Capitol Police kneel before protesters in DC as George Floyd protests continue nationwide

The ninth night of protests over the death of George Floyd came to a relatively peaceful end on Wednesday as crowds in several cities dispersed without aggressive intervention from police enforcing curfews.

In Atlanta, streets that were filled with hundreds of protesters during the day emptied out when a 9pm curfew went into effect. 

Similar scenes unfolded in Philadelphia, where the 7pm curfew was accompanied by a sudden rain shower that soaked protesters on their way home.  

In Washington, DC, hundreds of people remained on the streets as an 11pm curfew approached and a feeling of anxiety hung in the air between the crowds and a line of troops watching over them in riot gear.  

Tensions were higher in New York City, however, as several people were taken into custody and at least one police officer was injured when a scuffle broke out in Brooklyn, where hundreds of people were marching to Cadman Plaza. 

But thus far there has been a marked quiet compared with the unrest of the past few nights, which included fires and shootings in some cities while police resorted to forceful tactics including tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets to break up crowds.  

The US has been rocked by over a week of tumult since George Floyd, a black man, was killed in Minneapolis after white police officer Derek Chauvin pinned him to the ground by kneeling on his neck on Memorial Day. 

Floyd, who was in handcuffs at the time, died after Chauvin ignored bystander shouts to get off him and Floyd’s cries that he couldn’t breathe. 

His death, captured on citizen video, has sparked days of protests in Minneapolis that quickly spread to cities across America.  

Charges against Chauvin were upgraded to second-degree murder on Wednesday, and the three other officers at the scene were newly charged with aiding and abetting murder.

However, the news seemed to do little to quell the protests and unrest, which continued for a ninth straight day in dozens of cities including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia. 

In Washington DC, some Capitol Police in charge of protecting Congress took a knee as protesters shouted slogans, similar to other scenes that have played out across the nation.

While many view the gesture as an act of solidarity with peaceful protests, as police join in condemning Floyd’s in-custody death, others have criticized cops who participate as bowing down before protesters. 

President Donald Trump waded into the debate on Wednesday morning for the first time, retweeting a message that said New York City police were being forced to ‘bend a knee to terrorists’.  

Protesters in DC sent a strong message to police hours later as they lay face-down in front of the Capitol in silence.

Organizers asked them to stay down and stay quiet for the about same amount of time Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck. 

In the afternoon, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi emerged from the Capitol building to greet and mingle with the protesters. 

At one point the crowd knelt together as they sang ‘Amazing Grace’ and chanted: ‘We are not going anywhere.’ 

Meanwhile law enforcement officers in riot gear stood watch over the crowd, which stretched down 16th Street near the White House.

Mayor Muriel Bowser moved the citywide curfew back from 7pm to 11pm curfew after a peaceful night of protests on Tuesday.  

In New York City, the scene of massive protests as well as shocking looting after dark in recent days, the streets were calmed by afternoon rain showers.

However, as the weather cleared by 4pm, several large groups began gathering in Washington Square Park and elsewhere.

One group marched up 5th Avenue toward Central Park.

Storefronts in New York were fortified at new levels of security in fears of violence breaking out after dark, with companies adding razorwire and guard dogs to deter looting. 

A large protest march also occurred in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bed-Stuy. Some business owners in the neighborhood prepared by putting signs saying ‘black owned’ in their storefront windows. 

Meanwhile, city officials expressed hope that an earlier curfew and refined police tactics will bring the city closer to restoring order after days of unrest. 

‘Last night we took a step forward in moving out of this difficult period we’ve had the last few days and moving to a better time,’ Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

Gov Andrew Cuomo, who was critical of the police response on prior nights, said the city Tuesday ‘was much, much better than the night before’.

‘It worked. We got results,’ Cuomo said. ‘Let’s just remember what we did last night and keep that going.’

De Blasio rejected President Trump’s urging and Cuomo’s offer to send in the National Guard to quell the unrest, saying the NYPD was best suited for the task and fearing out-of-town Guardsmen unfamiliar with city dynamics could spark confrontations.

Trump warned that if the city didn’t maintain order, he would take the matter into his own hands, though he didn’t say what action he might take.

In Los Angeles, protesters gathered in Hollywood on Wednesday to voice their discontent.

Hundreds appeared to be peacefully marching near La Cienega Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard. 

The demonstrators blocked traffic at the intersection just before 1pm and each got down on one knee and took a moment of silence. 

Los Angeles County has ordered another overnight curfew, but it will be four hours shorter.

The curfew will begin at 9pm Wednesday and end at 5am Thursday. Previous curfews ran from 6pm to 6am.

A county statement says officials are assessing public safety needs on a daily basis.

A few municipalities in the sprawling county continue to have stricter curfews. Huge demonstrations in Los Angeles on Tuesday were peaceful, and subsequent arrests were only for curfew violations.

On Wednesday the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced that 60 people were facing charges for crimes during protests in the city over the past week.

Most of the charges were for looting, but others include assault and/or battery of a peace officer, robbery, burglary and receiving stolen property. 

The district attorney’s office said it expected more charges to be brought later this week.  

About 2,700 people were arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department between Friday and Monday, Officer Rosario Cervantes told CNN. 

It’s unclear how many of those arrests were linked to protests.  

On Chicago’s northwest side, a crowd of early-morning marchers was followed by a procession of honking cars in the Logan Square neighborhood.

The 8am march, which passed near Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s home, urged residents to ‘wake up’ to their protest of racial injustice and police brutality.

Organizers with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization and the Chicago Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression called for the creation of a civilian police oversight board.

Chicago Alliance organizer Frank Chapman also demanded that all prisoners be released from prisons.

‘Those are death camps right now, because of COVID-19,’ he said. ‘Free them all!’ 

In Boston, a large group gathered at the Boston Common on Wednesday afternoon.

National Guardsmen and hundreds of police officers were on hand to maintain order.

Organizers called for the event to remain peaceful.

‘Massachusetts needs to let America know we do not stand for racism!’ organizers said in a Facebook post. ‘We need to show support for our fellow Americans and honor human life.’

The organizers said the event would end at 5.30pm, noting the city has a recommended curfew of 9pm due to the coronavirus pandemic.  

In Philadelphia, hundreds of people marched nearly two miles from City Hall to Temple University in sweaty 80 degree weather. 

They reached their final destination and remained there up until a city-wide 6pm curfew went into effect and organizers encouraged them to go home. 

It came as Philadelphia authorities announced that they had arrested a 25-year-old man who may be connected to a string of explosions at 50 ATM machines since Monday. 

The state attorney general said the explosions were part of a coordinated effort to steal the machines or take the money inside.  

The man arrested is accused of selling homemade dynamite on the streets with instructions on how to use it on ATMs, though authorities aren’t yet sure whether he is connected to the coordinated effort. 

One theft resulted in the death of a 24-year-old man hours after he tried to break into an ATM early Tuesday, authorities said.

In Seattle, a crowd of protesters descended on City Hall, where police holding batons formed lines behind metal barricades. 

The demonstrators carried ‘Black Lives Matter’ signs and called for cutting the police department’s budget and shifting the money to social programs. 

They chanted for officers to remove their riot gear and knelt or sat together as they surrounded the building.

There’s been increasing criticism of the repeated use of tear gas and flash-bangs by Seattle police to disperse mostly peaceful crowds.

Mayor Jenny Durkan met with protest leaders in City Hall before meeting with demonstrators outside for a second straight day. 

City Attorney Peter Holmes noted that citizens had filed some 12,000 complaints over the police department´s handling of the protests.

In Montgomery, Alabama, a large group of demonstrators gathered at the state capitol building.

The large group marched from the Legacy Museum to the statehouse, where they gathered on the steps to protest against police brutality. 

They called for change and reconciliation. People of all ages and races, and members of the clergy were present. 

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Wednesday he does not support invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy active-duty forces to quell civil unrest for now, despite President Donald Trump’s threats to militarize America’s response to mass protests.

Trump said this week he could use military forces in states that fail to crack down on sometimes violent protests over the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis.

‘The option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire of situations. We are not in one of those situations now,’ Esper told a news briefing.

‘I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act.’

Esper’s news conference did not go over well with either the president or his top aides, an administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

To deploy the military on US soil for law enforcement purposes, Trump would need to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act – something last done in 1992 in response to the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles.

On Wednesday, the National Guard of Washington, DC, launched an investigation into claims that the Trump administration ordered a military helicopter to fly low as a ‘show of force’ against George Floyd protesters near the White House.

The helicopter, normally designated for use in medical evacuations, hovered low enough to create a deafening noise and spray protesters with rotor wash on Monday. 

On Wednesday, the commanding general of the DC Guard, Maj Gen William Walker, said in a statement that he directed the investigation.

The investigation comes as the federal government has promised to maximize its law enforcement presence in the nation’s capital. 

Scores of heavily-armed federal officers in tactical gear have been on the district’s streets for days, after demonstrators set fires, broke store windows and stole items from the shelves and left police officers injured.

The Trump administration has made an effort to show a use of force in Washington. Hours before a 7pm curfew on Tuesday, cars were being stopped at military checkpoints downtown, and a cavalry of armored military vehicles could be seen driving through the district. 

Mayor Muriel Bowser said the administration had floated the idea of taking over the Metropolitan Police Department, a proposal she strongly rejected. She threatened to take legal action if the federal government attempted to do so.

Two Defense Department officials said the administration had ordered military aircraft to fly above Washington on Monday night as a ‘show of force’ against demonstrators.