of it. He should apologize for that tweet. How reckless, how mean, how cruel,” Cuomo said.Ari Fleischer, press secretary for former President George W. Bush, was among those who quickly reacted to Trump’s repeating the One America News story.“The president’s penchant for trafficking in conspiracy theories is, politically speaking, going to ruin him. This is reckless. He doesn’t know when to stop,” Fleischer tweeted.Two Buffalo police officers, Aaron Torgalski and Robert McCabe, were charged with assault after video of them shoving Gugino to the ground was widely shared on social media after he approached them last Friday during one of the dozens of U.S. protests against the May 25 death of George Floyd, a black man, while he was in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.Gugino staggered backward and fell on the sidewalk, suffering a concussion. Video showed numerous officers from the Buffalo Police Department’s Emergency Response Team walking past him as he lay motionless and bleeding.The police department at first claimed Gugino “tripped and fell.”Buffalo Police officers Aaron Torgalski, left, and Robert McCabe, who were arraigned on felony assault charges, are seen in this combination of photographs provided by the Erie County District Attorney’s Office in Buffalo, New York, June 6, 2020.Torgalski and McCabe have pleaded not guilty in the incident. Gugino remains hospitalized in serious condition.News outlets reported that Gugino is a longtime peace activist in upstate New York, a member of PUSH Buffalo, which focuses on affordable housing, and the Western New York Peace Center, a human rights organization.He is also active in the Catholic Worker Movement and frequently criticizes Trump on social media.After the incident, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown called Gugino an “agitator” who was “trying to spark up the crowd of people.”When Torgalski and McCabe were suspended from the Buffalo police force and charged with assault, 57 of their colleagues on the city’s Emergency Response Team resigned from the squad in a show of support.Trump has often blamed Antifa, an anti-fascist movement, as a domestic terrorist organization and said with scant evidence that they have been responsible for the violence that erupted in some of the coast-to-coast protests after Floyd’s death.In recent days, the protests have been largely peaceful with few arrests. 
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Three Democratic lawmakers are asking federal watchdogs to investigate whether U.S. Park Police broke any laws in routing demonstrators from the square in front of the White House last week.The request was made in a letter released Tuesday to the Interior Department inspector general, Mark Lee Greenblatt. Officials were in the early stages of reviewing the request, said IG spokeswoman Nancy DiPaolo.Park Police and other security forces lobbed chemical agents and punched and clubbed demonstrators and journalists in clearing Lafayette Square near the White House on June 1, as protests surged around the country following the killing of George Floyd in police custody. Trump administration officials have denied federal forces were making way for President Donald Trump to stage photos nearby.The request for an investigation was made by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, House Natural Resources Committee Chair Raul Grijalva of Arizona, and Committee Vice Chair Rep. Debra Haaland of New Mexico.”The First Amendment rights to free speech, peaceful assembly, and free press are the building blocks of all other rights,” the three lawmakers said. “Any actions by the Park Police to muzzle these rights is an affront to all Americans and should be swiftly addressed.”The Park Police is a small force under Interior’s National Park Service that is charged with law enforcement at Lafayette Square in front of the White House, at the Statue of Liberty in New York, and at a small number of other heavily visited federal sites.Spokespeople for the park service and the Interior Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt told Grijalva in a letter last week that the Park Police had been in a “state of siege” from violent attacks in the square.Democratic lawmakers say witness and journalist accounts and photos and videos made public so far don’t support allegations of that scale of protester violence.The three lawmakers’ letter, sent Monday, asks Interior’s internal watchdog whether the force used by Park Police was lawful and in line with rules, policies and training standards for the force.Lawmakers also asked the investigators to determine who was giving orders to the Interior Department in the square’s clearing. 
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Family and friends are honoring George Floyd at a private funeral Tuesday in the U.S. city of Houston, two weeks after his death in police custody inspired renewed protests against police brutality in numerous cities across the country.    Relatives and friends began arriving at the Fountain of Praise Church before the service and walked behind his golden casket as it was ushered into the church as the media looked on.WATCH: George Floyd’s funeral serviceFloyd’s casket was rolled into the church by six men wearing black suits and masks as a line of police officers stood nearby at attention.After the funeral, Houston Police will escort the funeral procession to the nearby city of Pearland, where Floyd will be buried next to his mother.    Houston’s city hall was lit up Monday night in crimson and gold, the colors of the high school Floyd attended, in remembrance of his life.  Other cities joined the effort, with crimson and gold lights shining on city halls in Los Angeles, Boston, Oakland, Las Vegas, New York and elsewhere.   Tonight, City Hall is lit crimson and gold in remembrance of #GeorgeFloyd.
I appreciate my fellow @usmayors and @OurMayors members for joining in solidarity to show support for his family and good policing.
Crimson and gold are the colors of his alma mater @JackYatesHigh. pic.twitter.com/T29oRpUD7v
— Sylvester Turner (@SylvesterTurner) Flowers are prepared and delivered to a public memorial for George Floyd at The Fountain of Praise church in Houston, MoJune 8, 2020, in Houston.Biden meets with Floyd’s family
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden met Floyd’s relatives for more than an hour in Houston on Monday, according to the family’s lawyer, Benjamin Crump.         Crump said on Twitter that Biden “listened, heard their pain, and shared in their woe.”          Also Monday, Derek Chauvin, the white officer who was filmed pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck for more than 8 minutes before Floyd’s death, made his first court appearance since the charges against him were upgraded to second-degree murder. Floyd’s death was the latest of many deaths of black Americans during or after encounters with white officers, triggering worldwide calls to correct racial injustices in the U.S.       Chauvin said little during Monday’s brief hearing at a Minneapolis court as he appeared on closed-circuit television from a maximum-security prison. His next appearance is set for June 29.       Calls to defund police
White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Monday President Donald Trump is “appalled” by calls from some protesters and activists for police departments to be defunded. She said the president is “taking a look at various” proposals in response to Floyd’s death but offered no specifics.           In Minneapolis, where the 46-year-old Floyd died May 25, nine of the 12 City Council members pledged to disband the city’s police department.             “A veto-proof majority of the MPLS City Council just publicly agreed that the Minneapolis Police Department is not re-formable and that we’re going to end the current policing system,” council member Alondra Cano tweeted Sunday.             In California, Governor Gavin Newsom ordered the state’s police training program to stop teaching chokeholds.         Denver’s police department announced Sunday that it has also fully banned the use of chokeholds. In addition, it said it would also require members of its SWAT team to activate their body cameras during operations. In the northwestern state of Washington, Governor Jay Inslee proposed creating an independent investigative unit to probe officer-involved killings and making it obligatory for officers to report misconduct by other officers. Protests around the world
The U.S. protests have also led to demonstrations in other countries, with people showing both solidarity with those marching in the United States and calling attention to cases in their own countries. France is one of the nations that has seen protests, and the country’s interior minister announced police there will no longer be allowed to use chokeholds during an arrest. “No arrest should put lives at risk,” Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said. Poll finds vast majority of Americans back protests
In a new Washington Post-Schar School poll released Tuesday, 81 percent of respondents said police need to continue to make changes needed to treat blacks equally to whites.Seventy-four percent said they either strongly or somewhat support the protests overall, while 25 percent strongly or somewhat oppose the demonstrations.When asked about the way Trump has handled the situation, 61 percent said they oppose his response, while 35 percent said they approve.
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Amid the protests that have flared up in the U.S. capital among many other cities, the owners of some downtown D.C. restaurants and cafes saw their businesses looted and damaged. But despite the damage and having to wait even longer to finally reopen their venues, some business owners are choosing to support the protesters.
Camera: Andrey Degtyarev
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Amid protests over police brutality and racism that have broken out across the United States, experts say they are seeing an increase of targeted campaigns to actively spread disinformation. As Mariia Prus tells us in this report narrated by Anna Rice, one aim is to undermine social cohesion by making people believe there is no objective reality.
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Portland’s police chief resigned on Monday, just six months into her job, amid criticism of her department’s handling of protests in Oregon’s largest city. An African American lieutenant on the force replaced her. The shakeup came as police have been sharply criticized for using what has been called inappropriate force against some protesters as huge demonstrations continue in Portland.   “To say this was unexpected would be an understatement,” new Police Chief Chuck Lovell said at a news conference. “I’m humbled. I’m going to listen. I’m going to care about the community, and I’m looking forward to this journey.”   He and community leaders of color credited Jami Resch, a white woman, for stepping down as George Floyd protests roiled the city.   Resch told the news conference that Lovell is “the exact right person at the exact right moment” to head the police department.   Resch had replaced Danielle Outlaw, who was Portland’s first African American female police chief and who became Philadelphia police commissioner in February. Resch said she suggested the shakeup to Mayor Ted Wheeler, who said he supported Lovell to lead the department as it moves through needed reforms. “We need Chief Lovell’s leadership,” Wheeler said at the news conference. “We must re-imagine reform and rebuild what public safety looks like.” Lovell served as Outlaw’s executive assistant. Under Resch, he led a new Community Services Division that included the Behavioral Health Unit, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. The unit’s mission, according to its web page, is to aid people in crisis resulting from mental illness and/or drug and alcohol addiction. Resch said she will stay with the department in a different role. Demonstrators held two peaceful George Floyd protests in Portland but a third one that lasted until the early hours of Monday resulted in at least 20 arrests, with some demonstrators throwing objects at police, who fired tear gas and sponge-tipped projectiles.Police use pepper spray against protesters in Portland, Oregon, May 31, 2020, in this still image taken from video obtained by Reuters.Full beverage containers, glass bottles, hard-boiled eggs and rocks were thrown or fired at officers using sling-shots, police said in a statement Monday. A medic who was working with the officers was hit in the stomach with a rock. The protest that turned violent happened at the Justice Center in downtown Portland. The ACLU of Oregon has called on Portland police to end the use of tear gas, impact weapons and flash bang devices.   “We join the protesters in calling for a new approach in our community, and demanding that we uphold the rights of people who have historically had their rights and humanity denied,” the rights group said Sunday. Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who is African American, slammed the recent police response to some protests.  “I’m incredibly troubled by the excessive force used nightly by PDX police since the protests began,” she said. “The videos and painful firsthand accounts of community members getting tear gassed and beaten by police for exercising their 1st Amendment rights should be concerning for us all.” Lovell’s appointment does not require City Council approval, Wheeler’s spokeswoman Eileen Park said. Police say they have encouraged peaceful protests, but smaller groups splinter from the demonstrations or come out later to engage in mayhem. Protesters Monday evening walked onto Interstate 84 in Portland’s Lloyd District, which led to officials temporarily shutting it down in that area, news footage showed. Earlier, protesters cheered when a speaker at the demonstration talked about the police chief’s resignation. “Are we done yet,” he asked the crowd. “No,” the crowd shouted back. Another crowd near the downtown jail after 9 p.m. was urged by police not to shake and climb a fence erected to keep protesters away. “We are not here to police a fence,” Portland police said on Twitter. “We are here to protect the people who work in the Justice Center and the adults in custody who are living there.” On the ground, police were staying farther away from the fence than they had during other nights. The crowd had grown to hundreds by around 9:40 p.m., The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. 
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Family and friends are set to honor George Floyd with a private funeral Tuesday in the U.S. city of Houston, two weeks after his death in police custody inspired renewed protests against police brutality in numerous cities across the country. After the funeral, Houston police will escort the funeral procession to the nearby city of Pearland, where Floyd will be buried next to his mother. The public had their chance to pay their respects Monday, as thousands of people streamed through The Fountain of Praise church to view Floyd’s open casket.  Memorials were also held last week in Minneapolis and Raeford, North Carolina, near where Floyd was born. Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott was among those who paid tribute Monday. He told reporters outside the church that he will include Floyd’s family in discussions about police reform.    “George Floyd has not died in vain. His life will be a living legacy about the way that America and Texas responds to this tragedy,” Abbott said.   Outside the church, organizers assembled a large floral arrangement with white roses to spell the initials BLM for Black Lives Matter.A mourner reacts after viewing the casket of George Floyd during a public visitation Monday, June 8, 2020, at The Fountain of Praise church in Houston.Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden met Floyd’s relatives for more than an hour in Houston on Monday, according to the family’s lawyer Benjamin Crump.  Crump said on Twitter that Biden “listened, heard their pain, and shared in their woe.”Also Monday, Derek Chauvin, the white officer who was filmed pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck for more than 8 minutes before Floyd’s death, made his first court appearance since the charges against him were upgraded to second-degree murder.      Chauvin said little during Monday’s brief hearing at a Minneapolis court as he appeared on closed-circuit television from a maximum-security prison. His next appearance is set for June 29.       White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Monday that President Donald Trump is “appalled” by calls from some protesters and activists for police departments to be defunded. She said the president is “taking a look at various” proposals in response to Floyd’s death but offered no specifics.     In Minneapolis, where the 46-year-old Floyd died May 25, nine of the 12 City Council members pledged to disband the city’s police department.     “A veto-proof majority of the MPLS City Council just publicly agreed that the Minneapolis Police Department is not re-formable and that we’re going to end the current policing system,” council member Alondra Cano tweeted Sunday.          In California, Governor Gavin Newsom ordered the state’s police training program to stop teaching chokeholds.  Denver’s police department announced Sunday that it has also fully banned the use of chokeholds. In addition, it said it would also require members of its SWAT team to activate their body cameras during operations. 
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Black Lives Matter protests erupted for a second weekend in cities across Europe, fuelled by deep-rooted anger over a perceived lack of understanding of colonial history. The demonstrations originally broke out in solidarity with protests in the United States over the death of a 46-year-old black man, George Floyd, while in Minneapolis police custody. In recent days, protesters in Britain and other European states have increasingly focused on racial inequality in their own countries. In the city of Bristol, in western England, protesters tore down a statue of 17th-century slave trader, Edward Colston, on Sunday, amid cheers from thousands of demonstrators.  The bronze statue was rolled through the city streets and dumped into the harbor, where Colston’s slave ships used to dock after returning from Africa and the Americas. The monument had long been a divisive symbol: a tribute to a man who built schools and hospitals in the city, but who enslaved tens of thousands of black Africans, shipping them across the Atlantic. A banner is taped over the inscription on the pedestal of the toppled statue of Edward Colston in Bristol, England, June 8, 2020.The Bristol City Council estimates that up to 20,000 enslaved men, women and children died on board Colston’s ships. In recent decades, there have been several petitions among Bristol residents to have the statue removed, but the council could not agree on a course of action.  “We have to walk these streets and see that statue of Colston every day, that’s what it means,” said Jasmine, a black woman from Bristol who joined the protest Sunday. “That statue is a kick in the face to all black people, it’s a disgrace. Now look at it, now look at it. Gone, gone, him gone.’’ The toppling of the statue mirrors similar debates in the United States, where activists have demanded the removal of statues honoring Confederate-era figures. Last week, the governor of the U.S. state of Virginia announced that a The Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, speaks to the press in Bristol, England, June 8, 2020.Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees — the first directly elected black mayor in Britain — told VOA that the protesters had legitimate concerns.“We have a city to run and we need to have order,” Rees said. “But if you fail to understand these kind of events, then you create the conditions for more and bigger types of events like these in the future. It’s a very significant, symbolic act, but it doesn’t deliver the affordable homes, the job opportunities, the educational opportunities, the access to the professions, political power, economic power, that actually underpins race inequality.”The British government takes a very different view. Home Secretary Priti Patel labeled the statue’s destruction as “sheer vandalism.” “It’s right actually the police follow up on that and make sure justice is taken,” Patel told reporters Monday. Protests erupted in several other cities across Britain over the weekend. Tens of thousands of people marched on the U.S. Embassy in London.Fiona Collins echoed the views of many in the crowd: “I’m sick of having to explain to my children that because they’re black, they have to act a certain way, they have to behave this way, they have to work 10 times harder to get anywhere in life and I’ve had enough of it.” There were violent clashes between some demonstrators and police in the capital. Twenty-two officers were injured, including a policewoman who fell from her horse after it bolted, striking a traffic signal. The riderless horse trampled a protester.  Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote on Twitter that the demonstrations had been “subverted by thuggery.”People have a right to protest peacefully & while observing social distancing but they have no right to attack the police. These demonstrations have been subverted by thuggery – and they are a betrayal of the cause they purport to serve. Those responsible will be held to account.
— Boris Johnson #StayAlert (@BorisJohnson) June 7, 2020 In Glasgow, Scotland, activists changed the names of streets linked to slave traders. In Belgium, protesters defaced a statue of King Leopold II, who oversaw the killing of millions of Congolese during colonial rule. The targeting of such monuments has rekindled calls for government action to remove symbols that glorify those involved in colonial repression and slavery. However, many British lawmakers have criticized the destruction of the Colston statue in Bristol and claim the monuments are an important reminder of a dark and complicated history.  Ben Bradley MP of the ruling Conservatives wrote on Twitter: ‘If we start to judge historical figures by 21st century standards, we’ll find that quite a few folks weren’t that nice… almost as if they didn’t know any better.’ If we start to judge historical figures by 21st century standards, we’ll find that quiet a few folks weren’t that nice… Almost as if they didn’t know any better 🤔
— Ben Bradley MP (@BBradley_Mans) June 7, 2020Opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer criticized the toppling of the statue but said that it should have been taken down by authorities many years ago.  Many others say that statue’s razing has done far more to educate Britons about black oppression, a history that for many resonates deeply today.  
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Tropical Storm Cristobal could soon renew its strength by uniting with another storm system coming from the west to form one giant cyclone, forecasters say. After drenching much of the South, forecasters now expect the remnants of Cristobal to bring fierce winds, heavy rain and thunderstorms to much of the Midwest by Tuesday. A very strong storm system sweeping out from the Rocky Mountains is expected to meld with Cristobal, said Greg Carbin, who oversees forecasts at the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. “The two will eventually merge into a large cyclone,” Carbin said. “It’s a pretty fascinating interaction we’ll see over the next couple of days.” Wind gusts of up to 45 mph (72 kph) are expected in Chicago by Tuesday night, the National Weather Service said. Boaters were being warned of gale-force winds on nearby Lake Michigan on Tuesday and Wednesday. FILE – A wave crashes as a man stands on a jetty near Orleans Harbor in Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, June 7, 2020, as Tropical Storm Cristobal approaches the Louisiana Coast.High winds could be felt from Nebraska to Wisconsin, forecasters said. In parts of Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota, the gusty winds and low humidity will bring the threat of wildfires in areas with dry grass, National Weather Service forecasters warned. Any blazes that start will spread rapidly, they said. Cristobal weakened into a depression early Monday after inundating coastal Louisiana and ginning up dangerous weather along most of the U.S. Gulf Coast, sending waves crashing over Mississippi beaches, swamping parts of an Alabama island town and spawning a tornado in Florida. In Louisiana, two boaters were found Monday afternoon in good condition after their boat sank in a deepwater straight near Slidell on Sunday, authorities said. Cristobal’s remnants could be a rainmaker for days. Its forecast path takes it into Arkansas and Missouri by Tuesday, then through Illinois and Wisconsin to the Great Lakes.  “It’s very efficient, very tropical rainfall,” National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham said in a Facebook video. “It rains a whole bunch real quick.”  In their last update on Cristobal from the hurricane center, forecasters said up to 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain could fall in some areas and could cause significant river flooding across the mid- and upper Mississippi Valley. FILE – Charles Marsala, who lives in the Orleans Marina in the West End section of New Orleans, films a rising storm surge from Lake Pontchartrain, in advance of Tropical Storm Cristobal, June 7, 2020.Coastal Mississippi news outlets reported stalled cars and trucks as floodwaters inundated beaches and crashed over highways. On the City of Biloxi Facebook page, officials said emergency workers helped dozens of motorists through floodwaters, mostly on U.S. 90 running along the coast. In Alabama, the bridge linking the mainland to Dauphin Island was closed much of Sunday but was being reopened Monday. Police and state transportation department vehicles led convoys of motorists to and from the island when breaks in the weather permitted. “The storm could have been a lot worse, I’m very thankful to say. We were largely spared,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said. Cristobal provided the state with “a good test” of overall hurricane response and preparedness, particularly combined with ongoing COVID-19 response efforts, the governor said. President Donald Trump agreed to issue an emergency declaration for Louisiana, officials said. In Florida, a tornado — the second in two days in the state as the storm approached — uprooted trees and downed power lines Sunday afternoon south of Lake City near Interstate 75, the weather service and authorities said. There were no reports of injuries. The storm also forced a waterlogged stretch of Interstate 10 in north Florida to close for a time Sunday. 
 
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U.S. political polls are increasingly showing that Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump’s performance in office, and that he is trailing in his bid for another four-year term in the White House against former Vice President Joe Biden.  In the latest poll Monday, CNN said voters it surveyed last week disapproved of Trump’s handling of the presidency by a 57%-38% margin, and losing to Biden by a 55%-41% edge five months ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3. Trump derided the CNN poll in a tweet, contending the poll was “as fake as their reporting.” Trump said he had the “same numbers, and worse, against Crooked Hillary,” his derisive moniker for Hillary Clinton, the former U.S. secretary of state he defeated for the presidency in 2016. CNN Polls are as Fake as their Reporting. Same numbers, and worse, against Crooked Hillary. The Dems would destroy America!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 8, 2020Trump often touts his high standing among Republican voters, but Democrats are equally opposed to his presidency, polling shows. Meanwhile, the CNN poll showed 52% of independent voters say they favor Biden for the presidency versus 41% for Trump.  Trump’s low approval rating comes as voters assess his handling of the coronavirus pandemic over the past three months and more immediately, the nationwide protests in the past two weeks against the death of a black man, George Floyd, held in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota. CNN said Trump’s approval rating had fallen seven points in the past month and was now the worst he had recorded since January 2019. The news network said Trump’s 38% approval rating was similar to two former U.S. presidents — Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H.W. Bush in 1992 — when they both lost bids for second terms.   The CNN poll said the effect of the protests against Floyd’s death on the American electorate is significant, with voters saying race relations in the U.S. are now as important a campaign issue as the economy and health care. Those polled said they think Biden would handle race relations in the U.S. better than Trump by a 63%-31% margin. Black voters favored Biden’s handling of race relations by an overwhelming 91%-4% edge. Biden also outdistanced Trump in handling the coronavirus pandemic, 55% to 41%, while voters favored Trump in overseeing the economy by 51% to 46%. National polls in the U.S. have consistently shown Biden ahead of Trump, all 40 of them in May and another nine so far in June. The Real Clear Politics website aggregation of polls has Biden ahead 49.9% to 42.1%. Its collection of recent polls shows voters disapproving of Trump’s presidency 54.2% to 42.8%. 
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The U.S. Department of Justice issued a formal request to question Britain’s Prince Andrew as part of the government’s ongoing investigation into possible co-conspirators of convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, according to a law enforcement official.The formal action comes after federal prosecutors alleged that Andrew, known as the Duke of York, failed to respond to earlier Justice Department inquiries about his friendship with Epstein, who was found dead of an apparent suicide while in jail last August awaiting charges of sex trafficking and sexual abuse.In November, Queen Elizabeth’s second son stepped down from public duties due to the scandal over his friendship with Epstein and allegations that he had sexual encounters with a 17-year-old girl about 20 years ago.Investigators have not accused Andrew of any wrongdoing, and he has said that he would help “any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations if required.”FILE – This March 28, 2017, file photo, provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry, shows Jeffrey Epstein.Andrew has denied having sex with Virginia Roberts Giuffre. She alleges Epstein forced her to have sex with the prince and that the encounters happened in London, New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands.Despite the pledge to cooperate, in March, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said the prince had provided “zero cooperation” to the FBI and “shut the door on voluntary cooperation.” Berman said his office is “considering its options.”Andrew’s lawyers hit back at these claims Monday, suggesting that U.S. prosecutors were seeking publicity rather than the royal’s cooperation.”The Duke of York has on at least three occasions this year offered his assistance as a witness to the DOJ,” said Blackfords, the London-based law firm representing Andrew, in a statement.”Unfortunately, the DOJ has reacted to the first two offers by breaching their own confidentiality rules and claiming that the Duke has offered zero cooperation. In doing so, they are perhaps seeking publicity rather than accepting the assistance proffered,” the statement said.The request, initiated by federal prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office, is part of a mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) request, an agreement to gather and exchange information in criminal investigations between two counties, submitted to Britain’s Home Office, according to the source.If the MLAT request is approved, U.S. prosecutors could potentially force Andrew to go to court to provide evidence under oath.Prosecutors have vowed to continue the investigation, bringing renewed attention to several prominent people in Epstein’s orbit, including Andrew and socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.Maxwell faces several lawsuits and has denied all allegations against her.  
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Congressional Democrats called for the biggest overhaul of the country’s policing laws in decades Monday, setting up a new clash with President Donald Trump, who is demanding tough law enforcement. “The world is witnessing the birth of a new movement in our country,” Rep. Karen Bass, one of the co-sponsors of the legislation, told reporters, “People marching to demand not just change but transformative change that ends police brutality, that ends racial profiling and ends the process of denying Americans the right to have the ability to sue when they have been injured by an officer.”  In the wake of the death two weeks ago of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man held in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Democrats in both the House and Senate are aiming to broaden police accountability, track “problematic” officers through a “national police misconduct registry” and end the practice of transferring military equipment to police departments across the nation.  Democrats have scheduled hearings beginning Wednesday in the House of Representatives and hope to pass what they are calling the “Justice in Policing Act of 2020” by the end of this month. To become law, the bill would also have to be passed in the Republican-controlled Senate, where a hearing on policing is scheduled for next week.   Past congressional attempts at police reform and gun control legislation have failed, however, and the extent to which Republicans might join in the effort to approve policing reforms is unclear. Congressman Kevin McCarthy, leader of the minority House Republicans, says he believes the two parties “can find common ground.” But Republicans often take their cue on legislation from Trump, who said on Twitter Sunday, “I want great and well paid LAW ENFORCEMENT. I want LAW & ORDER!” Sleepy Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats want to “DEFUND THE POLICE”. I want great and well paid LAW ENFORCEMENT. I want LAW & ORDER!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Items left by protesters to memorialize George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis police custody, are seen at the scene of his arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 4, 2020.Already, some local governments have banned police from using the type of restraint tactic that led to Floyd’s death. He was held down while handcuffed on a Minneapolis city street by a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes even as Floyd repeatedly said he could not breathe. Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder in the case, while three police colleagues who did not intervene to assist Floyd have been charged with aiding and abetting the killing.Demonstrators lie on the pavement facing the White House during a rally north of Lafayette Square to protest police brutality and racism, in Washington, June 7, 2020.Anger over Floyd’s death and police brutality against minorities have led to two weeks of demonstrations in the U.S. and around the world, some of them erupting into violent clashes between protesters and police. In in recent days, the protests have mostly been peaceful. The coast-to-coast protests have been some of the most widespread in the United States since the extended demonstrations against American involvement in the Vietnam War in the 1960s. “When the people are marching in the streets it’s because they’re fully aware of the history of this issue in America and they have had enough,” Senator Kamala Harris, a leading contender to be presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s pick to be vice president, said Thursday.  Democratic leaders called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring the legislation up for a vote on the Senate floor by the end of July. But Harris noted a measure making lynching a Federal crime failed in that chamber just last week.  The Democrats’ legislative proposal seeks to make it easier to hold police officers accountable for their actions. It would change the legal doctrine of “qualified immunity,” which often shields officers from civil lawsuits brought by people who believe they have been wronged by police actions. In another provision, victims would need only to show that police “recklessly” deprived them of their civil rights, easing the current statute requiring them to prove that police action was “willful.” In the aftermath of Floyd’s death, some activists have gone substantially further than the proposed legislation, with calls to “defund the police.” Some activists say the goal is not to dismantle police forces entirely, but to redirect some funding from police departments to other providers of social, educational, housing and community services. FILE – Minneapolis police officers stand in a line facing protesters demonstrating against the death of George Floyd, outside the 3rd Police Precinct in Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 27, 2020.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once again declined to directly answer if she supported defunding the police. Instead, Pelosi said House Democrats had several proposals in the works that would address some of the social issues protesters say should be funded instead of the money that now goes to local police departments.  The Minneapolis city council says it is planning to eliminate its municipal police force, while the mayors in the two biggest U.S. cities — New York and Los Angeles — say they will cut police funding in favor of more community programs in impoverished neighborhoods.   Trump disparaged the idea in a tweet Monday, saying, “LAW & ORDER, NOT DEFUND AND ABOLISH THE POLICE. The Radical Left Democrats have gone Crazy!”LAW & ORDER, NOT DEFUND AND ABOLISH THE POLICE. The Radical Left Democrats have gone Crazy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 8, 2020Acting Homeland Security chief Chad Wolf, on the “Fox News Sunday” show, called the defunding idea “absurd.” “It makes no sense to me,” Wolf said. “It’s a political statement.”
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Germany’s Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said Monday she has received no official confirmation on the reported U.S. decision to withdraw more than a quarter of American troops stationed in Germany. The Wall Street Journal reported last Friday that U.S. President Donald Trump had ordered the Pentagon to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Germany by 9,500 to 25,000. The New York Times reported Saturday that U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper had approved the move. During the news conference in Berlin, Kramp-Karrenbauer said the German government had only seen the news reports and could not speculate further on what might happen. She did add the “the presence of United States soldiers in Germany serves the overall security of the NATO alliance.”. A US military aircraft takes off from the US Airbase Ramstein, Germany, June 7, 2020. According to various media outlets, the US wants to reduce the number of soldiers stationed in Germany by up to 9500.Currently there are 34,500 American service members permanently assigned in Germany as part of a long-standing arrangement with America’s NATO ally. Kramp-Karrenbauer said American soldiers have integrated well and have become a real component of German society. The reported troop withdrawal would be in keeping with Trump’s “America First” overall foreign policy and his often-stated belief that U.S. allies must shoulder more of the burden for their own defense. 
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Mourners are set to gather Monday in the U.S. city of Houston to view the casket of George Floyd, the African American man whose death in police custody sparked renewed protests against police brutality in cities across the country and in other parts of the world. Floyd’s funeral and burial will take place Tuesday. An aide for former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said the Democratic presidential candidate planned to travel to Houston to meet with Floyd’s family and to give a video message at the funeral. President Donald Trump on Sunday ordered National Guard troops to start withdrawing from the nation’s capital after they deployed there to assist law enforcement.  Similar withdrawals are happening in other states with protests in recent days taking place with few clashes between demonstrators and authorities. Trump has consistently expressed his backing for what he calls “law and order” and in a tweet Sunday he criticized those who want to see police departments have their budgets slashed or eliminated entirely.President Donald Trump returns to the White House in Washington, June 1, 2020.“I want great and well paid LAW ENFORCEMENT. I want LAW & ORDER!” Trump said. Senator Mitt Romney, a member of Trump’s Republican Party, joined protesters in Washington during a march Sunday, the first known instance of a Republican lawmaker taking part in the demonstrations during the past two weeks. Romney tweeted several photos along with the caption, “Black Lives Matter.”  One photo was a selfie among protesters carrying signs that included the messages “RACISM KILLS” and “BE JUST, LOVE MERCY, WALK HUMBLY.” “We need a voice against racism, we need many voices against racism and against brutality,” he told NBC News. In Minneapolis, where the 46-year-old Floyd died May 25 after a white police officer held him face down on the street and pressed a knee against his neck for several minutes, nine of the 12 city council members pledged to disband the city’s police department. “A veto-proof majority of the MPLS City Council just publicly agreed that the Minneapolis Police Department is not reformable and that we’re going to end the current policing system,” Council Member Alondra Cano tweeted Sunday. Mayor Jacob Frey, who supported bringing charges against the officer who held Floyd, told protesters on Saturday that he favors reforming the department instead of fully abolishing it.  The crowd gathered outside his home greeted his answer with boos.Social media video grab of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey walking through a crowd of jeering protesters, June 7, 2020, in the aftermath of the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd.Frey told the Star Tribune newspaper Sunday, “People continue to require service in many forms from our public safety offices, whether in times of domestic violence, or assistance in some of the most dire conditions.” The city council voted last week to ban police from using of chokeholds and neck restraints. Thousands of people kept up protests Sunday in other parts of the country, including in Los Angeles where the city’s mayor has pledged to cut the police department’s budget as part of an effort to invest in community programs. Protesters also assembled Sunday in major cities such as New York, Chicago and Atlanta, where leaders have lifted nighttime curfews put in place after earlier demonstrations were marred by vandalism and looting. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday his administration plans to move an unspecified amount of funding from the police department to “youth initiatives and social services.” “The details will be worked out in the budget process in the weeks ahead. But I want people to understand that we are committed to shifting resources to ensure that the focus is on our young people.  And I also will affirm while doing that, we will only do it in a way that we are certain continues to ensure that this city will be safe,” de Blasio said. Sunday also brought protests in the northwestern city of Seattle, where a man drove a car toward a crowd in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, then shot a man who reached into the car.  The gunman got out of the car and walked through the crowd, and later approached a line of police officers who took him into custody. Police gave few details on the incident, saying only that a suspect was in custody and a gun was recovered.  The Seattle fire department said the gunshot victim was approximately 27 years old and was taken to a local hospital in stable condition. 
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Tropical Storm Cristobal weakened into a depression early Monday after inundating coastal Louisiana and ginning up dangerous weather along most of the U.S. Gulf Coast, sending waves crashing over Mississippi beaches, swamping parts of an Alabama island town and spawning a tornado in Florida.         Heavy rainfall and a storm surge continued posing a threat across a wide area of the coast after Cristobal made landfall Sunday afternoon with 85-kph winds between the mouth of the Mississippi River and the since-evacuated barrier island resort community of Grand Isle.          At 5 a.m. EDT Monday, the storm was centered about 65 kilometers north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with top winds of 55 kmh, and moving north-northwest at 17 kmh. Cristobal’s remnants could be a rainmaker for days. Its forecast path takes it into Arkansas and Missouri by Tuesday, then through Illinois and Wisconsin to the Great Lakes.          “It’s very efficient, very tropical rainfall,” National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham said in a Facebook video. “It rains a whole bunch real quick.”          Forecasters said up to 30 centimeters of rain could fall in some areas. The weather service warned that the rain would contribute to rivers flooding on the central Gulf Coast and up into the Mississippi Valley, posing a new test of the beleaguered pumping system designed to drain flood waters from the streets of New Orleans.       Coastal Mississippi news outlets reported stalled cars and trucks as flood waters inundated beaches and crashed over highways. On the City of Biloxi Facebook page, officials said emergency workers helped dozens of motorists through flood waters, mostly on U.S. 90 running along the coast.         In Alabama, the bridge linking the mainland to Dauphin Island was closed much of Sunday. Police and state transportation department vehicles led convoys of motorists to and from the island when breaks in the weather permitted.          Rudy Horvath walks out of his home, a boathouse in the West End section of New Orleans, as it takes on water a from storm surge in Lake Pontchartrain in advance of Tropical Storm Cristobal, June 7, 2020.Rising water on Lake Pontchartrain near New Orleans pushed about two feet of water into the first floor of Rudy Horvath’s residence — a boathouse that sits on pilings over the brackish lake. Horvath said he and his family have lived there a year and have learned to take the occasional flood in stride. They’ve put tables on the lower floor to stack belongings above the high water.         “We thought it would be pretty cool to live out here, and it has been,” Horvath said. “The sunsets are great.”         Elsewhere in south Louisiana, water covered the only road to Grand Isle and low-lying parts of Plaquemines Parish at the state’s southeastern tip. “You can’t go down there by car,” shrimper Acy Cooper said Sunday of one marina in the area. “You have to go by boat.”         In Florida, a tornado — the second in two days in the state as the storm approached – uprooted trees and downed power lines Sunday afternoon south of Lake City near Interstate 75, the weather service and authorities said. There were no reports of injuries. The storm also forced a waterlogged stretch of Interstate 10 in north Florida to close for a time Sunday.         Charles Marsala, who lives in the Orleans Marina in the West End section of New Orleans, films a rising storm surge from Lake Pontchartrain, in advance of Tropical Storm Cristobal, June 7, 2020.Rain fell intermittently in New Orleans famed French Quarter on Sunday afternoon, but the streets were nearly deserted, with many businesses already boarded up due to the coronavirus. Daniel Priestman said people may be “overwhelmed” by the coronavirus and recent police violence and protests. They seemed “resigned to whatever happens – happens,” he said.          At one New Orleans intersection, a handmade “Black Lives Matter” sign, wired to a lamp post, rattled in a stiff wind as the crew of a massive vacuum truck worked to unclog a storm drain.         The Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans said the city’s aging street drainage system had limits, so residents should avoid underpasses and low-lying areas prone to inevitable street flooding.         Jefferson Parish, a suburb of New Orleans, called for voluntary evacuations Saturday of some low-lying communities because of threatened storm surge, high tides and heavy rain.          President Donald Trump agreed to issue an emergency declaration for Louisiana, officials said.     
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Protesters are pushing to “defund the police” over the death of George Floyd and other black Americans killed by law enforcement. Their chant has become rallying cry — and a stick for President Donald Trump to use on Democrats as he portrays them as soft on crime.  But what does “defund the police” mean? It’s not necessarily about gutting police department budgets. What is the ‘Defund the Police’ movement?  Supporters say it isn’t about eliminating police departments or stripping agencies of all of their money. They say it is time for the country to address systemic problems in policing in America and spend more on what communities across the U.S. need, like housing and education.  State and local governments spent $115 billion on policing in 2017, according to data compiled by the Urban Institute. “Why can’t we look at how it is that we reorganize our priorities, so people don’t have to be in the streets during a national pandemic?” Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza asked during an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press.  Activists acknowledge this is a gradual process.  The group MPD150, which says it is “working towards a police-free Minneapolis,” argues that such action would be more about “strategically reallocating resources, funding, and responsibility away from police and toward community-based models of safety, support, and prevention.”  “The people who respond to crises in our community should be the people who are best-equipped to deal with those crises,” the group wrote on its website.  What are lawmakers saying?  Sen. Cory Booker said he understands the sentiment behind the slogan, but it’s not a slogan he will use. The New Jersey Democrat told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he shares a feeling with many protesters that Americans are “over-policed” and that “we are investing in police, which is not solving problems, but making them worse when we should be, in a more compassionate country, in a more loving country.”  Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said part of the movement is really about how money is spent.FILE – Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., walks through the Capitol Visitor’s Center on Capitol Hill in Washington.”Now, I don’t believe that you should disband police departments,” she said in an interview with CNN. “But I do think that, in cities, in states, we need to look at how we are spending the resources and invest more in our communities.  “Maybe this is an opportunity to re-envision public safety,” she said. President Donald Trump and his campaign view the emergence of the “Defund the Police” slogan as a spark of opportunity during what has been a trying political moment. Trump’s response to the protests has sparked widespread condemnation. But now his supporters say the new mantra may make voters, who may be otherwise sympathetic to the protesters, recoil from a “radical” idea. Trump seized on the slogan last week as he spoke at an event in Maine. “They’re saying defund the police,” he said. “Defund. Think of it. When I saw it, I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘We don’t want to have any police,’ they say. You don’t want police?” Trump’s 2016 campaign was built on a promise of ensuring law and order — often in contrast to protests against his rhetoric that followed him across the country. As he seeks reelection, Trump is preparing to deploy the same argument again — and seems to believe the “defund the police” call has made the campaign applause line all the more real for his supporters. Is there any push to actually defund police departments?  Yes, or at least to reduce their budgets in some major cities.  In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday that the city would move funding from the NYPD to youth initiatives and social services, while keeping the city safe, but he didn’t give details. In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti vowed to cut as much as $150 million that was part of a planned increase in the police department’s budget.  A Minneapolis city councilmember said in a tweet on Thursday that the city would “dramatically rethink how we approach public safety and emergency response.”  “We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department,” Jeremiah Ellison wrote. “And when we’re done, we’re not simply gonna glue it back together.” He did not explain what would replace the police department. How have police officials and unions responded?  Generally, police and union officials have long resisted cuts to police budgets, arguing that it would make cities less safe.  The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union for the city’s rank-and-file officers, said budget cuts would be the “quickest way to make our neighborhoods more dangerous.”  “Cutting the LAPD budget means longer responses to 911 emergency calls, officers calling for back-up won’t get it, and rape, murder and assault investigations won’t occur or will take forever to initiate, let alone complete,” the union’s board said in a statement last week. “At this time, with violent crime increasing, a global pandemic and nearly a week’s worth of violence, arson, and looting, ‘defunding’ the LAPD is the most irresponsible thing anyone can propose.”  
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Authorities across the country are urging protesters against the death of George Floyd to get COVID-19 tests after more than a week of street marches and close contact with each other.“Get a test. Get a test,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says, adding that the state is opening 15 new testing sites and telling people not to take any chances.“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.Similar calls for testing have come from state and city leaders in Atlanta, San Francisco, and Seattle.As many as 400,000 people are expected to return to their jobs in New York Monday as the country’s largest city begins its first phase of reopening. Many will be packing the subway for the first time in nearly three months.Construction workers and those with jobs in factories, wholesale houses, and some retailers will be returning to work. Stores are offering curbside pickup only.But the city’s thousands of restaurants will remain closed at least through the rest of the month.While New York City officials appear confident enough to start to reopen, the Florida Department of Health announced another 1,180 new coronavirus cases Sunday — saying this is the fifth straight day the number of new cases exceeds 1,000.Visitors arrive at Universal Studios theme park on the first day of its reopening after the shutdown during the coronavirus pandemic, in Orlando, Florida, June 5, 2020.Experts in Florida say people are becoming careless about social distancing since statewide lockdowns have eased. They also note that the numbers started rising when the George Floyd protests began.Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott Sunday accused China of trying to sabotage U.S. efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine.Appearing on BBC television’s Andrew Marr Show, Scott declined to give any evidence for his claim.“It came to our intelligence community. I’m on Armed Service (committee), so clearly there’s things I can’t discuss that I get provided information. But there’s evidence that they’ve been trying to either sabotage or slow it down,” Scott responded.The senator said China “won’t cheer” if the United States or Britain develops a vaccine before anyone else.No Chinese official has directly responded to Scott’s charge.But Science and Technology Minister Wang Zhigang said Sunday Beijing wants to strengthen international cooperation in developing a vaccine.The number of CIVID-19 cases worldwide moved closer to the 7 million mark, according to the count by Johns Hopkins University, with more than 401,000 deaths.The United States is far ahead of any other country in both categories.
 
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The Minneapolis police department could soon undergo a radical change following the death two weeks ago of George Floyd, an African American man, while in the custody of four city officers.Nine of 12 members of the city council announced at a rally in a city park that they support dismantling the police department and replacing it with what is being described as a community-based public safety model.Details on exactly what this new model would look like are unclear.The 12-member council still has to approve the plan and, under council rules, the decision would be veto-proof.A group of demonstrators rallied outside the home of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey Saturday to demand the police department be defunded, accusing it of long-standing racism and rough treatment of black suspects.“It shouldn’t have taken so much death to get us here,” said Kandace Montgomery, the director of Black Vision which organized the gathering outside the mayor’s house. “We’re safer without armed, unaccountable patrols supported by the state hunting black people.”Frey told the crowd that he does not support getting rid of the police department as it looks now.”I told them the truth about where I stand. I’ll work relentlessly toward deep structural reforms to change policing, rethink our system, and directly address systemic racism. However, I do not support abolishing the department,” Frey said.Many of the demonstrators who have been protesting across the country have demanded that big city police departments be defunded. Supporters say that doesn’t mean literally getting rid of law enforcement but say much of the money used to run police departments can be reinvested into social services, arguing that creating better lives for citizens means little need for a gun-toting officer.Opponents say they want people to ask themselves what happens when someone calls 911 to report a rape in progress or a murder or armed robbery and few officers are available.Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will be in Houston Monday to meet with George Floyd’s family before a funeral service.A Biden aide says a video message from Biden will be played at the service, but Biden himself will not attend.Floyd was born near Fayetteville, North Carolina, but grew up in Houston, where he will be buried Tuesday.Biden got a huge endorsement Sunday when former Secretary of State Colin Powell said he would be voting for the Democrat in November.”I cannot in any way support President Trump this year,” Powell told CNN Sunday.He added that he is “very close to Joe Biden on a social matter and on a political matter. I think what we’re seeing now, this massive protest movement I have ever seen in my life, I think it suggests the country is getting wise to this and we’re not going to put up with it anymore,” Powell told Tapper.Trump shot back, calling Powell a “stiff” and “overrated.”Powell is another major voice from the U.S. military critical of the way the Trump administration has been calling for force to deal with protest marches against the harsh police treatment of black men.The National Guard will start pulling out of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, and other California cities as the violence by Floyd protesters has eased.Sunday’s marches in California were peaceful, but Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti says a “small number of units” will be stationed nearby for at least two more days in case of emergency.A group of primarily African Americans calling themselves The Compton Cowboys held a peaceful protest on horseback in some southern L.A. suburbs Sunday while a group of classic car fans held their own march in East Los Angeles.The situation in Oakland was a bit more tense when demonstrators tried to close down an interstate highway but backed down after a brief standoff with police. Another gathering painted the words Black Lives Matter in a downtown Oakland street, just like the one painted on a Washington street.Several hundred families, many pushing baby strollers, marched peacefully around a lake in Oakland. A similar march was held in San Francisco and thousands also gathered peacefully along that city’s waterfront. 
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U.S. Attorney General William Barr has justified use of force to clear Lafayette Park across the street from White House last Monday evening of protesters just ahead of President Donald Trump walking through the park for a photo-op in front of a nearby church.“They were not peaceful protesters,” Barr contended on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” show. “And that’s one of the big lies that the media is, seems to be perpetuating at this point.”Barr, the top law enforcement official in the U.S., said protesters were given three warnings to clear the park before police and authorities clad in riot gear advanced on them, firing pepper balls.The police action against the protesters came in the midst of nationwide protests against the May 25 death of George Floyd, an African American man who was held face down by a white police officer on a street in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes even as he said repeatedly he could not breathe.Attorney General William Barr, center, stands in Lafayette Park across from the White House as demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd, June 1, 2020, in Washington.Barr denied the use of chemical irritants such as tear gas in clearing Lafayette Park, although the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines the pepper spray that was used as a type of “tear gas” or “riot control agent.”Barr said the park was cleared because of violent clashes that had erupted there from Friday to Sunday a week ago, May 29-31, with police “under constant attack.”  “On Sunday, things reached a crescendo,” Barr said. “The officers were pummeled with bricks. Crowbars were used to pry up the pavers at the park and they were hurled at police. There were fires set in not only St. John’s Church (that Trump stood in front of Monday night), but a historic building at Lafayette was burned down.”After the May 31 clashes, Barr said, U.S. Park Police decided to expand the fenced-in perimeter around the White House, where Trump, first lady Melania Trump and their son Barron live.“When I came in Monday, it was clear to me that we did have to increase the perimeter on that side of Lafayette Park and push it out one block,” Barr said. “That decision was made by me in the morning. It was communicated to all the police agencies.”Tear gas floats in the air as a line of security forces move demonstrators away from St. John’s Church across Lafayette Park from the White House, as they gather to protest the death of George Floyd, June 1, 2020, in Washington.The attorney general said he saw projectiles being thrown at police, but added, “Here’s what the media is missing. This was not an operation to respond to that particular crowd. It was an operation to move the perimeter one block.”CBS’s Margaret Brennan told Barr that to Americans watching on television it appeared that the park was cleared of protesters so Trump, accompanied by heavy security and top aides, could walk to St. John’s for his brief photo opportunity with a Bible held aloft.“In an environment where the broader debate is about heavy-handed use of force in law enforcement, was that the right message for Americans to be receiving?” she asked.“Well, the message is sometimes communicated by the media,” Barr said. “I didn’t see any video being played on the media of what was happening Friday, Saturday and Sunday” of the authorities being attacked by projectiles.“All I heard was comments about how peaceful protesters were,” Barr said. “I didn’t hear about the fact that there were 150 law enforcement officers injured and many taken to the hospital with concussions. So, it wasn’t a peaceful protest. We had to get control over Lafayette Park, and we had to do it as soon as we were able to do that.” 
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Hundreds of peaceful protesters gathered near the White House on a sunny Sunday in Washington, the start of a 10th day of demonstrations against racism and police brutality that were spawned by the death of a black man in police custody.Many in the crowd walked along the newly named Black Lives Matter Plaza a short distance from the White House.  Early in the day, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter that as a result of peaceful protests on Saturday he had ordered the National Guard to start withdrawing 5,000 troops from Washington that had been called to the city to quell violent demonstrations that had erupted a week ago.  More than 10,000 people had protested peacefully in Washington on Saturday and there were no signs of unrest Sunday in a scene resembling a community street fair. Amidst protest chants, many in the racially diverse crowd Sunday stopped to pose for photos in front of a big cloth sign reading “Black Lives Matter.”Demonstrators protest near the White House in Washington, June 7, 2020, over the death of George Floyd, an African American man who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers.Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said no protesters were arrested Saturday. But she attacked Trump and his administration for flooding the city with federal police and National Guard troops in the last week to quell protests that at times became violent.  “What we saw last week was basically an invasion of our city,” Bowser told the “Fox News Sunday” show. “Active-duty Army troops moved from all points around the country to threaten our autonomy.”There now have been nearly two weeks of protests in dozens of American cities, with some of them turning into angry clashes between demonstrators and police and other law enforcement authorities. With tens of thousands taking to the streets coast to coast, they have been perhaps the most widespread protests since the extended demonstrations against the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War in the 1960s.The demonstrations demanding racial justice and systemic policing reforms erupted across America and have continued daily after George Floyd, 46, died May 25 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, when police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into his neck for nearly 9 minutes as Floyd gasped that he could not breathe. It was the latest of many deaths among black Americans while in police custody.The White House is seen behind a vehicle barrier, in Washington, June 7, 2020, the morning after massive protests over the death of George Floyd were held in the U.S. capital.Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder in the case, while three other officers who did not intervene have been charged with aiding and abetting the killing.Trump, facing a national re-election contest Nov. 3 against former Vice President Joe Biden, has at times voiced support for peaceful protests, but also demanded tough police action against rowdy protesters and told the country’s 50 state governors they were weak if they did not arrest more demonstrators.Floyd is being buried Tuesday in Houston, Texas, where he lived for years. Trump made a brief call to his relatives in the days after his death to express his sympathy, while Biden is meeting with Floyd’s family on Monday.In protests in cities around the globe, people of all ages and races have chanted in solidarity, “I can’t breathe,” which were among Floyd’s last words.In the U.S. capital, peaceful protesters marched in many neighborhoods Saturday on a hot and humid afternoon, as well as at the U.S. Capitol and along the National Mall.The Washington Monument and the White House are visible as protesters gather in Washington,June 6, 2020, over the death of George Floyd.Bowser spoke in the late afternoon to a large crowd at the newly designated Black Lives Matter Plaza, just north of Lafayette Park and the White House. Bowser had local artists paint “Black Lives Matter” in large yellow letters over several blocks of 16th Street Northwest.Bowser, who is African American, urged the crowd to be loud in demanding “more justice and more peace.”“I have a 2-year-old girl,” she said. “I want her to grow up in a country where she’s not scared to go to the grocery store, not scared to go to work.”Large protests were also held in Minneapolis, Miami, New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Philadelphia and Denver. And for most cities, many of which had seen violence and some looting earlier in the week, Saturday’s events were peaceful.But protests in London turned violent Saturday after protesters clashed with mounted police.The protest had started peacefully, but near the 10 Downing Street home of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a small number of protesters allegedly threw bottles at police, which led the mounted officers to push back protesters. One mounted officer was injured when she fell off her horse, the French news agency Agence France-Presse reported.More than 2,000 people gathered in Marseilles, France, for a peaceful protest, but it turned into skirmishes between the demonstrators and police, who fired tear gas and pepper spray.VOA’s Carolyn Presutti contributed to this report.
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday ordered the 5,000 National Guard troops brought to Washington last week to quell protests against the death of a black man in police custody to begin to withdraw, saying the national capital was “under perfect control.” “They will be going home, but can quickly return, if needed,” the U.S. leader said on Twitter. “Far fewer protesters showed up last night than anticipated!”  Demonstrators talk to National Guard soldiers as they protest Saturday, June 6, 2020, near the White House in Washington, over the death of George Floyd, a black man who was in police custody in Minneapolis.Even as he withdrew the National Guard troops, however, key former U.S. military leaders continued to voice their opposition to Trump’s reported threat a week ago to use as many as 10,000 active duty military troops to augment local police in Washington  against demonstrators protesting the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The death of the 46-year-old Floyd, who was held down on a city street for nearly nine minutes by a white policeman who pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck, has spawned nearly two weeks of protests in the U.S., some of them angry, violent clashes with authorities.  But tens of thousands of Americans protested peacefully in dozens of U.S. cities on Saturday against police abuse of authority against minorities, with few reports of clashes with authorities. In the end, 1,600 members of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division were dispatched to Washington but not activated to calm the protests.  Defense Secretary Mark Esper broke with Trump last week, saying that active duty troops should only be used as a last resort to quell insurrection in the U.S., a stance Attorney General William Barr told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” show he also supported.  Attorney General William Barr, center, stands in Lafayette Park across from the White House as demonstrators gather to protest the death of George Floyd, June 1, 2020, in Washington.Barr, the nation’s top law enforcement official, disputed news accounts that Trump wanted 10,000 active duty military personnel ready to take on protesters. Barr said he met with Trump last Monday at the White House after violent clashes in Washington on the night of May 31. “I was called over and asked if I would coordinate federal civil agencies and that the Defense Department would provide whatever support I needed or we needed to protect federal property at the White House, federal personnel” Barr said. “The decision was made to have at the ready and on hand in the vicinity some regular troops,” he said. “But everyone agreed that the use of regular troops was a last resort and that as long as matters can be controlled with other resources, they should be. I felt, and the secretary of Defense felt, we had adequate resources and wouldn’t need to use federal troops. But in case we did, we wanted them nearby.” He said Trump “never asked or suggested that we needed to deploy regular troops at that point. It’s been done from time to time in our history. We try to avoid it. And I’m happy that we were able to avoid it on this occasion.” Acting Homeland Security chief Chad Wolf rejected the suggestion that bringing active duty military personnel to Washington amounted to “overkill.” Wolf told the “Fox News Sunday” show that U.S. law enforcement authorities need to “make sure we keep all our tools in the toolbox.” But former Navy Admiral Mike Mullen, once the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, voiced his opposition to use of active duty military personnel to control demonstrations in the U.S. as Trump wanted. “We have a military to fight our enemies, not our own people,” Mullen told Fox News. He said the U.S. military could lose its bond with the American public with use of troops against protesters. “We could lose that trust when you don’t really need that force,” Mullen said. Retired Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, another former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, echoed Mullen’s thoughts, telling ABC News’ “This Week” show, “America is not a battleground. We have to be very careful in how we use our military.” He said the U.S. military lost standing with the American public five decades ago during contentious, often violent protests against the Vietnam War. “It took us a while to improve the relationship with the American public,” he said. “The relationship has to be one of trust.”  
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