New York

The NYPD cracked down on Tuesday night by arresting more than 280 people and blocking 5,000 protesters from entering Manhattan by holding them up on the Manhattan Bridge while enforcing the 8pm curfew.  

It remains unclear if all 280 were arrested for breaking the curfew or if other offenses, like looting, were included in that number but it is a drastic reduction from the 700 that were arrested by Tuesday morning after a frightening 48-hour period that saw entire shopping districts in the city ransacked and ruined. 

The curfew was brought forward from 11pm to 8pm on Tuesday and has been extended until Monday morning – when New York City begins its phase 1 of reopening after recovering from being the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. 

In response to the frightening chaos that unfolded across Manhattan on Sunday and Monday night and growing criticism over the city’s handling of it. 

President Trump was among critics who said the city was ‘totally out of control’ and claimed the National Guard needed to be brought in. 

After scrambling to keep up with looters on Monday night, NYPD officers – who all had their leave canceled on Tuesday – were seen arresting protesters for breaking curfew on Tuesday all over Manhattan.

They blocked a huge protest on the Manhattan Bridge, stopping some 5,000 marchers who planned to enter the city from Brooklyn. 

After holding the protesters on the bridge for more than two hours in a tense stand-off, the protesters retreated peacefully back into Brooklyn.   

Some businesses, still unwilling to put their faith in the NYPD, have hired private security.  

Saks Fifth Avenue on Wednesday was surrounded by a militia of private, armed guards. They held  dogs on leashes and stood in front of plywood walls that had been reinforced with razor wire to protect the luxury department store. 

‘Anyone who is out and cannot prove they are there for essential reasons can be detained,’ Mayor de Blasio said on Wednesday morning, warning against anyone who thinks they can flout the curfew.  

Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday that the situation overnight was a vast improvement on the previous 48 hours. 

Trump claimed on Tuesday that the city was ‘totally out of control’. On Wednesday, he said the National Guard was ‘ready’. 

Gov. Cuomo was hesitant to call in the Guard as was de Blasio. They both said the NYPD could handle it in a better way.   

The calmer scenes in New York City were echoed across much of America where protesters once again turned out in force but the confrontations with police were subdued and widespread rioting was limited. 

It followed a day of anger from President Trump’s critics over the way he threatened to deploy the military to quell riots across the US and cleared protesters in Washington DC so he could visit damaged St John’s Episcopal Church.   

He also considered using ‘tanks’ or other armored military vehicles to help restore order in the US after violent protests broke out across the country for a sixth night, defense officials have revealed.

This morning the president repeated his demand for ‘LAW & ORDER!’, urged police to ‘get tough’ and responded to an image of a boarded-up Manhattan with a warning that ‘the National Guard is ready’.  

In New York, De Blasio moved the city’s first curfew since 1943 forward from 11pm but rejected Trump’s urging and an offer from Governor Andrew Cuomo to bring in the National Guard. 

Looters broke into Zara near the World Trade Center, Nordstrom Rack on 6th Avenue, fought with Guardian Angels at Foot Locker in the East Village and stores were also targeted in Soho again. 

As unrest continued for a fifth night, Trump called on officials to enlist the help of the federal government to regain control of the city.

‘New York’s Finest are not being allowed to perform their MAGIC but regardless, and with the momentum that the Radical Left and others have been allowed to build, they will need additional help. NYC is totally out of control. [De Blasio and Cuomo] MUST PUT DOWN RIOTING NOW!’ he tweeted.

Mayor de Blasio later defended his decision not to deploy National Guard troops, telling CNN their presence could have raised ‘a real risk of violence and someone losing their life.’

He also hit back at New York governor Cuomo who has been highly critical of De Blasio’s approach to controlling the riots. He said after Tuesday night’s chaos: ‘The NYPD and the mayor did not do their job last night,’ Cuomo had said at a briefing in Albany. ‘Look at the videos. It was a disgrace.’

De Blasio hit back:’He dishonored the men and women of the NYPD in an absolutely inappropriate way for any leader to do. Any elected official who blames the NYPD while they were out there fighting in the streets to restore order, protect ‘people — that’s disgraceful.’

He also confirmed Tuesday night saw ‘the highest number of police we have had over the last five days,’ but refused to say how many officers were on the ground.

As of 1am, police had carried out about 200 arrests across the city, with that figure expected to rise, CNN reported.  

Shortly after the curfew went into effect, De Blasio had urged residents to go home ‘so we can keep people safe’, but he was ignored by many around the city who continued protesting throughout the city’s streets.  

In some areas, police let people continue on their way, while making arrests in others. Demonstrators who had been on the West Side Highway in lower Manhattan were herded off, with parts of the roadway blocked off behind them. 

But as night fell, groups of curfew-violators and looters around the city were rounded up and handcuffed by officers before being loaded on to NYPD vans.   

Police began making arrests around 9pm and shut down parts of the West Side Highway in lower Manhattan, blocking it off to huge crowds of protesters. 

The police department had announced it would not allow vehicle traffic south of 96th Street in Manhattan after curfew, though residents, essential workers, buses and truck deliveries were exempt.

An estimated 5,000 peaceful protesters were also left stranded on the Manhattan Bridge for hours after NYPD officers formed a barricade blocking entry into Manhattan after the curfew came into effect.   

Videos shared on social media showed demonstrators chanting ‘let us through’ after reaching the end of the bridge. 

Some took to Twitter to say they were forced to wait for two hours before officers finally let crowds through. 

‘Currently stuck on the Manhattan Bridge. NYPD told us the would let us through ‘in 10 min’ – that was 40 min ago. They now brought in multiple vans to barricade us in from both sides. They are all wearing riot gear. We have been nothing but peaceful,’ one woman tweeted.     

Social media footage showed protesters finally began to clear the bridge around 11pm.  

Meanwhile in Chelsea, protester Jane Rossi said she witnessed officers rip a man out of his car and arrest him around 10.45pm.

The car was behind a group of several hundred protesters that had roamed Manhattan peacefully since leaving Trump Tower at 8pm.  

Tensions had risen moments earlier when some in the group began trying to damage a bike rental station and banged on the windows of a JCPenny’s. The vast majority of the crowd moved to stop the them.

Officers surrounded the car and arrested the driver moments later.   

‘They were just driving behind the protesters making sure that we were safe,’ Rossi told AP. ‘They were part of the protest.’

Just after midnight Wednesday, most of the city’s streets were cleared aside from police patrolling, especially in hot-spot areas for demonstrations in areas of Brooklyn and Manhattan. 

There was a heavy police presence in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights, where authorities say police fatally shot a man after responding to reports of shots fired. NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said the officer-involved shooting was not connected to the protests.

Looters also took to the streets to target businesses for a fourth night, with one video showing a group of men breaking into a Zara store. 

Footage uploaded on Twitter showed police tackling a group of looters to the ground as they emerged from a Zara store near Fulton St, before placing them in handcuffs.  

Merchants were seen boarding up storefronts in a bid to protect their businesses from looters who have targeted high-end designer stores on Manhattan’s iconic Fifth Ave, as well as the Macy’s flagship store.   

Protests over the death of George Floyd had continued across the city this afternoon, with large gatherings forming in Foley Square near City Hall, Times Square, Washington Square Park and Carl Schurz Park. 

Demonstrators marched peacefully, with some staging a sit-in near Carl Schurz Park on the Upper East Side, before chaos erupted across the city again after sunset. 

It comes as officials had been gearing up for another night of carnage. The NYPD earlier had also told cops to cancel any time off in a message sent to staff reading: ‘Effective immediately, all full duty uniformed members of the service RDO’s are cancelled.’  

New York courts had also warned their workers to stay at home because of the protest. 

‘The entire area around the courthouse complex will be shut down,’ District Executive Edward Friedland wrote in the email, obtained by The New York Post.

‘At the direction of the Chief Judge [Colleen McMahon], no SDNY staff are to come to the Foley Square courthouses tomorrow.’

One protest was scheduled to be held at 1 Police Plaza, the headquarters of the New York City Police Department, but organizers changed its location in order to not interfere with protesters in custody being released at the station, according to Patch. 

Further demonstrations in the city were planned at the Stonewall Inn and 47th Street and Broadway, in Manhattan, 98 Fifth Ave in Brooklyn, and Fort Totten and Far Rockaway-Mott Avenue Station in Queens. 

NBC reporter Phil McCausland posted to Twitter that thousands gathered in Foley Square Tuesday afternoon before they began a march north through the city.  

Before they started out, protesters took a knee, raised a fist and chanted the names of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor while helicopters circled overhead. 

As they walked north, they were saluted by medical workers holding signs that read, ‘Nurses fought COVID. Now we’ll fight the police.’ 

Workers putting up plywood to protect businesses from further looting also showed their support banging on wood and holding ‘Black Lives Matter’ signs. 

In Times Square, thousands of protesters took a knee while holding their fists up in solidarity. 

Other protests unfolded at Carl Schurz Park in the Upper East Side, as well as Washington Square Park where organizers planned to march uptown towards the mayor’s residence Gracie Mansion. 

Footage shared on social media Tuesday evening showed thousands marching peacefully, a stark contrast to Monday night’s protests. 

At Carl Schurz Park, photos showed demonstrators staging a sit-in and sitting on the road in silence. 

Around the country, last night’s protests were largely peaceful and the nation’s streets calmer – although tensions flared just before a 9pm curfew went into effect in Atlanta. 

Officers launched tear gas into crowds and were met with an onslaught of water bottles and fireworks before the crowd eventually dispersed. 

Tens of thousands gathered in Houston to pay a hometown tribute to Floyd, who grew up in the Texas city and is to be buried there next week. 

‘Today is… about George Floyd’s family – we want them to know that George did not die in vain,’ Mayor Sylvester Turner told an estimated 60,000 people. 

A tearful Roxie Washington, the mother of Floyd’s six-year-old daughter, told a news conference she wanted ‘justice for him because he was good. No matter what anybody thinks, he was good.’  

Elsewhere, the Pentagon confirmed that around 1,600 active duty troops had been moved to the DC area from Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Drum in New York to assist authorities in containing the unrest in Washington.   

Law enforcement met with some resistance as they tried to clear protesters from near the White House. A fence was later put up to stop protesters from getting too near to the President’s official residence. 

And in Los Angeles, dozens of protesters staged a post-curfew sit-in outside Mayor Eric Garcetti’s home. They held up their hands and chanted: ‘Peaceful protest’ while ignoring police orders to move.       

Revealed: Trump considered using military ‘tanks’ and ordered helicopters to blast protesters with their downdraft as hundreds of soldiers armed with BAYONETS are deployed to Washington

• Defense officials revealed Trump inquired about the use of military vehicles 
• President asked about ‘tanks’ or other ‘hardware’ that could help restore order   
• Trump also called for helicopters to blast protesters with their downdraft as a ‘show of force’ against demonstrators
•  Twitter footage showed demonstrators quaking beneath deafening gusts
• Hundreds of army soldiers armed with bayonets arrived at two military bases near Washington on Tuesday evening 

President Donald Trump considered using ‘tanks’ or other armored military vehicles to help restore order in the US after violent protests broke out across the country for a sixth night, defense officials have revealed. 

As protests over the death of George Floyd enter their second week, Trump has threatened to deploy active duty military across the country to quell the unrest.  

On Monday, law enforcement officials pushed hundreds of protesters out of Washington’s Lafayette Park, ahead of the district’s 7pm curfew.

A senior White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, revealed on Tuesday that Trump hoped to make the aggressive action in Washington an example for the rest of the country.

Two Pentagon officials also told AP that the president had ordered military aircraft to fly above the capital on Monday night as a ‘show of force’ against demonstrators.

They did not say how many or what type of aircraft had been mobilized.

Videos and photographs posted on social media showed helicopters flying low over buildings and hovering just above groups who were on the street despite a district-wide curfew.

Law enforcement paired the tactic with heavy use of tear gas, pellets and chemical spray as protesters marched toward the White House.

Trump’s tactics were decried on Tuesday by some fellow Republicans as well as his presumptive Democratic opponent Joe Biden. 

Show-of-force missions are designed to intimidate and, in combat zones, warn opposing forces of potential military action if provoked. 

Three senior defense officials also told The Daily Beast that the idea of deploying military forces was being pushed by the White House, not the Pentagon.

The sources revealed Trump consulted with aides about using military vehicles or ‘the kind of hardware’ used by the armed forces, to help bring the chaos under control.

One official said Trump did not specifically order ‘tanks’ to patrol the streets, but said he mentioned it in discussions because ‘I think that is just one of the military words he knows’. 

It comes as 700 soldiers dressed in riot gear and armed with bayonets arrived at two military bases near Washington on Tuesday evening, while another 1,400 are preparing to mobilize, as the nation’s capital braces for another night of chaos. 

Hundreds of members of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division were called earlier after Trump promised a more aggressive approach on the violence and riots unfolding across the country. 

Defense officials told AP the US military and National Guard were operating under the mission name ‘Operation Themis’ – named after the titaness of divine law and order.      

Moments after the historic Lafayette Park was cleared of protesters on Monday, Trump walked across to pose with a Bible in front of a church damaged by fire during protests the previous evening.

He hoped his personal walk to the church would send a message about how dominant force could restore law and order, sources said. 

‘D.C. had no problems last night. Many arrests. Great job done by all. Overwhelming force. Domination,’ Trump tweeted Tuesday, after a night in which heavily armed military forces and federal officers swarmed the city. 

Trump added: ‘(thank you President Trump!).’ 

In an evening address in the Rose Garden on Monday, Trump called on governors to ramp up the National Guard presence in their states to tamp down the protests.

 If they didn’t abide by those orders, Trump said, he would dispatch the military to their states – a step rarely taken in modern American history. 

‘SILENT MAJORITY!’ Trump tweeted Tuesday, embracing a phrase popularized by President Richard Nixon decades ago, in claiming broad support for his actions. Trump also emphasized the political importance of the moment to his supporters on Twitter and declared that ‘My Admin has done more for the Black Community than any President since Abraham Lincoln.’

The District of Columbia’s federal status gives the president outsized authority to act, allowing him to direct the deployment of the National Guard. 

He authorized Attorney General William Barr to oversee a surge in the deployment of federal law enforcement officers, including the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team and agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sought to distance themselves from Monday night’s events after former military officials criticized their appearance with the president. 

Senior defense officials told reporters the two were not aware that the Park Police and law enforcement had made a decision to clear the square or that Trump intended to visit the church. 

They had been in Washington to coordinate with federal law enforcement officials but were diverted to the White House to brief Trump on military preparations, the officials said.

Former chairman of the joint chiefs Mike Mullen excoriates Donald Trump saying his orders cannot be trusted, warning president will ‘politicize’ the troops and saying: ‘Citizens are not the enemy’ 

By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.S. Political Editor For Dailymail.com

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen broke his silence Tuesday to say he was ‘sickened’ by the use of U.S. National Guard forces to push protesters out of Lafayette park to make way for President Trump’s photo-op.

‘I am deeply worried that as they execute their orders, the members of our military will be co-opted for political purposes,’ Mullen warned. 

‘I have to date been reticent to speak out on issues surrounding President Trump’s leadership, but we are at an inflection point, and the events of the past few weeks have made it impossible to remain silent,’ Milley wrote in the Atlantic. 

Mullen termed Trump’s staged visit to fire-damaged St. John’s church Monday a ‘stunt’ that raised serious issues about the role of the military in U.S. society.

 ‘Whatever Trump’s goal in conducting his visit, he laid bare his disdain for the rights of peaceful protest in this country, gave succor to the leaders of other countries who take comfort in our domestic strife, and risked further politicizing the men and women of our armed forces.’

He called attention to ‘institutional racism’ and ‘police brutality’ in the wake of the death of Geroge Floyd at the hands of police, while also condemning street violence.

His op-ed comes a day after Trump declared himself the ‘law and order president’ and said he would deploy ‘thousands and thousands’ of troops to American cities to restore order.

Mullen said he didn’t have confidence in the orders Trump would give – and said it would be inappropriate to use the 1807 Insurrection Act as the basis for using U.S. troops to impose order on U.S. cities. Federal law generally prohibits the use of the military for domestic purposes.  

‘I remain confident in the professionalism of our men and women in uniform,’ Mullen wrote.

‘They will serve with skill and with compassion. They will obey lawful orders. But I am less confident in the soundness of the orders they will be given by this commander in chief, and I am not convinced that the conditions on our streets, as bad as they are, have risen to the level that justifies a heavy reliance on military troops,’ he added.

‘Certainly, we have not crossed the threshold that would make it appropriate to invoke the provisions of the Insurrection Act.  

The retired Navy admiral served under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama from 2007 through 2011.

Mullen’s successor as chair of the joint chiefs, General Martin Dempsey, also blasted Trump’s move. 

‘America’s military, our sons and daughters, will place themselves at risk to protect their fellow citizens. Their job is unimaginably hard overseas; harder at home. Respect them, for they respect you. America is not a battleground. Our fellow citizens are not the enemy,’ Dempsey wrote. ‘#BeBetter,’ he concluded, in what could be a take on first lady Melania Trump’s Be Best campaign.

The current chair of the joint chiefs, Gen. Mark Milley, was seen in battle fatigues accompanying Trump on his walk to St. John’s. 

Just minutes after Mullen’s article was posted, the Washington Post reported on the use of military helicopters with red cross insignia being used to show force to protesters was being called a ‘foolish move’ by Geoffrey Corn, a former Army lawyer.  

HOW TRUMP MIGHT – JUST – BE ABLE TO SEND IN TROOPS THANKS TO THE 1807 INSURRECTION ACT 

Trump’s dramatic declaration that he would impose troops on American cities if governors defied him sets up the possibility of an epic constitutional clash in a situation with little real precedent in American history.

Trump did not say what his power was, but it is the Insurrection Act of 1807. On the face of it, it allows him to send in troops.

But using that Act raises a series of questions about what courts would do – and even whether the armed forces would obey him. 

WOULD HE REALLY USE A LAW FROM 1807?

Basically, yes. In the 1790s Militia Acts, Congress gave the president specific powers to call up militias – the forerunner of federalizing the National Guard.

In 1807 the Insurrection Act made clear that, in addition, the president can call up ‘such part of the land or naval force of the United States as shall be judged necessary.’

It has not been changed substantially since but was amended in 1871, allowing the president to use it to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment – a civil rights amendment passed after the Civil War. 

Another amendment in 2007, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, made clear that the president can call up troops in the case of natural disasters. 

WHAT WOULD HE DO?

The law’s only requirement is a proclamation, to ‘order the insurgents to disperse and retire peaceably to their abodes within a limited time.’

Once that time has passed, Trump can move in troops. 

Trump also has to report to Congress on what he is doing and why. 

SO DOES IT GIVE TRUMP THE POWER HE CLAIMS TO SEND IN THE MILITARY ON HIS OWN?

The simple answer is yes, it does.

But the more complicated answer could lead to a constitutional crisis.

If Trump has a request from a governor to send in troops, there is no question over the legality of the deployment, at least at a federal level.

But to move in military force without a governor’s request, Trump has to show that the people of the state do not have the basic rights of the Constitution enforced as they are entitled to, or that an ‘insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy’ obstructs federal law.

If a state governor or attorney general goes to court to oppose the deployment of federal troops, they would argue that the protests and the violence do not deprive people of their constitutional rights in a way that cannot be dealt with by state authorities.

Trump would have to show that the state authorities are failing to give people ‘equal protection,’ the crucial clause in the Constitution which means that laws cannot be unfairly enforced.

The first clash would be in front of a federal district judge.  

That clash would inevitably have to reach the Supreme Court for settlement if one side or the other does not back down.

It would then become a multi-faceted constitutional question with little precedent in this or the last century.

It raises questions of states rights; the meaning of equal protection; the extent of First Amendment rights to protest and who decides what the limits of those rights are; and what the Founders meant about how a president can decide to act in an emergency.

HAVEN’T PRESIDENTS SENT IN TROOPS WITHOUT PERMISSION BEFORE?

Yes – repeatedly, but not with clear parallels to Trump’s threat.

The most recent examples were Eisenhower and JFK who used federal troops in the south on three occasions during the civil rights era. 

Each time they were used to enforce desegregation, first in Little Rock in 1957, then in 1962 in the aftermath of the Ole’ Miss Riot, where pro-segregationists clashed with federal forces.

Both presidents did so by citing the clear violation of the equal protection clause in the Constitution represented by segregation, and each deployment was to one state at a time.

No 20th century president ever deployed troops across multiple states without requests from governors, as happened in 1968 when troops were used in Detroit, Chicago and series of other riot-hit cities, all when governors became overwhelmed.

The last time a widespread deployment happened without governors’ permission was in 1894 when Grover Cleveland used federal troops to break the Pullman Strike, which was paralyzing railroads.

But he started by getting a federal injunction against the strike, meaning it was clear what legal rights he was enforcing with federal troops, even if the governor of Illinois – the center of the strike – did not ask for the troops to be deployed, or the governors of the other states where troops broke strikes and took control of railroad facilities. 

Additionally, no state challenged the invocation of the act. 

Trump would be the first president to try to deploy troops in the face of states going to court to stop him.  

COULD TRUMP BE STOPPED FROM USING THE ACT?

Yes – but it could be difficult to stop him in advance.

A federal judge would have to issue an injunction against the deployment, which would be appealed to the Supreme Court. 

Courts have historically been very reluctant to review a president’s military declarations, said law professor Robert Chesney of the University of Texas.   

Beyond that, it would ultimately be up to voters to remove the president at the next election if they disapprove of his use of the Act.  

‘Historically, the real checks on abuse of these authorities have been political,’ said Vladeck, the law professor. 

But this time might be more complicated – an injunction against deployment is a real possibility if a federal judge is being asked by a governor to stop a troop deployment because the governor claims it is unconstitutional.

That would send it to the Supreme Court and until it is resolved there, the deployment is likely to stay on hold.

The case would center on whether the Founders really wanted a president to be able to unilaterally intervene in the day-to-day policing of their states – over the objection of those states.

SO WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN AT THE SUPREME COURT?

A clash between a state – and probably groups of states – and Trump would have to go to the Supreme Court unless one or other backs down. 

The judges are a 5-4 conservative majority, with conservatives who say their key loyalty is to interpreting the Constitution as closely as they possibly can to the intention of the framers who wrote it.

That would put two questions at the heart of it:

• Did the framers think the president should be able to intervene unilaterally in the ‘police power’ of states to guarantee their citizens’ health, law and order
• If they did, are the circumstances right for Trump to do that?

On one side states might well argue that the founding fathers wanted federal government kept out of states’ affairs as much as possible, that the Articles of Confederation make that clear, and that the violence in their cities does not meet the high standards set for using the federal military.

They would also be likely to argue a practical point – that states have not had a chance to decide on whether to ask for federal help, or if they have, have decided against it.

And they would also be likely to claim that the 10th Amendment to the Constitution puts ‘police’ powers primarily in the hands of the states.

Trump’s case would center on the idea that the states could no longer guarantee the fundamental rights to life and liberty for the people of their cities, so it’s up to the federal government to step in.

He would have to argue that the founders’ proclamation of equal protection is the key to his actions. 

And he would have to argue that military action assists people’s right to protest under the First Amendment. 

Then it would be up to the justices in probably the most consequential decision since Bush v Gore in 2000.

COULD THE MILITARY DISOBEY TRUMP?

Quite possibly, yes.

The military swear an oath to the Constitution, not to the president, and acknowledge him as commander-in-chief. They have a duty to follow lawful orders.

If a federal judge issued an injunction again Trump’s order, the military would be expected to comply.

They would then have to wait for the outcome of the case.

The situation could vary state by state. Trump would order the military in to each state, forcing each state which objects to go to court and seek an injunction. There could be a  patchwork of deployments.

And inside the Pentagon, lawyers would have to work out what the rules are and whether Trump’s orders are lawful.

OTHER TIMES TROOPS QUELLED RIOTS 

Troops have been called in to help deal with violent unrest repeatedly since World War II – and even during it.

In 1943 FDR acted when the governor of Michigan asked for military help as Detroit was racked by racial violence.

As social unrest gripped the nation in 1968, Johnson had to send for federal troops to put down three further riots in Washington, Baltimore and Chicago. 

The rioting followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968 in a wave of violence which reached dozens of US cities. 

Johnson was able to deploy troops in Washington without invitation, as commander-in-chief of the District of Columbia’s national guard.  

In Baltimore and Chicago, the respective local leaders – governor Spiro Agnew of Maryland, the future vice president, and mayor Richard Daley of Chicago – requested Johnson’s help to put down the riots.  

In the most recent case, president George H.W. Bush sent federal troops to Los Angeles during the Rodney King riots in 1992. 

Military units were deployed at the request of California governor Pete Wilson after the violence which broke out when four cops were acquitted of beating King. 

Other uses of the Act 

Having lobbied for the Insurrection Act in 1807, Jefferson was the first to use it the following year to enforce a trade embargo during the Napoleonic Wars. 

Jefferson declared New York’s Lake Champlain on the Canadian border to be in insurrection because of its role in smuggling, allowing him to enforce the blockade. 

In addition to riots and civil rights clashes, presidents have dispatched federal troops to combat a variety of strikes and other brief episodes of unrest. 

In 1989, George H.W. Bush sent troops to keep the peace in the Virgin Islands after looting in the wake of Hurricane Hugo.  

His son George W. Bush considered sending troops to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but eventually decided against.

The Bush White House’s concerns about the legality of such a move prompted the 2007 amendment which specifically mentioned natural disasters.    

There have been other occasions where the military was deployed under different laws or where the mere threat of sending troops was enough to restore calm. 

Richard Nixon ordered the military to keep mail services running during a postal strike in 1970, citing the 1932 Economy Act rather than the Insurrection Act.  

In 1987, Ronald Reagan authorized his Secretary of Defense to call up the National Guard to quell an Atlanta prison riot, but the troops did not prove necessary.        

More than 200 protesters were arrested across New York City on Tuesday night after peaceful demonstrations over the death of George Floyd descended into chaos and thousands ignored the city’s 8pm curfew. 

Defiant demonstrators continued marching through the streets throughout the night on Tuesday, though some of the rampant destruction seen over the past few days was quelled. 

It comes as Mayor Bill de Blasio doubled down on a citywide curfew moving it up from 11pm the night before, but rejected urging from President Trump and an offer from Governor Cuomo to bring in the National Guard.    

As unrest continued for a fifth night, Trump called on officials to enlist the help of the federal government to regain control of the city. 

‘New York’s Finest are not being allowed to perform their MAGIC but regardless, and with the momentum that the Radical Left and others have been allowed to build, they will need additional help. NYC is totally out of control. [De Blasio and Cuomo] MUST PUT DOWN RIOTING NOW!’ he tweeted. 

Mayor de Blasio later defended his decision not to deploy National Guard troops, telling CNN their presence could have raised ‘a real risk of violence and someone losing their life.’ 

He also confirmed Tuesday night saw ‘the highest number of police we have had over the last five days,’ but refused to say how many officers were on the ground.  

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As of 1am, police had carried out about 200 arrests across the city, with that figure expected to rise, CNN reported.  

Shortly after the curfew went into effect, De Blasio had urged residents to go home ‘so we can keep people safe’, but he was ignored by many around the city who continued protesting throughout the city’s streets.  

In some areas, police let people continue on their way, while making arrests in others. Demonstrators who had been on the West Side Highway in lower Manhattan were herded off, with parts of the roadway blocked off behind them. 

But as night fell, groups of curfew-violators and looters around the city were rounded up and handcuffed by officers before being loaded on to NYPD vans.   

Police began making arrests around 9pm and shut down parts of the West Side Highway in lower Manhattan, blocking it off to huge crowds of protesters. 

The police department had announced it would not allow vehicle traffic south of 96th Street in Manhattan after curfew, though residents, essential workers, buses and truck deliveries were exempt.

An estimated 5,000 peaceful protesters were also left stranded on the Manhattan Bridge for hours after NYPD officers formed a barricade blocking entry into Manhattan after the curfew came into effect.   

Videos shared on social media showed demonstrators chanting ‘let us through’ after reaching the end of the bridge. 

Some took to Twitter to say they were forced to wait for two hours before officers finally let crowds through. 

‘Currently stuck on the Manhattan Bridge. NYPD told us the would let us through “in 10 min” – that was 40 min ago. They now brought in multiple vans to barricade us in from both sides. They are all wearing riot gear. We have been nothing but peaceful,’ one woman tweeted.     

Social media footage showed protesters finally began to clear the bridge around 11pm.  

Meanwhile in Chelsea, protester Jane Rossi said she witnessed officers rip a man out of his car and arrest him around 10.45pm.

The car was behind a group of several hundred protesters that had roamed Manhattan peacefully since leaving Trump Tower at 8pm.  

Tensions had risen moments earlier when some in the group began trying to damage a bike rental station and banged on the windows of a JCPenny’s. The vast majority of the crowd moved to stop the them.

Officers surrounded the car and arrested the driver moments later.   

‘They were just driving behind the protesters making sure that we were safe,’ Rossi told AP. ‘They were part of the protest.’

Just after midnight Wednesday, most of the city’s streets were cleared aside from police patrolling, especially in hot-spot areas for demonstrations in areas of Brooklyn and Manhattan. 

There was a heavy police presence in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights, where authorities say police fatally shot a man after responding to reports of shots fired. NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said the officer-involved shooting was not connected to the protests.

Looters also took to the streets to target businesses for a fourth night, with one video showing a group of men breaking into a Zara store. 

Footage uploaded on Twitter showed police tackling a group of looters to the ground as they emerged from a Zara store near Fulton St, before placing them in handcuffs.  

Merchants were seen boarding up storefronts in a bid to protect their businesses from looters who have targeted high-end designer stores on Manhattan’s iconic Fifth Ave, as well as the Macy’s flagship store.   

Protests over the death of George Floyd had continued across the city this afternoon, with large gatherings forming in Foley Square near City Hall, Times Square, Washington Square Park and Carl Schurz Park. 

Demonstrators marched peacefully, with some staging a sit-in near Carl Schurz Park on the Upper East Side, before chaos erupted across the city again after sunset. 

It comes as officials had been gearing up for another night of carnage. The NYPD earlier had also told cops to cancel any time off in a message sent to staff reading: ‘Effective immediately, all full duty uniformed members of the service RDO’s are cancelled.’  

New York courts had also warned their workers to stay at home because of the protest. 

‘The entire area around the courthouse complex will be shut down,’ District Executive Edward Friedland wrote in the email, obtained by The New York Post.

‘At the direction of the Chief Judge [Colleen McMahon], no SDNY staff are to come to the Foley Square courthouses tomorrow.’

One protest was scheduled to be held at 1 Police Plaza, the headquarters of the New York City Police Department, but organizers changed its location in order to not interfere with protesters in custody being released at the station, according to Patch. 

Further demonstrations in the city were planned at the Stonewall Inn and 47th Street and Broadway, in Manhattan, 98 Fifth Ave in Brooklyn, and Fort Totten and Far Rockaway-Mott Avenue Station in Queens. 

NBC reporter Phil McCausland posted to Twitter that thousands gathered in Foley Square Tuesday afternoon before they began a march north through the city.  

Before they started out, protesters took a knee, raised a fist and chanted the names of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor while helicopters circled overhead. 

As they walked north, they were saluted by medical workers holding signs that read, ‘Nurses fought COVID. Now we’ll fight the police.’ 

Workers putting up plywood to protect businesses from further looting also showed their support banging on wood and holding ‘Black Lives Matter’ signs. 

In Times Square, thousands of protesters took a knee while holding their fists up in solidarity. 

Other protests unfolded at Carl Schurz Park in the Upper East Side, as well as Washington Square Park where organizers planned to march uptown towards the mayor’s residence Gracie Mansion. 

Footage shared on social media Tuesday evening showed thousands marching peacefully, a stark contrast to Monday night’s protests. 

At Carl Schurz Park, photos showed demonstrators staging a sit-in and sitting on the road in silence. 

Hundreds of NYPD officers were seen lining the streets of Lower Manhattan as they watched protesters march on. 

Earlier on Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio was forced to bring the curfew forward from 11pm until 8pm after another night of violence and crime that saw looters pillage Fifth Avenue, Union Square, Madison Square, Flatiron and parts of Soho.

Upmarket fashion store Michael Kors on Fifth Avenue was among the luxury outlets hit, along with Nike and Lego. 

Since the rioting began in New York City, more than 700 people have been arrested, according to NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea on Tuesday morning. 

The citywide curfew from 8pm until 5am is in place until Sunday.

Six people were injured last night including a police officer who was run over in the Bronx and there were a dozen shootings but none were involving police. 

President Trump on Tuesday called on Governor Cuomo to take tougher action and send in the National Guard, saying the city had been lost to ‘lowlife scum’ and ‘thugs’.

The decision to send in the Guard rests with Cuomo and de Blasio but both are refusing to do it, saying the NYPD is better equipped to handle the situation even though they have lost control to crowds in the last 48 hours.

On Tuesday, Cuomo said neither the NYPD nor the Mayor did their job last night but he believes the situation will improve if the cops are deployed ‘properly’.

‘The NYPD and the mayor did not do their job last night,’ Cuomo said at a briefing in Albany. ‘Look at the videos. It was a disgrace.’

He said the mayor was underestimating the problem and the nation’s largest police force wasn’t deployed in sufficient numbers, though the city had said it doubled the usual police presence.

Unprompted, Cuomo brought up the possibility of using his power as governor to replace the mayor and deploy the National Guard over de Blasio’s objections, then immediately shot down the idea as legally impractical and unnecessary.

Police Chief Terence Monahan said he was ‘extremely outraged’ by the governor’s comments, insisting officers are ‘giving their blood to keep this city safe.’ 

‘Our guys are tired, they’re bleeding,’ Monahan told the New York Post. 

‘I think everyone you’re going to see is walking around cut up. But they’re out there again tonight. 

‘I’m watching my men and women out there dealing with stuff that no cop should ever have to deal with, bricks, bottles, rocks,’ he added. ‘Hit in the face with bottles and continuing to go forward to make an arrest.’ 

On Twitter, Trump urged a 7pm curfew and National Guard deployment in his native city.

‘The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart. Act fast!’ he wrote.

De Blasio has not said how many extra cops he will put on the streets, if any. On Monday night, the police presence doubled from 4,000 to 8,000.

People who are exempt to the curfew are essential workers – as defined by the COVID-19 lockdown rules – , the homeless and people seeking medical attention.

But de Blasio said the New York Police Department was ‘best equipped’ to handle the lawbreaking, arguing that bringing in the National Guard risked fueling worse conflict in a city on edge.

‘We will regret it if we bring outside armed forces,’ he said. ‘When you bring in people not trained for the circumstance but still with loaded weapons and put under horrible stress, really bad things happen.’ 

Ubers and Lyfts are considered essential as are yellow taxis and restaurants can still deliver food to homes if they choose to stay open. 

In the meantime, stores that were not targeted on Monday night have been boarding up their windows and doors in anticipation of more carnage. 

The unrest comes just days before New York City’s long-awaited planned reopening after spending three months in strict lockdown to battle coronavirus. 

In the week since, distress has erupted across America as Black Lives Matters protesters fend off violent responses from police forces trying to disperse them and looters and rioters cash in on the chaos. 

Thousands of peaceful protesters are once again taking to the streets of New York City after a night of looting and vandalism rocked the Big Apple. 

People descended on Foley Square in New York City on Tuesday afternoon and also marched on Times Square, taking a knee in the center of the iconic tourist spot.

It comes as the NYPD announced all non-essential traffic will be been banned across Manhattan south of 96th Street starting at 8pm tonight as the department gears up for another night of carnage.

And the NYPD has now also told cops to cancel any time off. The message to staff dated Tuesday reads: ‘Effective immediately, all full duty uniformed members of the service RDO’s are cancelled.’

On Tuesday in Manhattan, organizers made a last minute change to one of the protest’s location, which was originally scheduled to be held at 1 Police Plaza, the headquarters of the New York City Police Department. 

According to Patch, organizers switched the location in order to not interfere with protesters in custody being released at the headquarters, though that is not confirmed. 

New York courts had warned their workers to stay at home because of the protest. 

‘The entire area around the courthouse complex will be shut down,’ District Executive Edward Friedland wrote in the email, obtained by The New York Post.

‘At the direction of the Chief Judge [Colleen McMahon], no SDNY staff are to come to the Foley Square courthouses tomorrow.’

NBC reporter Phil McCausland posted to Twitter that thousands gathered in Foley Square Tuesday afternoon before they began a march north through the city. 

Before they started out, protesters took a knee, raised a fist and chanted the names of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor while helicopters circled overhead. 

As they walked north, they were saluted by medical workers holding signs that read ‘Nurses fought COVID. Now we’ll fight the police.’ 

Workers putting up plywood to protest businesses from further looting also showed their support banging on wood and holding ‘Black Lives Matter’ signs. 

A smaller demonstration gathered on Times Square where they took a knee beside the police station. 

Further demonstrations in the city are planned at the Stonewall Inn and 47th Street and Broadway, in Manhattan, 98 Fifth Ave in Brooklyn, and Fort Totten and Far Rockaway-Mott Avenue Station in Queens later in the day, according to organizers.   

Earlier on Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio brought the curfew forward from 11pm until 8pm after another night of violence and crime that saw looters pillage Fifth Avenue, Union Square, Madison Square, Flatiron and parts of Soho.

Upmarket fashion store Michael Kors on Fifth Avenue was among the luxury outlets hit, along with Nike and Lego. 

Since the rioting began in New York City, more than 700 people have been arrested, according to NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea on Tuesday morning. A citywide curfew from 8pm until 5am is in place until Sunday.

Six people were injured last night including a police officer who was run over in the Bronx and there were a dozen shootings but none were involving police. 

President Trump on Tuesday called on Governor Cuomo to take tougher action and send in the National Guard, saying the city had been lost to ‘lowlife scum’ and ‘thugs’.

The decision to send in the Guard rests with Cuomo and de Blasio but both are refusing to do it, saying the NYPD is better equipped to handle the situation even though they have lost control to crowds in the last 48 hours.

On Tuesday, Cuomo said neither the NYPD nor the Mayor did their job last night but he believes the situation will improve if the cops are deployed ‘properly’.

‘The NYPD and the mayor did not do their job last night,’ Cuomo said at a briefing in Albany. ‘Look at the videos. It was a disgrace.’

He said the mayor was underestimating the problem and the nation’s largest police force wasn’t deployed in sufficient numbers, though the city had said it doubled the usual police presence.

Unprompted, Cuomo brought up the possibility of using his power as governor to replace the mayor and deploy the National Guard over de Blasio’s objections, then immediately shot down the idea as legally impractical and unnecessary.

On Twitter, Trump urged a 7pm curfew and National Guard deployment in his native city.

‘The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart. Act fast!’ he wrote.

But de Blasio said the New York Police Department was ‘best equipped’ to handle the lawbreaking, arguing that bringing in the National Guard risked fueling worse conflict in a city on edge.

‘We will regret it if we bring outside armed forces,’ he said. ‘When you bring in people not trained for the circumstance but still with loaded weapons and put under horrible stress, really bad things happen.’ 

De Blasio has not said how many extra cops he will put on the streets, if any. On Monday night, the police presence doubled from 4,000 to 8,000.

People who are exempt to the curfew are essential workers – as defined by the COVID-19 lockdown rules – , the homeless and people seeking medical attention.

Ubers and Lyfts are considered essential as are yellow taxis and restaurants can still deliver food to homes if they choose to stay open. 

An active duty military police battalion is deploying to Washington, DC, as more protests against police killings of black people kick off in the Capitol, Philadelphia, New York and other cities on Monday evening, just hours after violent riots broke out across the country. 

Between 200 and 250 military personnel from a unit at Fort Bragg in North Carolina are on their way to DC and could arrive as soon as tonight, three Pentagon officials told CNN.    

The deployment marks the first time that the Army has been sent in to patrol US streets in nearly 30 years since the 1992 Los Angeles riots sparked by the brutal police custody death of Rodney King. 

The troops are expected to provide security in the capital but will not perform law enforcement duties such as arrest and detention of protesters or rioters, per CNN.  

Hundreds of people gathered for a peaceful demonstration near the White House on Monday evening as President Donald Trump gave brief remarks in the Rose Garden. 

Trump told reporters his administration is ‘fully committed’ to serving justice for George Floyd, but said he believed the looters and violent protests are distracting from that goal. 

He declared himself the ‘president of law and order’ and threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to mobilize ‘thousands and thousands’ of soldiers around the country to ‘end riots and lawlessness’.  

While Trump spoke, police were heard firing tear gas and deploying flash bangs in an effort to disperse protesters chanting: ‘Don’t shoot’ in Lafayette Park outside the White House.  

Meanwhile, police and protesters in Philadelphia clashed on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway as officers used tear gas and sprayed chemicals into the crowds, causing them to scatter.  

And in New York City, large crowds convened in Times Square, with many protesters lying on the ground or kneeling with their arms behind their backs in a powerful message to law enforcement.    

The US has been rocked by six straight nights of tumult since George Floyd, a black man, was killed in Minneapolis after a white police officer pinned him to the ground by kneeling on his neck last Monday.  

Floyd, who was in handcuffs at the time, died after the white officer 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.  

Speaking in the Rose Garden on Monday, Trump said: ‘All Americans were rightly sickened and revolted by the brutal death of George Floyd.

‘My administration is fully committed that for judge and his family, justice will be served. He will not have died in vain. 

‘But we cannot allow the righteous cries of peaceful protesters to be drowned out by an angry mob. The biggest victims of the rioting is peace loving citizens in our poorest communities. And as their president, I will fight to keep them safe. I will fight to protect you.

‘I am your president of law and order and an ally of all peaceful protesters. but in recent days, our nation has been gripped by professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters, Antifa and others.’ 

He then revealed his intention to invoke the Insurrection Act, saying: ‘I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them. I am also taking swift and decisive action to protect our great capitol, Washington, DC. What happened in this city last night was a total disgrace.’ 

‘Those who threaten innocent life and property will be arrested, detained and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I want the organizers of this terror to be on notice that you will face severe criminal penalties and lengthy sentences in jail.’

While many of the demonstrations around the country have been peaceful protests by racially diverse crowds, others have descended into violence – despite curfews in many cities across the US and the deployment of thousands of National Guard members over the past week. 

In Minneapolis on Monday, Floyd’s brother, Terrence, pleaded for peace at the site where the black man was pinned to the pavement by officer Derek Chauvin, saying violence is ‘not going to bring my brother back at all’. 

‘Let’s switch it up ya’ll. Let’s switch it up. Do this peacefully, please,’ Terrence Floyd said. 

The crowd chanted: ‘What’s his name? George Floyd!’ and ‘One down, three to go!’ in reference to the four officers involved in Floyd’s arrest. 

Chauvin has been charged with murder, but protesters are demanding that his colleagues be prosecuted too. All four were fired. 

Monday’s Minneapolis gathering was part rally and part impromptu eulogy as Floyd urged people to stop the violence and use their power at the ballot box.

‘If I’m not over here messing up my community, then what are you all doing?’ he said. 

‘You all are doing nothing. Because that’s not going to bring my brother back at all.’ 

The country has been beset by angry demonstrations for the past week in some of the most widespread racial unrest in the US since the 1960s. 

Spurred in part by Floyd’s death, protesters have taken to the streets to decry the killings of black people by police.

While police in some places tried to calm tensions by kneeling or marching in solidarity, officers elsewhere were accused of treating protesters with the same kind of heavy-handed tactics that contributed to the unrest in the first place.  

Around the country, political leaders girded for the possibility of more of what unfolded over the weekend: protesters hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails at police in Philadelphia, setting a fire near the White House and smashing their way into Los Angeles stores, running off with as much as they could carry.

At least 4,400 people have been arrested for offenses such as stealing, blocking highways and breaking curfew.

President Trump has berated most of the nation’s governors as ‘weak’ for not cracking down harder on the lawlessness that has convulsed cities from coast to coast.  

He told the nation’s governors in a video conference that they they ‘look like fools’ for not deploying even more National Guard members. 

‘Most of you are weak,’ he said.

‘You’ve got to arrest people, you have to track people, you have to put them in jail for 10 years and you’ll never see this stuff again.’

Over the weekend the Pentagon reportedly took the rare step of ordering the Army to put several active-duty US military police units on the ready to deploy to Minneapolis.

Soldiers from Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Drum in New York had been ordered to be ready to deploy within four hours if called, according to three people with direct knowledge of the orders. 

Soldiers in Fort Carson, in Colorado, and Fort Riley in Kansas were also told to be ready within 24 hours. 

The people did not want their names used because they were not authorized to discuss the preparations.

The get-ready orders were sent verbally on Friday, after Trump asked Defense Secretary Mark Esper for military options to help quell the unrest in Minneapolis after protests descended into looting and arson in some parts of the city.

Trump made the request on a phone call from the Oval Office on Thursday night that included Esper, National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien and several others.

The president asked Esper for rapid deployment options if the Minneapolis protests continued to spiral out of control, according to one of the people, senior Pentagon official who was on the call.

‘When the White House asks for options, someone opens the drawer and pulls them out so to speak,’ the official said.

The person said the military units would be deployed under the Insurrection Act, which was last used in 1992 during the riots in Los Angeles that followed the Rodney King trial. 

Roughly 800 US soldiers would deploy to the city if called.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz ordered 500 of his National Guard troops into Minneapolis, St Paul, and surrounding communities.

But a Pentagon spokesman said Walz did not ask for the Army to be deployed to his state.

‘The Department has been in touch with the Governor and there is no request for Title 10 forces to support the Minnesota National Guard or state law enforcement.’ Title 10 is the US law that governs the armed forces, and would authorize active duty military to operate within the US.

Active-duty forces are normally prohibited from acting as a domestic law enforcement agency. But the Insurrection Act offers an exception.

The Insurrection Act will allow the military to take up a policing authority it otherwise would not be allowed to do, enforcing state and federal laws, said Stephen Vladeck, a University of Texas School of Law professor who specializes in constitutional and national security law.

The statute ‘is deliberately vague’ when it comes to the instances in which the Insurrection Act could be used, he said. 

The state’s governor could ask Trump to take action or Trump could act on his own authority if he’s determined that the local authorities are so overwhelmed that they can’t adequately enforce the law, Vladeck said.

‘It is a very, very broad grant of authority for the president,’ he added. 

Former President Barack Obama on Monday condemned the use of violence at nationwide protests over racial inequities and excessive police force while praising the actions of peaceful protesters seeking reform. 

The vast majority of protesters have been peaceful, but a ‘small minority’ were putting people at risk and harming the very communities the protests are intended to help, Obama wrote in an online essay posted on Medium. 

Obama said the violence was ‘compounding the destruction of neighborhoods that are often already short on services and investment and detracting from the larger cause.’ 

Obama’s latest remarks came three days after his first comments on the Floyd case, which called for justice but did not mention the violent nature of some protests. 

His shift in tone on Monday came as some protesters have set fires, smashed windows and looted stores, forcing mayors in large cities to impose nighttime curfews. 

An active duty military police battalion is deploying to Washington, DC, as more protests against police killings of black people kick off in the Capitol, Philadelphia, New York and other cities on Monday evening, just hours after violent riots broke out across the country. 

Between 200 and 250 military personnel from a unit at Fort Bragg in North Carolina are on their way to DC and could arrive as soon as tonight, three Pentagon officials told CNN.    

The deployment marks the first time that the Army has been sent in to patrol US streets in nearly 30 years since the 1992 Los Angeles riots sparked by the brutal police custody death of Rodney King. 

The troops are expected to provide security in the capital but will not perform law enforcement duties such as arrest and detention of protesters or rioters, per CNN.  

Hundreds of people gathered for a peaceful demonstration near the White House on Monday evening as President Donald Trump gave brief remarks in the Rose Garden. 

Trump told reporters his administration is ‘fully committed’ to serving justice for George Floyd, but said he believed the looters and violent protests are distracting from that goal. 

He declared himself the ‘president of law and order’ and threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 to mobilize ‘thousands and thousands’ of soldiers around the country to ‘end riots and lawlessness’.  

Just before Trump spoke, police began firing tear gas and deploying flash bangs in an effort to disperse protesters chanting: ‘Don’t shoot’ in Lafayette Park outside the White House.  

Meanwhile, police and protesters in Philadelphia clashed on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway as officers used tear gas and sprayed chemicals into the crowds, causing them to scatter.  

And in New York City, large crowds convened in Times Square, with many protesters lying on the ground or kneeling with their arms behind their backs in a powerful message to law enforcement.    

The US has been rocked by six straight nights of tumult since George Floyd, a black man, was killed in Minneapolis after a white police officer pinned him to the ground by kneeling on his neck last Monday.  

Floyd, who was in handcuffs at the time, died after the white officer 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.  

Speaking in the Rose Garden on Monday, Trump said: ‘All Americans were rightly sickened and revolted by the brutal death of George Floyd.

‘My administration is fully committed that for judge and his family, justice will be served. He will not have died in vain. 

‘But we cannot allow the righteous cries of peaceful protesters to be drowned out by an angry mob. The biggest victims of the rioting is peace loving citizens in our poorest communities. And as their president, I will fight to keep them safe. I will fight to protect you.

‘I am your president of law and order and an ally of all peaceful protesters. but in recent days, our nation has been gripped by professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters, Antifa and others.’ 

He then revealed his intention to invoke the Insurrection Act, saying: ‘I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them. I am also taking swift and decisive action to protect our great capitol, Washington, DC. What happened in this city last night was a total disgrace.’ 

‘Those who threaten innocent life and property will be arrested, detained and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I want the organizers of this terror to be on notice that you will face severe criminal penalties and lengthy sentences in jail.’

While many of the demonstrations around the country have been peaceful protests by racially diverse crowds, others have descended into violence – despite curfews in many cities across the US and the deployment of thousands of National Guard members over the past week. 

In Minneapolis on Monday, Floyd’s brother, Terrence, pleaded for peace at the site where the black man was pinned to the pavement by officer Derek Chauvin, saying violence is ‘not going to bring my brother back at all’. 

‘Let’s switch it up ya’ll. Let’s switch it up. Do this peacefully, please,’ Terrence Floyd said. 

The crowd chanted: ‘What’s his name? George Floyd!’ and ‘One down, three to go!’ in reference to the four officers involved in Floyd’s arrest. 

Chauvin has been charged with murder, but protesters are demanding that his colleagues be prosecuted too. All four were fired. 

Monday’s Minneapolis gathering was part rally and part impromptu eulogy as Floyd urged people to stop the violence and use their power at the ballot box.

‘If I’m not over here messing up my community, then what are you all doing?’ he said. 

‘You all are doing nothing. Because that’s not going to bring my brother back at all.’ 

The country has been beset by angry demonstrations for the past week in some of the most widespread racial unrest in the US since the 1960s. 

Spurred in part by Floyd’s death, protesters have taken to the streets to decry the killings of black people by police.

While police in some places tried to calm tensions by kneeling or marching in solidarity, officers elsewhere were accused of treating protesters with the same kind of heavy-handed tactics that contributed to the unrest in the first place.  

Around the country, political leaders girded for the possibility of more of what unfolded over the weekend: protesters hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails at police in Philadelphia, setting a fire near the White House and smashing their way into Los Angeles stores, running off with as much as they could carry.

At least 4,400 people have been arrested for offenses such as stealing, blocking highways and breaking curfew.

President Trump has berated most of the nation’s governors as ‘weak’ for not cracking down harder on the lawlessness that has convulsed cities from coast to coast.  

He told the nation’s governors in a video conference that they they ‘look like fools’ for not deploying even more National Guard members. 

‘Most of you are weak,’ he said.

‘You’ve got to arrest people, you have to track people, you have to put them in jail for 10 years and you’ll never see this stuff again.’

Over the weekend the Pentagon reportedly took the rare step of ordering the Army to put several active-duty US military police units on the ready to deploy to Minneapolis.

Soldiers from Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Drum in New York had been ordered to be ready to deploy within four hours if called, according to three people with direct knowledge of the orders. 

Soldiers in Fort Carson, in Colorado, and Fort Riley in Kansas were also told to be ready within 24 hours. 

The people did not want their names used because they were not authorized to discuss the preparations.

The get-ready orders were sent verbally on Friday, after Trump asked Defense Secretary Mark Esper for military options to help quell the unrest in Minneapolis after protests descended into looting and arson in some parts of the city.

Trump made the request on a phone call from the Oval Office on Thursday night that included Esper, National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien and several others.

The president asked Esper for rapid deployment options if the Minneapolis protests continued to spiral out of control, according to one of the people, senior Pentagon official who was on the call.

‘When the White House asks for options, someone opens the drawer and pulls them out so to speak,’ the official said.

The person said the military units would be deployed under the Insurrection Act, which was last used in 1992 during the riots in Los Angeles that followed the Rodney King trial. 

Roughly 800 US soldiers would deploy to the city if called.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz ordered 500 of his National Guard troops into Minneapolis, St Paul, and surrounding communities.

But a Pentagon spokesman said Walz did not ask for the Army to be deployed to his state.

‘The Department has been in touch with the Governor and there is no request for Title 10 forces to support the Minnesota National Guard or state law enforcement.’ Title 10 is the US law that governs the armed forces, and would authorize active duty military to operate within the US.

Alyssa Farah, the White House director of strategic communications, previously said the deployment of active-duty military police was untrue.

‘False: off the record – title 10 not under discussion,’ said Farah in an email response. No off-record agreement was negotiated with The Associated Press.

The three officials with direct knowledge of the potential deployment said the orders were on a classified system, known as the Secret Internet Protocol Router or SIPR for short.

Active-duty forces are normally prohibited from acting as a domestic law enforcement agency. But the Insurrection Act offers an exception.

The Insurrection Act will allow the military to take up a policing authority it otherwise would not be allowed to do, enforcing state and federal laws, said Stephen Vladeck, a University of Texas School of Law professor who specializes in constitutional and national security law.

The statute ‘is deliberately vague’ when it comes to the instances in which the Insurrection Act could be used, he said. 

The state’s governor could ask Trump to take action or Trump could act on his own authority if he’s determined that the local authorities are so overwhelmed that they can’t adequately enforce the law, Vladeck said.

‘It is a very, very broad grant of authority for the president,’ he added. 

Former President Barack Obama on Monday condemned the use of violence at nationwide protests over racial inequities and excessive police force while praising the actions of peaceful protesters seeking reform. 

The vast majority of protesters have been peaceful, but a ‘small minority’ were putting people at risk and harming the very communities the protests are intended to help, Obama wrote in an online essay posted on Medium. 

Obama said the violence was ‘compounding the destruction of neighborhoods that are often already short on services and investment and detracting from the larger cause.’ 

Obama’s latest remarks came three days after his first comments on the Floyd case, which called for justice but did not mention the violent nature of some protests. 

His shift in tone on Monday came as some protesters have set fires, smashed windows and looted stores, forcing mayors in large cities to impose nighttime curfews. 

Soho in New York City was ravaged by looters on Sunday night who smashed the windows of luxury stores like Gucci, Chanel and Bloomingdales to steal goods in a wild night of riots that saw more than 250 arrests, cops being injured and one man being shot. 

It remains unclear if those who smashed up the stores were part of protests against George Floyd’s death, or if they belonged to different groups and were merely taking advantage of the chaos unfolding across the country. 

Across New York City on Sunday night, more than 250 people were arrested. Six cops were injured, none seriously, and a man in his twenties was shot in the abdomen after an argument with a different group of young men. 

The man was shot at 12.30am at the corner of Crosby Street and Spring Street, a stone’s throw from the stores that were ransacked. He is in the hospital in a stable condition.  

NYPD cops in riot gear patrolled the streets and helicopters hovered above the neighborhood – known for its trendy restaurants, luxury clothing stores and expensive apartments – throughout the night. 

Similar scenes played out in cities across the country in a sixth night of riots and protests over Floyd’s death. The unarmed 46-year-old black man died on Monday in Minneapolis after cop Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes. 

Chauvin has now been charged with his murder but three other cops involved are yet to face charges. 

His death has sparked a national conversation about racism and police brutality amid a backdrop of a country that had already been shaken by economic uncertainty and public health fears caused by the coronavirus pandemic. 

Scroll down for video 

The looting in Soho happened on Sunday night as; 

• President Trump was whisked to a bunker while protesters descended on the White House, throwing Molotov cocktails and injuring 50 Secret Service agents 
• A protester was reportedly shot dead in Louisville, Kentucky 
• Mayor Bill de Blasio’s daughter was arrested at a protest in New York City 
• An armed vigilante in California pulled a gun on rioters who tried to hold up a bank 
• Across the country, peaceful protesters tried to stop violent opportunists from ransacking stores 
• In Louisville, protesters formed a human chain to protect one cop who became separated from his unit and outnumbered by crowds 
• Other cops dropped to their knees in shows of solidarity with protesters and some abandoned riot gear to march with crowds peacefully 
• In Minneapolis, a tanker plowed through crowds of protesters on a highway; he was then pulled from the rig and beaten by crowds 

On Sunday night, President Trump was whisked to a bunker as protesters descended on the White House. More than 50 Secret Service agents were injured in the clashes.

In New York City, the looters reportedly distributed goods to each other after smashing stores before police arrived. 

Dozens were arrested on Sunday night and more were still being taken into custody on Monday morning.  

Commissioner Dermot Shea said on Today that the entire weekend was ‘incredibly challenging’ for cops. 

‘Ninety percent of yesterday went very well. Five or six thousand protesters throughout New York City, less violence as the days before. The majority of the protesters were peaceful making their point.

‘When it got dark it got ugly and it got ugly quick. We had some violence, we had another incident of an individual with a Molotov cocktail in Brooklyn.

‘We had an individual, two officers in a marked car in Queens, a bullet hit that car. That’s clearly alarming to us. The looting. The looting turned very quickly in portions of the city, in Brooklyn, and primarily in Manhattan

‘There were hundreds and hundreds of arrests in a very short time in that area and some are still going on. It was a very challenging time for police officers,’ he said.   

An NYPD spokesman told DailyMail.com on Monday morning it was unclear whether the looters had come from out of the city or if they were planned groups who had nothing to do with the Floyd protests but were merely taking advantage of the escalating chaos. 

The New York Post cites witnesses who say they had a system whereby one group would enter the store and grab the goods then flee on scooters and bikes.

‘The looters have been going systemically from store to store. They had people go in, grab the [items]. Then had people on Revel [scooters] take off. It was hundreds of people,’ they said.

This week hundreds of protests have unfolded in at least 145 cities across the country as people gather in outrage over the horrifying death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed while in the custody of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Memorial Day.

The demonstrations have marked unparalleled civil unrest in the US that hasn’t been seen since the 1968 assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Trump spent Sunday berating his enemies on Twitter and demanding ‘law and order’ in Democratic-run cities, but did not appear in public and opted against making a televised address to calm tensions.

He has been abhorred for his early response to the riots. 

When tensions first flared in Minneapolis, he tweeted: ‘When the looting starts, the shooting starts.’ Twitter censored his post. 

The National Guard has now been deployed in more than 20 states and there are growing fears that the protests and riots will continue.   

Soho in New York City was ravaged by looters on Sunday night who smashed the windows of luxury stores like Gucci, Chanel and Bloomingdales to steal goods in a wild night of riots that saw more than 250 arrests, cops being injured and one man being shot. 

It remains unclear if those who smashed up the stores were part of protests against George Floyd’s death, or if they belonged to different groups and were merely taking advantage of the chaos unfolding across the country. 

Across New York City on Sunday night, more than 250 people were arrested. Six cops were injured, none seriously, and a man in his twenties was shot in the abdomen after an argument with a different group of young men. 

The man was shot at 12.30am at the corner of Crosby Street and Spring Street, a stone’s throw from the stores that were ransacked. He is in the hospital in a stable condition.  

NYPD cops in riot gear patrolled the streets and helicopters hovered above the neighborhood – known for its trendy restaurants, luxury clothing stores and expensive apartments – throughout the night. 

Similar scenes played out in cities across the country in a sixth night of riots and protests over Floyd’s death. The unarmed 46-year-old black man died on Monday in Minneapolis after cop Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes. 

Chauvin has now been charged with his murder but three other cops involved are yet to face charges. 

His death has sparked a national conversation about racism and police brutality amid a backdrop of a country that had already been shaken by economic uncertainty and public health fears caused by the coronavirus pandemic. 

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The looting in Soho happened on Sunday night as; 

• President Trump was whisked to a bunker while protesters descended on the White House, throwing Molotov cocktails and injuring 50 Secret Service agents 
• A protester was reportedly shot dead in Louisville, Kentucky 
• Mayor Bill de Blasio’s daughter was arrested at a protest in New York City 
• An armed vigilante in California pulled a gun on rioters who tried to hold up a bank 
• Across the country, peaceful protesters tried to stop violent opportunists from ransacking stores 
• In Louisville, protesters formed a human chain to protect one cop who became separated from his unit and outnumbered by crowds 
• Other cops dropped to their knees in shows of solidarity with protesters and some abandoned riot gear to march with crowds peacefully 
• In Minneapolis, a tanker plowed through crowds of protesters on a highway; he was then pulled from the rig and beaten by crowds 

On Sunday night, President Trump was whisked to a bunker as protesters descended on the White House. More than 50 Secret Service agents were injured in the clashes.

In New York City, the looters reportedly distributed goods to each other after smashing stores before police arrived. 

Dozens were arrested on Sunday night and more were still being taken into custody on Monday morning.  

Commissioner Dermot Shea said on Today that the entire weekend was ‘incredibly challenging’ for cops. 

‘Ninety percent of yesterday went very well. Five or six thousand protesters throughout New York City, less violence as the days before. The majority of the protesters were peaceful making their point.

‘When it got dark it got ugly and it got ugly quick. We had some violence, we had another incident of an individual with a Molotov cocktail in Brooklyn.

‘We had an individual, two officers in a marked car in Queens, a bullet hit that car. That’s clearly alarming to us. The looting. The looting turned very quickly in portions of the city, in Brooklyn, and primarily in Manhattan

‘There were hundreds and hundreds of arrests in a very short time in that area and some are still going on.

‘It was a very challenging time for police officers,’ he said.   

An NYPD spokesman told DailyMail.com on Monday morning it was unclear whether the looters had come from out of the city or if they were planned groups who had nothing to do with the Floyd protests but were merely taking advantage of the escalating chaos. 

The New York Post cites witnesses who say they had a system whereby one group would enter the store and grab the goods then flee on scooters and bikes.

‘The looters have been going systemically from store to store. They had people go in, grab the [items]. Then had people on Revel [scooters] take off. It was hundreds of people,’ they said.

This week hundreds of protests have unfolded in at least 145 cities across the country as people gather in outrage over the horrifying death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed while in the custody of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Memorial Day.

The demonstrations have marked unparalleled civil unrest in the US that hasn’t been seen since the 1968 assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Trump spent Sunday berating his enemies on Twitter and demanding ‘law and order’ in Democratic-run cities, but did not appear in public and opted against making a televised address to calm tensions.

He has been abhorred for his early response to the riots. 

When tensions first flared in Minneapolis, he tweeted: ‘When the looting starts, the shooting starts.’ Twitter censored his post. 

The National Guard has now been deployed in more than 20 states and there are growing fears that the protests and riots will continue.