This live blog is now closing. You can follow our continuing coverage of the protests in our new live blog:
Guardian US reporter Kenya Evelyn explains why the unrest sparked by the police killing of George Floyd could be a defining moment for racial politics in America, and how the coronavirus pandemic set the backdrop for the protests.
A black reporter from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was told she could not cover the city’s protests over the death of George Floyd because of a tweet, and now dozens of her colleagues, fellow journalists, her union and the city’s mayor are speaking out in support of her.
On Friday the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh and many of her fellow reporters at the Post-Gazette were demanding that Alexis Johnson be allowed cover the protests, sending identical versions of the tweet themselves and using the hashtag #IStandWithAlexis.
On Sunday, Johnson posted four photos that show trashed public spaces in the aftermath of a crowd.
“Horrifying scenes and aftermath from selfish LOOTERS who dont care about this city!!!!!” the tweets text says. “.... oh wait sorry. No, these are pictures from a Kenny Chesney concert tailgate. Whoops.”
It has since been retweeted over 50,000 times.
Horrifying scenes and aftermath from selfish LOOTERS who don’t care about this city!!!!!
— Alexis Johnson (@alexisjreports) May 31, 2020
.... oh wait sorry. No, these are pictures from a Kenny Chesney concert tailgate. Whoops. pic.twitter.com/lKRNrBsltU
Johnson confirmed to The Associated Press on Friday that she was told the tweet and the apparent bias it showed were the reasons she would no longer be covering the protests. She declined further comment, deferring to her guild.
Guild president, Michael A. Fuoco, who is also a Post-Gazette reporter, told the AP that guild leaders were appalled by the move. Fuoco said
We feel taking a black woman off the most monumental national story about civil rights in the last 50 years is punishment.
We have very few black journalists. Someone who has the contacts and the insights for this story, that is what you want.
Karen Kane, managing editor of the Post-Gazette, said in an email that the paper’s editors cannot comment on personnel matters.
Journalists from other outlets around the country and other unions were also speaking out in favor of Johnson, as did Pittsburgh mayor, Bill Peduto, who said on Twitter that her reporting “has been professional in journalistic accepted practices and integrity”.
I have first account knowledge of her reporting. She has been fair in questioning all sides. She has been critical of me & our administration- when it was necessary. Most importantly, she has been professional in journalistic accepted practices & integrity. https://t.co/Cg6YVBIxVo
— bill peduto (@billpeduto) June 5, 2020
The Pittsburgh Black Media Federation released a statement saying that to deny the African American reporter the opportunity to cover this news removes an opportunity for the Post-Gazette to present a more fair, nuanced, and informed portrait of what is happening in local communities.
Johnson on Friday thanked her union for going to bat for her and said she was crying from the solidarity that has been shown for her.
“Thank you everyone for your support and your words of encouragement, your actions”, she tweeted. “I am just ... wow.”
Okay. Now I'm crying 😭😭😭 thank you @PGNewsGuild for going to bat for me. Thank you everyone for your support and your words of encouragement, your actions. I am just ... wow. Thank you ♥️
— Alexis Johnson (@alexisjreports) June 5, 2020
Johnson’s removal from protest coverage was first reported by Pittsburgh City Paper.
The co-founder of social media site Reddit resigned from the board of the company yesterday, urging board members to replace him with a black candidate.
Alexis Ohanian linked his decision to the anti-racist actions taking place across the globe in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, and said, “I’m doing this for me, for my family, and for my country.”
I've resigned as a member of the reddit board, I have urged them to fill my seat with a black candidate, + I will use future gains on my Reddit stock to serve the black community, chiefly to curb racial hate, and I’m starting with a pledge of $1M to @kaepernick7’s @yourrightscamp
— Alexis Ohanian Sr. 🚀 (@alexisohanian) June 5, 2020
Ohanian, who is married to tennis star Serena Williams, said: “I’m saying this as a father who needs to be able to answer his black daughter when she asks: ‘What did you do?’”.
I believe resignation can actually be an act of leadership from people in power right now. To everyone fighting to fix our broken nation: do not stop.
He also said he would use future gains on his Reddit stock to “serve the black community, chiefly to curb racial hate”.
He added that he was pledging one million US dollars (£790,000) to Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp, a youth campaign around self-empowerment and interacting with law enforcement.
Ohanian, who co-founded Reddit 15 years ago, said he believes the board will follow through on his call to action. “The Reddit community is also asking for it and more. Exciting times seeing this level of energy asking for change (including from community itself asking for a hate speech policy).”
After a day of protests across Australia, Guardian staff have compiled some of the most striking images.
Tens of thousands rallied in state capital cities and towns to march against Indigenous deaths in custody and the killing of George Floyd.
The nationwide anti-police brutality protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd in the US have been marked by widespread incidents of police violence, including punching, kicking, gassing, pepper-spraying and driving vehicles at often peaceful protesters in states across the country.
The actions have left thousands of protesters in jail and injured many others, leaving some with life-threatening injuries.
From Minnesota to New York, Texas, California, Washington DC and many places beyond, from small towns to big cities, police officers have demonstrated just how problematic law enforcement is in the US, drawing condemnation from international groups as well as domestic civil rights organizations.
The International Crisis Group, which monitors unrest around the world, said the police had used “excessive force”. The UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, said: “All police officers who resort to excessive use of force should be charged and convicted for the crimes committed.”
Numerous incidents of police violence have been exposed in disturbing videos and press accounts in recent days, with little sign that police are adjusting their tactics.
Authorities in the US capital are expecting Saturday to be the largest demonstration against police brutality in the city since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Washington has seen daily protests for the past week and they have largely been peaceful, with people marching back and forth from the White House to the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial.
Those numbers are expected to swell. Army secretary Ryan McCarthy told reporters on Friday that local officials were projecting between 100,000 and 200,000 protesters.
Metropolitan police department chief Peter Newsham wouldn’t commit to a number but predicted it would be smaller than the one million people who attended the Women’s March in 2017.
It comes as authorities have sought to reduce tensions by having National Guard troops not carry weapons.
There were zero arrests during demonstrations on Thursday and Friday and DC mayor Muriel Bowser canceled the curfew that had been in place since Monday. She said she will decide on Saturday morning if it will be reinstated.
A number of DC churches and theaters have said they will open their lobbies so people can cool off.
Civil rights activists Rev. Al Sharpton said the Washington rally he announced this week was being planned for 28 August, the anniversary of the day Martin Luther King gave his I Have a Dream speech.
He said the August event would be a way of maintaining momentum as the legal process against the men charged in Floyd’s death is underway.
It’s going to be months, if not a year, before you even go to trial. So you can’t let this peter out ... otherwise you’ll end up in a year and people will go on to another story, and you will not have the public notice and pressure that you need.
Updated
Police have banned a third protest in Paris that had been planned for Saturday to condemn the action of police in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
Police cited a risk of spreading Covid-19 and fears of public unrest.
The police decree noted that social distancing regulations ban gatherings of more than 10 people.
Online posts called for people to gather on Saturday afternoon in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.
Paris police previously also banned two other planned gatherings on Saturday outside the US Embassy.
Updated
Protests have now spread right across the globe, with people marching in solidarity with those in the US and to call out issues of systemic racism in their own countries.
The rolling, global protests reflect rising anger over police treatment of ethnic minorities, sparked by the 25 May killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Demonstrations, however, have been limited by social-distancing curbs aiming at stopping the spread of Covid-19.
People are starting to take to the streets in Seoul, South Korea - it looks like all are wearing face masks and staying socially distanced.
Street march in support of #BlackLivesMatter and to remember George Floyd has started here in Seoul. Organisers telling attendees to keep socially distant. Police escorting throughout. pic.twitter.com/mDsEM4wObF
— Raphael Rashid (@koryodynasty) June 6, 2020
In Tokyo, Japan people marched in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, while also protesting against police treatment of a Kurdish man in the city who says he was stopped while driving and shoved to the ground, leaving him with bruises.
“I want to show that there’s racism in Japan now,” said 17-year-old high school student Wakaba, who declined to give her family name.
She and her friend, Moe, held a sign saying: “If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention”.
“No justice, no peace, no racist police,” the crowd chanted.
With pandemic restrictions in Bangkok, Thailand, activists were going online, asking for video and photos of people wearing black, raising their fists and holding signs, and explaining why they “stand united behind Black Lives Matter”.
The Thai protesters plan to gather on the video-meeting platform Zoom on Sunday and observe 8 minutes 46 seconds of silence - the period that George Floyd was filmed pinned under the officer’s knee.
In Brisbane, police estimated 10,000 people joined a peaceful protest, with many wrapping themselves in indigenous flags, calling for an end to police mistreatment of indigenous Australians.
In Sydney, a last-minute court decision overruled a coronavirus ban as several thousand people marched, amid a heavy police presence, chanting: “Whose lives matter? Black Lives matter.”
Rallies were also held in Melbourne, Adelaide and other Australian cities.
There has been a huge turnout at the Black Lives Matter rally in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland in Australia.
It is estimated tens of thousands marched through the streets protesting against the over-representation of First Nations people dying in police custody, and racism towards black people.
This is Jessica Murray, I’ll be steering the blog for the next few hours as the protests following George Floyd’s killing head into their second weekend - with action now taking place across the globe.
If you would like to get in touch to share your thoughts, stories or experiences, then please do:
Email: jessica.murray@theguardian.com
Twitter: @journojess_
Ben Doherty, signing off for the evening (I’m in Australia). But our coverage continues on its peripatetic way around the world. I’m handing over to my colleague Jessica Murray in London.
Thanks all for your comments and contributions. Be well all of you, and stay safe.
As this man’s friend says: “Magnifique!”
This dude trolling the police with Star Wars - Imperial March is exactly the Twitter content I am here for today...pic.twitter.com/zh5R7zm70c
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) June 5, 2020
Updated
The Guardian’s Laura Murphy-Oates, a Ngiyampaa Wailwan woman, is on the streets of Sydney.
The protest pauses to kneel in the streets of Sydney #blacklivesmatteraustralia #BLACKLIVESMATTER pic.twitter.com/Y7cycVvQND
— Laura Murphy-Oates (@lauramoates) June 6, 2020
For those internationally struggling with the Australian accents, the call-and-response chant is:
What do we want?
Justice.
When do we want it?
Now.
Updated
This is a powerful piece from Nina Robinson in Minneapolis.
In their own words: the protestors at the heart of America’s uprising.
Stacey Ray
How are you feeling?
Angry, disappointed, exhausted … but more than anything, just hurt. Because we all know somebody who’s been through the same thing, or we know somebody who could possibly go through the same thing.
I have two teenage sons, I have a brother, I have a boyfriend, a father. It just has to stop. This is home for me and seeing what happened to Jamar Clark [who was fatally shot in Minneapolis in 2015], seeing Philando Castile [who was fatally shot in St Paul, Minnesota, in 2019], and now seeing this right here – where we’re supposed to be “Minnesota nice”.
Jonathan McNeil Hardy
Did you participate in the protests?
I just got back to Minneapolis last night. You leave your city in one condition and then, you come back and it’s in two different conditions: one that you’re not used to but you don’t like seeing, and the other, which is just destruction. I’m frustrated. I just don’t want this to end, I don’t want it to go away – I want people to fight. I want people to fight responsibly, fight safely and fight without violence if necessary.
Kiyai Dorsey (left)
How are you healing?
This is our reality every day, whether people want to face that or not. And it’s felt worldwide this time. It’s just beautiful to see that solidarity everywhere else. It means a lot, for real. We just want to be heard. We want our lives to matter. You know, we want to be treated like everyone else.
Keta Daniel (right)
What is a message that you want to give to your community?
I want to give a personal message to all of my black community at this time: to take care of themselves and to take care of each other. This is really tough for all of us mentally. So don’t be pressured to be out on the frontlines, as much as we want to. Make sure to take time to rejuvenate and recollect. No matter what’s going on outside, it’s so important to do what makes you happy. Don’t lose that.
This weekend, journalists in a group covering the protests in Minneapolis were hit with pepper spray, concussion grenades, batons, and tear gas by Minnesota State Patrol. We had our cameras out, press badges on and were clearly identifiable as media. I ended up with 4 stitches. pic.twitter.com/pR3aoRDco3
— Ed Ou (@edouphoto) June 2, 2020
For all of its First Amendment proclamations, this is freedom of the press in the United States today. Poppy Noor reports.
Lanre Bakare reports that some of the UK’s most prestigious drama schools have apologised for not doing enough to combat racism on their campuses after being accused of hypocrisy over social media posts in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Some extraordinary examples of institutional racism cited in this piece.
Actor Dipo Ola, studying at the Oxford School of Drama, said there was a uniform experience for students of colour in drama schools: “systemic racism, from the top down”.
Ola said he was asked if he was “playing a slave” by another student when he appeared as Egeon in Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors; was regularly mistaken for another black student who attended the school years before; and had his concerns dismissed when he drew attention to the lack of BAME staff and dearth of plays written by playwrights of colour.
“When you brought it up, you feel like a burden,” he said. “You felt like you were causing trouble. When we talk about race we’re seen as overreacting. There’s always that tinge.”
The call to “defund the police” has become a rallying cry at protests across America this week, and some lawmakers appear to be listening.
Activists who have long fought to cut law enforcement budgets say they are seeing an unprecedented wave of support for their ideas, with some elected officials for the first time proposing budget reductions and divestments from police. Here’s what we know about the movement, and how cities and states are responding.
Updated
As nationwide protests hurtled toward a second weekend following the police killing of George Floyd, several cities and states are taking steps to reform controversial policing tactics, Maanvi Singh and Mario Koran report.
In Minneapolis, where Floyd died last Monday after a white officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, the city agreed to ban chokeholds and neck restraints by police and to require officers to try to stop any other officers they see using improper force. They marked the first concrete steps to remake the city’s police force since Floyd’s death.
The state human rights commissioner, Rebecca Lucero, said the changes were necessary to stop continuing harm to people of color “who have suffered generational pain and trauma as a result of systemic and institutional racism”.
“This is just a start,” Lucero said. “There is a lot more work to do here, and that work must and will be done with speed and community engagement.”
In breaking news, the Black Lives Matter protest in Sydney has been authorised by the NSW Court of Appeals. It is now legal (it was going ahead anyway).
News from the Supreme court, that today is a lawful assembly, has reached the protest. The crowd cheered when told they can march pic.twitter.com/9r9gpdFP91
— Elias Visontay (@EliasVisontay) June 6, 2020
On the streets of Sydney. The tweeter here is the local mayor:
This piece has just gone on up in Marrickville, thanks to artist @stuartsale #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd pic.twitter.com/0PxrmV6noE
— Darcy Byrne (@MayorDarcy) June 6, 2020
Updated
Good afternoon/evening/morning, wherever this coverage finds you. Ben Doherty with you in Sydney. My thanks to Maanvi Singh (and the roll-call of earlier colleagues) for their comprehensive work. I can be contacted by email ben.doherty@theguardian.com or on twitter @BenDohertyCorro.
In Australia, where your correspondent currently sits, dozens of protests in solidarity with the US Black Lives Matter movement are underway across the country.
Senior politicians, including the prime minister, have asked Australians not to “import” issues from overseas, but the movement here is seen as one not only in support of American demonstrators, but in protest at institutional racism towards indigenous Australians.
Indigenous Australians are grossly over-represented in Australia’s criminal justice system: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults make up just 2% of the national population, they constitute 27% of the national prison population.
There have been 432 Aboriginal deaths in custody since a royal commission into black deaths in custody in 1991, the Guardian’s Deaths Inside project shows.
Just this week, a NSW police constable was put on leave for slamming a teenaged indigenous boy - who was not threatening the officer - into the ground, by sweeping his legs from under him.
At the Melbourne protest today, 17-year-old Kyah Nicholson-Ward told The Guardian of the US and Australia: “it’s the same story on different soil”.
In Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, the state government went to the Supreme Court on Friday and won a late-night injunction banning a planned protest in Sydney.
The government argued a protest would be in breach of social distancing regulations imposed to halt the spread of coronavirus.
But protest organisers said they were going to march anyway, and a sizeable crowd has arrived at Sydney Town Hall in defiance of the court order.
Guardian reporter Elias Visontay is in Sydney.
Significant crowd gathered now. There would have to be at least 1500 people here now, a policeman here tells @GuardianAus , and the event is only meant to begin in 45 mins. pic.twitter.com/xM0h6o2kkv
— Elias Visontay (@EliasVisontay) June 6, 2020
Raul Bassi, protest organiser (red shirt, left), warning people to distance and be in groups of 10 pic.twitter.com/668GqWsbHa
— Elias Visontay (@EliasVisontay) June 6, 2020
In Brisbane, the capital of the state of Queensland.
The difference between 2 states. NSW deputy premier says protesters at Black Lives Matter rally should be arrested. In Qld, police are handing out face masks. @abcnews @abcbrisbane pic.twitter.com/UaF84ndin1
— Jessica van Vonderen (@jessvanvonderen) June 6, 2020
The news helicopter has gone up. Here's how the Brisbane Black Lives Matter rally looks from the air. Huge crowd. @abcnews @abcbrisbane pic.twitter.com/mSCkte5anO
— Jessica van Vonderen (@jessvanvonderen) June 6, 2020
A huge Aboriginal flag has been hung out over Brisbane's Goodwill Bridge @abcnews @abcbrisbane pic.twitter.com/kiCRlJACoj
— Jessica van Vonderen (@jessvanvonderen) June 6, 2020
- Protests continued across the country. Medical professionals rallied in New York, demonstrators gathered at the shores of the Mississippi River in New Orleans, and knelt outside the Walgreens where police killed a 22-year-old amid protests this week in Vallejo, California.
- The NFL commissioner Roger Goodell admitted that the organization was wrong for not letting players peacefully protest. Calls mounted for the orgnaization to formally apologize to Colin Kaepernick, who was sidelined after leading protests against police brutality in 2016.
- Seattle has temporarily banned the use of teargas. A federal judge in Denver has blocked the police department from indiscriminately deploying chemical weapons and projectiles against peaceful protestors. And California’s governor has called for a statewide standard for law enforcement crowd control.
- Minneapolis agreed to ban the use of police chokeholds in response to the killing of Floyd. The Minneapolis city council approved an agreement today with the state’s department of human rights, which also requires officers to intervene anytime they seen an unauthorized use of force.
- The DC mayor renamed the section of 16th Street in front of the White House “Black Lives Matter Plaza,” as tensions escalate between the administration and the DC government. Mayor Muriel Bowser has also asked Trump to remove all “extraordinary” law enforcement officers. But Black Lives Matters called on Bowser to do more to address the issue of overpolicing — her current proposed budget increases funding for traditional policing and cuts funds from community programs to reduce violence.
- The entire Buffalo police department’s emergency response team has reportedly resigned from the team after two colleagues were suspended without pay for pushing a 75-year-old man who was protesting the killing of Floyd. The 57 officers will still by employed by BPD but will no longer serve on the emergency response team. The elderly protester has been hospitalized and is said to be in stable condition.
- Trump’s comment that this is a “great day” for George Floyd sparked outrage. Trump made the comment during a nearly hour-long event in the Rose Garden this afternoon, which mainly consisted of him boasting about the new jobs report. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said the remark, which came less than two weeks after Floyd was killed while in police custody, was “despicable.”
- The US unemployment rate surprisingly dropped to 13.3% in May, according to the jobs report released this morning.But the actual number may be higher due to an error.
I’m signing off, but my colleague Ben Doherty will continue providing live updates.
Updated
Earlier, it seemed the unemployment rate in the US had dropped to 13.3% in May according to the jobs report released this morning, which seemed to be a hopeful sign. But the actual rate may be higher.
The official jobs report included a note at the bottom saying there had been an “error”.
“BLS and the Census Bureau are investigating why this misclassification error continues to occur and are taking additional steps to address the issue,” the note reads.
Updated
Donald Trump appears to have crossed a new milestone in his presidency:
Trump has now posted an unfathomable 200 tweets or retweets today -- the most of any day of his presidency
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 6, 2020
Federal judge in Denver blocks police from using chemical agents against peaceful protestors
In the ruling, judge R Brooke Jackson called the actions of some law enforcement officers in Denver and across the nation “disgusting”.
“The Denver Police Department has failed in its duty to police its own,” Jackson wrote.
The order asks law enforcement to warn protesters to disperse before firing teargas and pepper spray and ceasing the indiscriminate use of non- or less-lethal projectiles.
Among the most striking lines in the order: “If a store’s windows must be broken to prevent a protestor’s facial bones from being broken or eye being permanently damaged, that is more than a fair trade. If a building must be graffiti-ed to prevent the suppression of free speech, that is a fair trade.”
The ruling came after protesters filed a lawsuit asking for a temporary restraining order against aggressive police crowd control.
Updated
In Vallejo, California, where a police officer shot and killed Sean Monterrosa, an unarmed 22-year-old, amid protests this week, demonstrators gathered at the Walgreens where Monterrosa died.
The scene at Walgreens in Vallejo where a VPD officer killed #SeanMonterrosa pic.twitter.com/kneRj85Tg4
— Brian Krans (@citizenkrans) June 6, 2020
Read more about Monterrosa, and the Vallejo police department, which activists have long described as out of control, from my colleague Sam Levin:
Updated
Joe Biden’s statement as he clinches the nomination:
This is a difficult time in America’s history. And Donald Trump’s angry, divisive politics is no answer. The country is crying out for leadership. Leadership that can unite us. Leadership that can bring us together. We need an economy that works for everyone — now. We need jobs that bring dignity — now. We need equal justice — and equal opportunities — for every American now. We need a president who cares about helping us heal — now
It was an honor to compete alongside one of the most talented groups of candidates the Democratic party has ever fielded — and I am proud to say that we are going into this general election a united party. I am going to spend every day between now and November 3rd fighting to earn the votes of Americans all across this great country so that, together, we can win the battle for the soul of this nation, and make sure that as we rebuild our economy, everyone comes along.
The spat between Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and the president continues, with the president claiming that it was illegal for the social media company to take down a Trump campaign video. Twitter said the video was taken down due to copyright infingement issues.
Not true and not illegal.
— jack (@jack) June 6, 2020
This was pulled because we got a DMCA complaint from copyright holder. https://t.co/RAsaYng71a
DC’s Muriel Bowser had this tweet, quite clearly aimed at Trump:
We turned on the night light for him so he dreams about #BlackLivesMatter Plaza pic.twitter.com/1hrKnfaE4h
— Muriel Bowser #StayHomeDC (@MurielBowser) June 6, 2020
For days, Bowser said she opposed the stationing of federal law enforcement and the military in and around the district.
This morning, local artist Rose Jaffe joined city work crews to paint a giant Black Lives Matter slogan across two blocks. Later, Bowser watched as a city worker hung a sign at the street corner just north of the White House: Black Lives Matter Plz NW.
But activists said Bowser needed to to more than rename a street. The mayor’s proposed budget increases funding for policing and cuts funds for community-based interventions to reduce violence.
This is a performative distraction from real policy changes. Bowser has consistently been on the wrong side of BLMDC history. This is to appease white liberals while ignoring our demands. Black Lives Matter means defund the police. @emilymbadger say it with us https://t.co/w0ekwSG1ip
— BlackLivesMatter DC (@DMVBlackLives) June 5, 2020
In Brooklyn, a reporter filmed police officers hitting a man with batons and shoving a journalist.
In Brooklyn tonight: https://t.co/ZfCYdAeodB
— U.S. Press Freedom Tracker (@uspresstracker) June 6, 2020
Later, a man who said he was a staffer for a state senator Julia Salazar or Brooklyn was arrested after he filmed officers.
A man identifying himself as state Senator Julia Salazar’s comms director (Michael Carter) was charged at by officers and is being arrested. pic.twitter.com/joo4RxH17J
— Alejandra O’Connell (@AODNewz) June 6, 2020
Some more scenes from around the country:
In Columbia, South Carolina, protesters gathered outside the governor’s mansion.
In Washington, DC, hundreds marched in the rain, in the area near the White House that Mayor Muriel Bowser today renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza.
Joe Biden gets delegates needed to clinch Democratic nomination
Although Biden has been the presumptive nominee since Bernie Sanders dropped out of the primaries in April, the former vice-president had yet to win the 1,991 delegates needed to formally claim the nomination.
Biden now has 1,993 delegates, according to the Associated Press.
Updated
Demonstrations continued on Friday in San Francisco. A major rally earlier in the week drew thousands of participants who marched from the Mission District to City Hall. Many walked on foot, others on horseback.
This time, it appears many have arrived on two wheels ...
Here come the cyclists pic.twitter.com/WTTpakjYoD
— Lisa Pickoff-White (@pickoffwhite) June 6, 2020
Updated
A coalition of criminal justice activists and homeless advocates have sued Los Angeles over how the police have responded to protesters following the killing of George Floyd.
The suit accuses the police of shooting a homeless man in the eye with rubber bullets and detaining people for more than 12 hours for curfew violations, the Los Angeles Times reports.
From the LA Times:
The suit — filed late Friday by the Los Angeles chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, Black Lives Matter and Los Angeles Community Action Network — accused the L.A. Police Department of violating many protesters’ right to assemble and using excessive force.
The complaint also provided new information about an image of a homeless man bleeding from the eye in downtown Los Angeles that had gone viral and been shared by many critical of the department over the last week.
Protests over the death of Floyd, who was killed while in Minneapolis police custody on May 25, have led to unrest that Los Angeles has not seen since the 1992 riots sparked by the acquittal of four LAPD officers in the beating Rodney King. While businesses were looted and buildings were damaged and burned in downtown, Van Nuys and the Fairfax District, activists said protests have been largely peaceful and police have focused most of their attention on arresting demonstrators instead of looters.
Updated
In New Orleans, demonstrators have gathered at the banks of the Mississippi River, as depicted here by a reporter for the city’s public radio station:
beautiful scene as thousands quietly make their way to the banks of the Mississippi for reflection #nolaprotests pic.twitter.com/F9ol1xzlkN
— Tegan Wendland (@TeganWendland) June 6, 2020
Although many local governments have lifted curfews ahead of this weekend, curfews remain in place in cities across the US in an attempt to quell the unrest over the killing of George Floyd in police custody.
The Guardian’s Vivian Ho reports:
The selective enforcement of the curfew orders only underscores the demonstrators’ message about law enforcement abuses, civil liberties experts warn.
The vague, broad language in these orders gives law enforcement leeway to pick and choose when to arrest someone for violating curfew, allowing for situations that are ripe for abuse, experts said. In some cities, this has worked in protesters’ favor when police chose not to arrest them. But when police enforce an order in some cases and not others, the order becomes an arbitrary tool of control that often appears to violate protesters’ constitutional rights to assembly and free speech.
“The amount of discretion and the ways these laws are written are perpetuating the same injustices that our communities are out there protesting right now,” Shilpi Agarwal, a senior attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of northern California, told the Guardian. “The thing that has inspired these protests and triggered this pain in folks is this flagrant abuse of power by police. The response to that should not be to further empower the police.”
In some locations, police have appeared to give certain people a free pass. In Salem, Oregon, the police chief was forced to issue a public apology after an officer was filmed Monday telling armed white men to duck into businesses or vehicles once curfew hits so “we don’t look like we’re playing favorites”.
Elsewhere, police have treated curfew deadlines as a “flexible tool”.
Updated
Here are some images of demonstrations around the country.
Medical professionals rallied in New York’s Union Square.
In Los Angeles, activists displayed the names of 1,000 people killed by LA county law enforcement since 2000. Protestors placed roses next to the posters, which were placed in front of thr Hall of Justice.
At least 100 cars joined a “Caravan for Justice” in Racine, Wisconsin, and protestors gathered near the county courthouse for a rally against police brutality.
Updated
In Washington, DC, demonstrators sang happy birthday to Breonna Taylor, who would have turned 27 today if she had not been killed.
Breonna Taylor would have turned 27 today. These protesters have stayed through torrential rain and are now singing happy birthday to Breonna in front of the White House. pic.twitter.com/AGwfEz3ZSk
— Perry Stein (@PerryStein) June 6, 2020
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said officers who taped over their badges or turned off their body-worn cameras would be stripped of their police powers.
At a news conference, she said:
We will not tolerate people who cross the line. We will not tolerate excessive force. We will not tolerate profanity and homophobic comments.
Officers who choose to do those things or to tape over their badges, or to turn off their body-worn cameras – all things that violate very clear directives of the Chicago Police Department.”
Her message to officers who use excessive force: “Shame on you, shame on you.”
Prior to being elected mayor, Lightfoot served as chair of the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force.
Lightfoot also announced that Chicago would open the city’s Grant Park and Union Park to accommodate demonstrators, and deploy 300 trucks to provide traffic support.
Updated
Attorney general William Barr said he did not give the order to have peaceful protesters dispersed with chemical agents to clear the way for Trump to pose for a photo in front of a church near the White House, though he supports the decision.
In an interview with the AP, Barr said law enforcement was already clearing the crowd from a park near the White House on Monday evening when he arrived at the scene.
The episode has received widespread criticism, including from senior military figures outside the administration and church leaders. Earlier this week, White House spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany said it was Barr who decided to push back protesters and expand the perimeter around the White House.
In the AP interview, Barr indicated that the call to have protesters pushed back was unconnected to the presidential photoshoot. He said he had wanted the protesters moved, but he hadn’t directly given the tactical order.
Administration officials have been playing hot potato, passing responsibility for the choice to have peaceful protesters moved with force.
Updated
Washington governor Jay Inslee has promised an independent review of Manuel Ellis’ death.
Ellis, who was 33, died minutes after his arrest after pleading, “I can’t breathe”, echoing George Floyd and Eric Garner. The local medical examiner’s office concluded that Ellis’ death was a homicide.
Sara McDowell, a bystander who filmed parts of Ellis’ fatal encounter with the police, said she saw him approach a police car on 3 March. An officer threw open the car door and knocked Ellis down. In brief video clips, McDowell’s voice can be heard calling out to police officers: “Stop. Oh my God, stop hitting him.”
Police provided a different account, saying that Ellis initiated the confrontation, which prompted officers to restrain him.
The mayor of Tacoma, Washington, has called for the police officers involved to be fired and prosecuted.
“We know that Manuel Ellis is one of far, far too many Black men who died while in police custody in America,” Inslee said in a statement promising an “independent review of the investigation and any charging decisions related to the death of Manuel Ellis.”
Updated
Hallie Golden writes for The Guardian:
Dozens of healthcare workers in Seattle lined the streets outside Swedish Hospital for a moment of silence Friday in support of the George Floyd protests. A reporter for local news station Kiro 7 captured the moment the workers, who have spent months battling coronavirus, took a knee in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
Amazing scene outside @Swedish First Hill as healthcare workers -who have dealt w/ #coronavirus #covid19- take a knee in solidarity w/ #GeorgeFloydprotests @KIRO7Seattle @ 5:30 PM pic.twitter.com/lUof2Fvlhu
— Ranji Sinha (@RanjiKIRO7) June 5, 2020
A group of 66 United Nations human rights monitors issued a devastating critique of what they call modern-day “racial terror” lynchings in the US in the form of state-sponsored police violence against black Americans.
The group released two joint statements on Friday, prompted by the wave of protests against police brutality that has swept the nation in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.
The action marks an almost unparalleled outpouring of criticism by the UN’s independent body of human rights experts. Rarely have so many come together to speak as one voice. The language they deploy is also highly unusual in its excoriating critique of what the monitors state is the “fundamental racial inequality and discrimination that characterize life in the United States for black people”.
Most piercingly, the experts make a direct link between police killings of unarmed African American men today with the spate of thousands of racial lynchings that terrorized black communities in the era of segregation.
“African Americans continue to experience racial terror in state-sponsored and privately organized violence … In the US, this legacy of racial terror remains evident in modern-day policing.”
Updated
Earlier today, Drew Brees, the New Orleans Saints quarterback, apologized for comments implying that NFL players who kneel during the national anthem were unpatriotic, a common mischaracterization of the protest against police violence launched by Kaepernick in 2016.
But at least one person was unhappy with Brees’s decision to change the play at the line.
Trump took aim at the future Hall of Fame signal-caller on Friday afternoon, saying on Twitter: “I am a big fan of Drew Brees. I think he’s truly one of the greatest quarterbacks, but he should not have taken back his original stance on honoring our magnificent American Flag. OLD GLORY is to be revered, cherished, and flown high... We should be standing up straight and tall, ideally with a salute, or a hand on heart. There are other things you can protest, but not our Great American Flag - NO KNEELING!”
Updated
Calls for the NFL to formally apologize to Colin Kaepernick, who was sidelined after he protested police brutality in 2016, are gaining steam. So are calls to give him back his job – with a significant promotion.
Make 👏🏼 Kaepernick 👏🏼 NFL 👏🏼 Commissioner 👏🏼
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 5, 2020
Grqt first step. Now give @Kaepernick7 his job back. @AymanM https://t.co/cuZ7OmsVQI
— Carmen Yulín Cruz (@CarmenYulinCruz) June 5, 2020
I’m glad that NFL condemns racism, admits 'we were wrong', but what about former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick? https://t.co/1x8iLVx88R
— Keith Ellison (@keithellison) June 5, 2020
Updated
Fox News is drawing rebuke after airing a graphic tracking stock market gains following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, the acquittal of Los Angeles police officers who savagely beat Rodney King, and the police killings of Michael Brown and George Floyd.
This graphic makes it clear that @FoxNews does not care about black lives. https://t.co/gYqC2B0n4F
— Bobby L. Rush (@RepBobbyRush) June 6, 2020
Representative Bobby Rush, a Democrat of Illinois and prominent civil rights activist, wrote on Twitter: “This is absolutely outrageous and disgusting. This graphic tells every single @FoxNews viewer that Black lives can be exchanged for market gain.”
This chart really says it all about capitalism. https://t.co/pIIE9TXhxG
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) June 6, 2020
Philly Inquirer and NYT: Let’s do something really tone deaf in a moment of national pain.
— Curtis Protect the Free Press Tate (@tatecurtis) June 6, 2020
Fox News: Hold my beer. https://t.co/1a7TCbp8hl
Updated
The Guardian’s Ankita Rao reports from New York:
Hundreds of people gathered in Union Square this evening once more in New York City. But this gathering, organized in part by Frontlines for Frontlines, called for health workers to show solidarity with the movement against police brutality.
“My white coat is a privilege but it won’t save me from racism,” says Chioma, a medical student. She said she’s here for both herself and her patients. pic.twitter.com/RSbjUeRyiB
— Ankita Rao (@anrao) June 5, 2020
Amid a nationwide, politicized dialogue about why public health professionals are supporting the protests during a pandemic, the doctors and nurses here said systemic racism is a public health crisis that existed before Covid-19 and will continue to after. This evening, they knelt in silence, chanted the names of people who had died at the hands of police, and marched down the main route on Broadway toward City Hall.
Many of the nurses and doctors here have been treating Covid-19 patients in the city, and said they saw the protest as essential for the wellbeing of their patients. The New York gathering was one of many that happened across hospitals and cities in the country, where healthcare workers knelt or observed silence for victims of police brutality.
Updated
The New York Times added an editor’s note to a piece by Republican senator Tom Cotton, which received widespread rebuke.
The note maintains that “The basic arguments advanced by Senator Cotton — however objectionable people may find them — represent a newsworthy part of the current debate.”
But it continues:
But given the life-and-death importance of the topic, the senator’s influential position and the gravity of the steps he advocates, the essay should have undergone the highest level of scrutiny. Instead, the editing process was rushed and flawed, and senior editors were not sufficiently involved. While Senator Cotton and his staff cooperated fully in our editing process, the Op-Ed should have been subject to further substantial revisions — as is frequently the case with such essays — or rejected.
Cotton responded that the paper is “now run by a woke mob’.
Congratulations to the @nytimes for finally publishing their editors' note to my piece!
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) June 5, 2020
It took probably half their staff 50+ hours to say nothing.
They could have saved a lot of time if they said the truth:
The @nytimes is now run by the woke mob. https://t.co/AIWlbA8Raw
Here’s the scene in Columbus, Ohio, captured by a reporter for WOSU, the local public radio station:
This is one of the biggest crowds I’ve seen in Columbus yet. At the end of this video you can see National Guard vehicles heading north — the same direction as the protesters. pic.twitter.com/MzNm7F3A4K
— Paige Southwick Pfleger (@PaigePfleger) June 5, 2020
The speakers have invited several sign language interpreters to the stage to make speeches more accessible. pic.twitter.com/QsAcWcoJkz
— Paige Southwick Pfleger (@PaigePfleger) June 5, 2020
NFL on police protests: 'We admit we were wrong'
The NFL commissioner Roger Goodell admitted that the organization was wrong for not letting players peacefully protest.
“We, the NFL, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest,” Goodell said in a video posted to social media. “We, the NFL, believe Black Lives Matter.”
We, the NFL, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of Black People. We, the NFL, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest. We, the NFL, believe Black Lives Matter. #InspireChange pic.twitter.com/ENWQP8A0sv
— NFL (@NFL) June 5, 2020
The statement is a huge reversal for the NFL. After former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick began kneeling before games to protest police brutality, no team offered him a contract.
Yesterday, a group of NFL players called on the league to “condemn racism and the systematic oppression of black people” in a video. “How many times do we need to ask you to listen to your players?” Tyrann Mathieu of the Kansas City Chiefs asked in the video, which was shared widely yesterday.
Updated
Here are some scenes from Detroit, where a huge showing of protesters has shut down a bridge:
Friday’s #marchforchange 6 miles in headed north on Linwood. Police say curfew in effect at 8, but determination will be made re: protesters. #DetroitProtest #GeorgeFloydProtests #JusticeforBreonnaTaylor #Local4 pic.twitter.com/YBgSCl9Tgg
— *Jason Colthorp* (@JasonColthorp) June 5, 2020
Massive protest shutting down MacArthur Bridge to Belle Isle in Detroit #Detroit #DetroitProtest #Protests2020 pic.twitter.com/6suSLGBbij
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@bgutenschwager) June 5, 2020
Updated
Trump has rolled back yet another Obama-era environmental protection. The president signed a proclamation today that opened the Atlantic Ocean’s only fully protected marine sanctuary to commercial fishing.
Trump’s proclamation allows fishing to resume at the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, reversing a policy from the Obama era banning crabbing and fishing in the monument in order to protect endangered whales and other marine life.
Obama had blocked off 5,000 miles of the monument off the coast of New England in 2016 over opposition from crabbers and lobster catchers.
Updated
Seattle has banned the use of teargas by police for 30 days.
The city’s mayor announced the policy at a press conference amid growing concern over the use of chemical agents against protesters. Nearly 1,300 public health providers and experts have signed a letter this week, warning that dousing crowds with teargas and pepper spray will accelerate the spread of coronavirus.
Public health experts and civil rights advocates have long advocated against the use of teargas, a chemical weapon that can be lethal, especially to the elderly and those with underlying conditions like asthma. Various international treaties and the Geneva Convention have banned its use in international warfare.
Updated
Kanye West will provide financial support to the families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor.
The Guardian’s André Wheeler reports:
West will fund the entire college education of George Floyd’s six-old-daughter, representatives for the rapper confirmed late Friday afternoon to PEOPLE. In addition, the rapper will donate $2 million to support the “legal defenses and families” of the late Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor.
The news comes after West was seen participating in a South Side Chicago protest Thursday. The appearance came after a notable silence from West, as many in the hip-hop community, including Jay-Z, Drake, and Ludacris, issued calls for justice. West is a noted supporter of President Trump, who has threatened violence and military action against protesters repeatedly.
While West has not publicly commented on the deaths of Floyd, Arbery, or Taylor, his wife, Kim Kardashian West, wrote she was “infuriated and disgusted.” Previously, the couple have worked closely with President Trump on criminal justice reform and freeing inmates.
Updated
Another dispatch from our West Coast bureau…
Earlier today, California governor Gavin Newsom called for an end to police chokeholds, a technique that has been controversial for decades.
The Los Angeles Times notes that the Los Angeles police department limited the use of the carotid neck holds – where officers apply pressure to a detainee’s neck – after 1982, after the then LAPD chief Daryl Gates notoriously said blacks die from the technique at disproportionate rates because the “veins or arteries of blacks do not open up as fast as they do in normal people”.
The carotid neck hold was not used by the officer in Minneapolis who kneeled on George Floyd’s neck.
Newsom also had words on the approach police have used to disperse crowds of demonstrators, which has included the use of tear gas and rubber bullets.
“Protesters have the right to protest peacefully – not be harassed. Not be shot at by rubber bullets or tear gas,” Newsom said.
“Today I am calling for the creation of a new statewide standard for use of force in protests. Acts of violence against peaceful protestors will not be tolerated.”
Aside from force targeted at protestors, public health experts have warned that the use of tear gas, which causes people to sneeze, gag and cough, could accelerate the spread of coronavirus in the middle of the pandemic.
Newsom addressed the need for larger and more consistent efforts to change what he described as a two-tier justice system that treats people who “are rich and guilty a hell of a lot better than it treats people that are poor and innocent”.
“One thing we know about our criminal justice system, it’s not blind,” Newsom said.
The governor called on Californians to reject the sense of “normalcy” that has resulted in an unequal justice system.
“We’ve accepted that as normal. Normalcy created the conditions that led to this moment. If you want to go back to normalcy – I’m not going there with you”, he said.
News from Canada, where prime minister Justin Trudeau this afternoon took a knee with protesters at an event in memory of George Floyd.
According to Reuters, Trudeau was “wearing a black mask and surrounded by bodyguards [when he] made a surprise appearance at the “No justice = No peace” rally in front of parliament in Ottawa. His appearance came a day after police shot and killed an indigenous woman during a wellness check in eastern Canada.”
When Trudeau kneeled, protesters chanted “Stand up to Trump!”
More from Reuters: “Demonstrations were held in other Canadian cities on Friday, including Toronto, where hundreds walked downtown.
“Trudeau three times took a knee alongside other protesters, a gesture used to protest against police brutality and the treatment of African-Americans by police. Afterward, several people thanked Trudeau for kneeling.”
Facebook employees fear 'abusive relationship' with Trump – report
Our west coast tech reporter sends the following report about the Washington Post’s big story on internal dissent at Facebook…
Internal documents from Facebook show thousands of employees oppose chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s choice not to remove inflammatory speech posted on the platform by Donald Trump, a Washington Post report shows.
Employees have criticized Zuckerberg over his decision to leave live on the site a post made by Trump that seemingly encouraged the shooting of protesters. Social media rival Twitter chose to hide the message behind a warning.
According to a report the Post published on Friday, in response to growing unrest among employees, Zuckerberg held an emergency town hall meeting this week, during which 5,500 workers voted on which questions should be put to him.
The one that got the highest number of votes asked: “Can we please change our policies around political free speech? Fact checking and removal of hate speech shouldn’t be exempt for politicians.”
One internal message board at Facebook with hundreds of participants questioned whether the social media giant has an “abusive relationship” with the president, the Post reported.
The Post report is the latest to uncover growing unrest within Facebook and among the company’s partners surrounding Zuckerberg’s content moderation decisions. Criticism has come from former employees and current employees at all levels of the company, including senior staff.
Also this week, nearly three-dozen founding Facebook employees wrote an open letter to Zuckerberg opposing the decision to leave the Trump post up. Current employees staged a virtual walkout, and online therapy company Talkspace cut ties with Facebook over the issue.
Facebook did not respond to request for comment.
Reports and footage are coming in from across the US of crowds gathering for more protests this afternoon and tonight, as the killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd – and other deaths of African Americans at the hands of police, including those of Breonna Taylor and David McAtee in Louisville, Kentucky – fuel lasting civil unrest, the worst since 1968 and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Hre’s Josh Wood’s report from Louisville about the death of McAtee.
And here’s a Guardian video, in which Kenya Evelyn, one of our Washington reporters, explains what the George Floyd protests says about America:
From New York, meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that arrests from a week of protests have started to put a strain on the city’s justice system:
There have been well over 2,000 arrests as police seek to impose order across the city.
Public defenders say too many of those arrested have been detained for too long in cramped and unsanitary conditions while authorities figure who should receive summonses for minor violations and go free, or be charged in criminal complaints and face arraignments remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The backlog prompted The Legal Aid Society to file a lawsuit demanding the New York police department release people held in violation of a requirement to get them in front of a judge within 24 hours, a situation that one defense lawyer said “appears to be designed to retaliate against New Yorkers protesting police brutality.”
Patricia Miller, who heads the city’s Special Federal Litigation Division, called the allegation “disingenuous” and “exceptionally unfair”.
The NYPD and court system are “working within the confines of a pandemic and now suddenly called upon not only to secure orderly protesting, but also to address rioters who are committing burglaries, destroying private property, and assaulting fellow New Yorkers,” Miller said.
Good evening from New York – I’m here to take you through the next couple of hours, until Maanvi Singh logs on from Oakland to close out the day in America.
The Washington Post has an in-depth and fascinating report about troubles at Facebook, over Mark Zuckerberg’s refusal to check or question posts by Donald Trump about the George Floyd protests seen by most observers to encourage violence and division.
The Post editors have like good editors everywhere gone for the grabby headline: “Facebook employees said they were ‘caught in an abusive relationship’ with Trump as internal debates raged”.
On Twitter this afternoon – Twitter being a platform that has attempted to censor or censure Trump’s outbursts, and has in return felt the full blast of Trumpian invective and executive orders of dubious utility – Trump went there on the subject of what he deems to be legitimate protest.
“I am a big fan of Drew Brees,” he said of the New Orleans Saints star who waded into huge controversy this week by saying he did not agree with NFL protests against police brutality during the pre-game anthem.
“I think he’s truly one of the greatest quarterbacks,” Trump continued, “but he should not have taken back his original stance on honoring our magnificent American Flag. OLD GLORY is to be revered, cherished, and flown high. We should be standing up straight and tall, ideally with a salute, or a hand on heart. There are other things you can protest, but not our Great American Flag – NO KNEELING!”
Two things. One, protesting, even burning the US flag is a right protected by the US constitution. And two, if Trump says kneeling in front of the flag is not OK, pictorial evidence suggests he thinks groping it is perfectly OK. Which, of course, it is. Like Trump’s regular love-ins with the Stars and Stripes at CPAC and other events, his outrage today is purely performative politics.
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My colleagues, Martin Pengelly and Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Trump’s comment that this is a “great day” for George Floyd sparked outrage. Trump made the comment during a nearly hour-long event in the Rose Garden this afternoon, which mainly consisted of him boasting about the new jobs report. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said the remark, which came less than two weeks after Floyd was killed while in police custody, was “despicable.”
- The US unemployment rate surprisingly dropped to 13.3% in May, according to the jobs report released this morning. The news was a welcome surprise, considering economists had predicted the rate could climb to as high as 20%, but the figure is still far from the 3.5% unemployment rate recorded in February.
- Minneapolis agreed to ban the use of police chokeholds in response to the killing of Floyd. The Minneapolis city council approved an agreement today with the state’s department of human rights, which also requires officers to intervene anytime they seen an unauthorized use of force.
- The DC mayor renamed the section of 16th Street in front of the White House “Black Lives Matter Plaza,” as tensions escalate between the administration and the DC government. Mayor Muriel Bowser has also asked Trump to remove all “extraordinary” law enforcement officers who were sent to the city in response to the Floyd protests, and the president responded by calling Bowser “incompetent.”
- The entire Buffalo police department’s emergency response team has reportedly resigned from the team after two colleagues were suspended without pay for pushing a 75-year-old man who was protesting the killing of Floyd. The 57 officers will still by employed by BPD but will no longer serve on the emergency response team. The elderly protester has been hospitalized and is said to be in stable condition.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
The Guardian’s Mario Koran reports from California:
California governor Gavin Newsom is calling on law enforcement to end the use of a certain kind of chokehold that can block the flow of blood to the brain, after George Floyd was killed while in police custody.
Newsom announced the news in an afternoon press conference at the California Museum in Sacramento, where he signed a law last year that specified police can use lethal force “only when necessary in defense of human life”.
Newsom said he would immediately direct the use of carotid hold be removed from the state police training programs, a practice that 15 law enforcement agencies in San Diego County banned earlier this week.
The carotid hold “has no place any longer in 21st century practices and policing,” Newsom said.
57 Buffalo cops resign in response to colleagues' suspension - report
The entire Buffalo police department’s emergency response team has resigned from the team in response to the suspensions of two colleagues, according to a local reporter.
The 57 officers will still be employed by BDP, but they will no longer work on the emergency response team.
#BREAKING: I’m told the entire @BPDAlerts Emergency Response Team has resigned from the team, a total of 57 officers, as a show of support for the officers who are suspended without pay after shoving Martin Gugino, 75. They are still employed, but no longer on ERT. @news4buffalo
— Dave Greber (@DaveGreber4) June 5, 2020
The news comes after two officers were suspended without pay for shoving a 75-year-old man who was protesting the police killing of George Floyd. The elderly man had to be hospitalized but is said to be in stable condition.
Buffalor mayor Byron Brown said he was aware of the resignations, adding that “contingency plans are in place to maintain police services and ensure public safety within our community.”
The Guardian’s Kari Paul reports from California:
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian resigned from his board position at the social media company on Friday in an effort to “curb racial hate,” urging his colleagues to fill his seat with a black candidate.
Ohanian, who is married to tennis star Serena Williams, said in a blog post he was making the move as “a father who needs to be able to answer his black daughter when she asks: ‘What did you do?’”
“I believe resignation can actually be an act of leadership from people in power right now,” he said. “To everyone fighting to fix our broken nation: do not stop.”
The executive and investor also pledged any future gains on his Reddit stocks to “serve the black community” and donated $1m to football player and activist Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights camp, which aims to “advance the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities.”
Ohanian’s resignation is the latest example of a tech executive taking a public stand against racism and police violence. On Wednesday, Twitter chief executive officer Jack Dorsey also donated to Kaepernick’s non-profit. Google will donate $12m in funding to organizations working to address racial inequalities, chief executive officer Sundar Pichai said on Wednesday.
Reddit has been criticized for its role in stoking hatred and harassment in the past. On Tuesday, former CEO Ellen Pao accused the site of “amplifying” racism and hate.
Updated
DC may see its largest protest yet tomorrow, with secretary of the army Ryan McCarthy saying as many as 200,000 people may participate in the city’s demonstrations to protest the police killing of George Floyd.
The DC police department has announced that a number of streets will be closed tomorrow to allow the protesters to march.
MPD announces several street closures and restrictions in conjunction with multiple First Amendment demonstrations that are scheduled to occur tomorrow, 6/6, in the District of Columbia.
— DC Police Department #StayHomeDC (@DCPoliceDept) June 5, 2020
Full release: https://t.co/7DLoha2ZcA pic.twitter.com/4DXzynWQtZ
DC police chief Peter Newsham said during a briefing yesterday, “We have a lot of public, open-source information to suggest that the event on this upcoming Saturday may be one of the largest that we’ve had in the city.”
He added, “We expect that Saturday’s demonstration will, like I said, be more of the same peaceful demonstrators coming to exercise their First Amendment right in Washington, DC.”
Ohio’s governor said an Ohio national guard member was removed from a mission in DC for expressing white supremacist ideology online.
Republican governor Mike DeWine said the FBI had uncovered information on the member’s online activity prior to the assignment to DC, where thousands of national guard troops have been sent in response to the city’s George Floyd protests.
I want to take a moment to address a situation regarding a member of the @OHNationalGuard, who was removed from the mission in Washington, DC, after the FBI uncovered information that this Guardsman expressed white supremacist ideology on the internet prior to the assignment.
— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) June 5, 2020
“While I fully support everyone’s right to free speech, guardsmen and women are sworn to protect all of us, regardless of race, ethnic background or religion,” DeWine said.
“Anyone who displays a malice toward specific groups of Americans has no place in the Ohio national guard.”
DeWine said it was “highly likely” the person would be permanently removed from the guard once the FBI concludes its investigation.
The governor noted Ohio sent 100 of its national guard members to DC to help respond to the protests, although local officials have complained of federal overreach as several states have sent national guard troops to the nation’s capital.
Trump has ordered the removal of thousands of US troops from Germany by September, according to reports.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
The move would reduce the U.S. troop presence in Germany by 9,500 troops from the 34,500 troops that are permanently assigned there.
The move also caps the number of U.S. service members who are in Germany at any one time at a total of 25,000 troops, including permanently assigned and rotational or temporary forces. Under current practice, overall troop levels can rise to as high as 52,000 as units rotate in and out or take part in training exercises.
The change was ordered by the White House in a memorandum signed recently by White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, the officials said Friday.
The news comes one week after German chancellor Angela Merkel said she would not attend the G7 summit planned for June out of concern about coronavirus, but a White House official told the Journal that the decision on a troop reduction was unrelatd to Merkel’s announcement.
A day after Merkel said she would not attend, Trump announced he was delaying the G7 summit until September and planned to extend invitations to several other countries, including Russia, which sparked intense criticism.
The US park police acknowledged it was a “mistake” to say no tear gas was used on protesters near the White House on Monday, an incident that sparked international criticism of the federal government.
The US park police had confirmed in a statement earlier this week that officers deployed pepper balls against the peaceful protesters, but the agency claimed that weapon was not considered tear gas.
However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines tear gas as “chemical compounds that temporarily make people unable to function by causing irritation to the eyes, mouth, throat, lungs, and skin,” including pepper spray.
In an interview with Vox, US park police spokesperson Sgt. Eduardo Delgado said, “The point is we admitted to using what we used.”
Delgado continued, “I think the term ‘tear gas’ doesn’t even matter anymore. It was a mistake on our part for using ‘tear gas’ because we just assumed people would think CS or CN,” referring to two common forms of tear gas.
DC mayor Muriel Bowser responded to Trump calling her “incompetent” by criticizing the president’s response to the George Floyd protests.
“You know the thing about the pot and the kettle?” Bowser said of Trump’s tweet, during a press conference on the coronavirus crisis.
The Democratic mayor added, “We all have to just refocus on what’s in front of us, and that is that our nation is hurting. It’s in need of healing and leadership at all levels, all the way from the top to mayors like me, to all of us, to focus on how we bring people together.”
Trump is lashing out against the mayor of DC, after Muriel Bowser sent a letter to the president requesting that all additional law enforcement officials brought to the city in response to the George Floyd protests be removed.
In a tweet, Trump described Bowser as “incompetent” and said the National Guard troops sent to DC had “saved her from great embarrassment.”
The president ominously concluded, “If she doesn’t treat these men and women well, then we’ll bring in a different group of men and women!”
The tweet seemed to indicate Trump was considering sending active-duty troops to the city, even though defense secretary Mark Esper has reportedly ordered home several hundred troops from the 82nd Airborne Division who were brought to the capital region in case they needed to support local law enforcement.
Hallie Golden reports for the Guardian from Seattle:
The mayor of Tacoma, Washington, is calling for the police officers involved in the death of an African American man in March to be fired and prosecuted after cellphone footage surfaced of him being beaten while lying on the ground.
Mayor Victoria Woodards said the video made her even more “angered and disappointed” about the death of Manuel Ellis, 33, who died in police custody of respiratory arrest on 3 March after calling out “I can’t breathe.” She instructed the Pierce County Sheriff to reviewall of the actions taken by the officers on the scene.
“The officers who committed this crime should be fired and prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” said Woodards.
Right now: Tacoma mayor says "the officers who committed this crime should be fired and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.” #ManuelEllis
— Hallie Golden (@HallieGolden4) June 5, 2020
The video, captured by a woman whose name has not been released, appears to show two officers repeatedly punching a man lying on the ground. The woman can be heard screaming from her car, “Stop. Oh my god, stop hitting him. Just arrest him.”
The death of Ellis, a musician and father of two, has been ruled a homicide and is being investigated by the Pierce county sheriff’s department. The county medical examiner’s officer reported that he died due to hypoxia and physical restraint. Other factors that may have contributed to his death included methamphetamine intoxication and heart disease.
The four officers involved were placed on administrative leave following the arrest. The Tacoma Police Department said in a statement that they were then returned to full duty once it was determined “there were no known departmental violations.” Earlier this week they were placed again on administrative leave.
Ed Troyer, the Pierce county sheriff’s spokesman, told the Guardian that the Tacoma police officers had noticed Ellis banging on car windows. When he came up to their car asking for help and saying there were warrants out for his arrest, an officer got out of the car.
Ellis grabbed him by his vest and threw him to the ground, according to Troyer. The second officer then came out of the car and wrestled him into handcuffs. Troyer said he was lying on the ground when he started saying he couldn’t breathe. The officers turned him onto his side and called for medical units.
The White House Correspondents’ Association released a scathing statement about Trump’s press conference this morning, where the president took no questions from reporters.
WHCA president Jonathan Karl, an ABC News reporter, noted that the White House set up reporters’ chairs in a way that violated guidelines on physical distancing.
“The chairs were initially positioned in a way that was consistent with social distancing guidelines but were moved closer together by White House staff shortly before the event started,” Karl said in the statement.
“When we asked for an explanation, the White House press office told us the decision to move the chairs close together was made because ‘It looks better.’”
Karl concluded, “The health of the press corps should not be put in jeopardy because the White House wants reporters to be a prop for a ‘news conference’ where the president refused to answer any questions.”
Trump boasted about the Rose Garden set-up during his remarks, saying to reporters, “Even you, I notice you’re starting to get much closer together, looks much better, not all the way there yet, but you’ll be there soon.” The president did not note that White House officials had made the decision on the set-up.
Minneapolis to ban police chokeholds after Floyd killing
Minneapolis officials have agreed to ban the use of police chokeholds and require officers to intervene anytime they see an unauthorized use of force in reaction to the killing of George Floyd.
The AP reports:
The moves are part of a stipulation between the city and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, which launched a civil rights investigation this week in response to the death of George Floyd in police custody. The City Council is expected to approve the agreement Friday.
The agreement, which will be enforceable in court, would require any officer, regardless of tenure or rank, to immediately report the use of any neck restraint or choke hold from the scene to their commander or their commander’s superiors.
Similarly, any officer who sees another officer commit any unauthorized use of force, including any choke hold or neck restraint, must try to intervene verbally and even physically. If they don’t, they’d be subject to discipline as severe as if they themselves had used the prohibited force.
The agreement also requires authorization from the police chief or a designated deputy chief to use crowd control weapons, including chemical agents, rubber bullets, flash-bangs, batons, and marking rounds. And it requires more timely decisions on disciplining officers.
The announcement of the agreement comes a week and a half after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was caught on camera putting his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.
Chauvin has since been charged with second-degree murder, and three other former officers have been charged with aiding and abetting the murder.
Joe Biden said he was “truly glad to see that two and a half million Americans have gotten their jobs back,” as reflected in this morning’s jobs report.
However, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee chastized Trump for taking a victory lap after the unemployment rate fell slightly to a still-high 13.3%.
Joe Biden praises gains in surprising new jobs report, but says he was "disturbed" to see "the president crowing this morning, basically hanging a 'Mission Accomplished' banner out there, where there's so much more work to be done." https://t.co/dfw70B2Kik pic.twitter.com/ozuCPSSmho
— ABC News (@ABC) June 5, 2020
“I was disturbed, however, to see the president crowing this morning, basically hanging a ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner out there, where there’s so much more work to be done,” Biden said.
The former vice president noted that more than 20 million Americans are still out of work. “For an enormous swath of this country, their dreams are still on hold, and they’re still struggling to put food on the table,” Biden said.
Joe Biden argued Trump deserved no credit for this morning’s jobs report, which showed unemployment had dropped slightly to 13.3% from 14.7% a month earlier.
Biden: "It's time for [Trump] to step out of his own bunker and take a look around, the consequences of his words and his actions...A president who takes no responsibility for costing millions and millions of Americans their jobs deserves no credit when a fraction of them return" pic.twitter.com/QvYeFfH61b
— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 5, 2020
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said Trump had still failed to reckon with how his response to the coronavirus pandemic had hampered the country’s economy.
“He has no idea the depth of the pain that so many people are still enduring. He remains completely oblivious to the human toll of his indifference,” the former vice president said. “It’s time for him to step out of his own bunker, take a look around the consequences of his words and his actions.”
Biden continued, “Let’s be clear: a president who takes no responsibility for costing millions and millions of American their jobs deserves no credit when a fraction of them return.”
Biden: Trump's remark about Floyd was 'despicable'
Joe Biden has reacted to the president’s comment this morning that this was a “great day” for George Floyd, who was killed while in police custody last week.
“George Floyd’s last words, ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,’ have echoed all across this nation and quite frankly around the world,” Biden said while delivering remarkson the jobs report in Dover, Delaware.
“For the president to try to put any other words in the mouth of George Floyd, I frankly think is despicable.”
JUST IN: Joe Biden on Pres. Trump's reference to George Floyd today: "George Floyd's last words, 'I can't breathe, I can't breathe,' have echoed all across this nation...For the president to try to put any other words in the mouth of George Floyd I frankly think is despicable." pic.twitter.com/Tnm8wHaqQV
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) June 5, 2020
The presumptive Democratic nominee noted Trump made the comment on the same day that the jobs report showed black unemployment rose last month, even though overall unemployment fell.
Biden said Trump’s decision to make the Floyd comment following that disheartening news “tells you everything you need to know about this man.”
The US has been downgraded from a “medium risk” to a “high risk” country in a civil unrest index by the global risk analysis company Verik Maplecroft.
As nationwide protests continue over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the firm finds that the “marginalisation of racial and religious minorities” is the single biggest driver of the unrest “because of the profound impact on the living standards of entire communities.” The conditions mean that direct acts of violence to express discontent “appeal to a broad range of community members.”
The unrest is expected to grow -- it has a 64.9% chance of getting worse by early next year, the analysis said. The report said the US government has “failed to eradicate the impunity with which the police act or address the lack of accountability for its actions.”
“For instance, Officer Derek Chauvin, charged with the murder of Floyd, had 18 prior complaints made against him.” The company had identified Minnesota as the highest-risk state in the US even before Floyd’s killing, by assessing the risk of violations by police and military.
This is only the second time the US has dropped into the “high risk” category. The first was when Trump was elected and took office in 2017. “The ongoing protests reveal the high degree of political polarisation, particularly around social issues like race and gender discrimination, and structural socio-economic inequalities that have become evident once more under the Trump administration,” the report said.
The US now ranks 78th among highest=risk nations, having fallen 13 places since the last quarterly report. “Eroding freedom of speech and judicial independence” could stoke more protests that hamper social distancing and slow the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, the company said.
Military deployments will worsen the public perception that the government is seeking to restrict freedom of expression. Covid cases are already expected to continue to rise in central and southern states in the coming weeks, where some of the most intense protests are happening, according to Verisk Maplecroft’s sister company AIR.
The findings follow a similar warning from the International Crisis Group, an international security thinktank based in Brussels.
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Trump sparked outrage by saying this was a “great day” for George Floyd, who was killed in police custody last week. During a White House event where the president boasted about the country’s job gains and downplayed the protests continuing across the country, Trump said, “Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying, ‘This is a great thing that’s happening for our country.’ This is a great day for him. It’s a great day for everbody.”
- The US unemployment rate surprisingly dropped to 13.3% in May, according to the latest jobs report released this morning. The news was a welcome surprise, considering economists had predicted the rate could climb to as high as 20%, but the figure is still far from the 3.5% unemployment rate recorded in February.
- DC Mayor Muriel Bowser renamed the section of 16th Street in front of the White House “Black Lives Matter Plaza.” The announcement came as tensions escalate between the White House and the DC government after Trump sent thousands of additional law enforcement officers to patrol the city’s streets in response to the Floyd protests.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Two-thirds of Americans think Trump has increased racial tensions in the country, a new poll found as protests over the killing of George Floyd continue across the US.
According to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, 67% of Americans say Trump has mostly increased racial tensions. That number includes 92% of Democrats, 73% of independents and 29% of Republicans.
In comparison, 18% of Americans said the president has decreased racial tensions, including 41% of Republicans. Another 30% of Republicans said they weren’t sure.
Lee Miringoff, the director of the institute that conducted the poll, said of the numbers, “It’s very unusual to see Republicans break when the name Trump is presented, but that is the case here.”
The DC chapter of Black Lives Matter is unimpressed with Muriel Bowser after the mayor painted a “Black Lives Matter” message on 16th Street near the White House.
The BLM chapter described the painted message as a “performative distraction from real policy changes,” calling on Bowser to defund the police.
This is a performative distraction from real policy changes. Bowser has consistently been on the wrong side of BLMDC history. This is to appease white liberals while ignoring our demands. Black Lives Matter means defund the police. @emilymbadger say it with us https://t.co/w0ekwSG1ip
— BlackLivesMatter DC (@DMVBlackLives) June 5, 2020
Trump has retweeted a clip that his camapign shared of the president saying this was a “great day” for George Floyd, who died last week after a police officer put his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.
"Equal justice under the law must mean that every American receives equal treatment in every encounter with law enforcement regardless of race…Hopefully #GeorgeFloyd is looking down right now & saying this is a great thing that's happening for our country…in terms of equality" pic.twitter.com/7rNQ4EX8Gq
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) June 5, 2020
Trump said during his Rose Garden event this morning, “Equal justice under the law must mean every American receives equal treatment in every encounter with law enforcement regardless of race, color, gender or creed. They have to receive fair treatment from law enforcement.”
The president then appeared to veer from his prepared remarks, saying, “We all saw what happened last week. We can’t let that happen. Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying, ‘This is a great thing that’s happening for our country.’ This is a great day for him. It’s a great day for everbody. This is a great day for everybody. This a great, great day in terms of equality.”
Trump then swerved back into talking about the economy, boasting about the coronavirus relief packages he has signed into law.
The president’s comments about Floyd came less than two weeks after the unarmed black man was killed in police custody and just one day after Floyd’s family held a memorial service for him in Minneapolis.
Updated
Reactions continue to pour in after Trump said this was a “great day” for George Floyd, who was killed in police custody last week.
From Democratic senator Mark Warner:
Just stop. https://t.co/ycl6Z66oXu
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) June 5, 2020
From a former Democratic senator:
“This is a great day for him.” Let that sink in. https://t.co/FdKhz6hSQK
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) June 5, 2020
From a Democratic strategist:
Today is a great day for George Floyd? Trump is truly the dumbest man alive.
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) June 5, 2020
From the research director for the watchdog group CREW:
In a single statement, Trump manages to denigrate the memory of George Floyd and his experience, while also showing an utter lack of sympathy for the plight of millions of Americans still struggling through and economic crisis.
— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) June 5, 2020
A truly stunning level of tone-deafness. https://t.co/h8051QrCVx
Updated
DC mayor renames street near White House 'Black Lives Matter Plaza'
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has just announced that the section of 16th Street NW in front of the White House has been renamed “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”
The section of 16th street in front of the White House is now officially “Black Lives Matter Plaza”. pic.twitter.com/bbJgAYE35b
— Mayor Muriel Bowser #StayHomeDC (@MayorBowser) June 5, 2020
A crowd cheered as a city employee installed a sign reading “Black Lives Matter Plz” on a street light.
The announcement comes as Bowser has sought to assert the city’s autonomy amid the George Floyd protests, despite Trump’s decision to send thousands of additional law enforcment officers to patrol DC.
Bowser sent a letter to Trump today asking him to remove the additional forces from the city, although defense secretary Mark Esper reversed a decision to do just that earlier this week.
Trump leaves 'press conference' without taking questions
Trump has just concluded his nearly hour-long “press conference” at the White House without taking any questions from the reporters there.
This is the second consecutive time that the president has called a “press conference” only to make a statement, which reporters argued defied the definition of a press conference.
When you call a press conference, it means you'll be taking press questions. If you just deliver remarks, it's a press statement. pic.twitter.com/F7eArV86Di
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 5, 2020
Instead, the president spent the hour making celebratory and seemingly unscripted remarks about the jobs report and the George Floyd protests that have continued across the country.
As the president left the event, reporters shouted questions about Trump’s comment that this was a “great day” for Floyd, who was killed in police custody last week, but he ignored them.
“How is this a great day for George Floyd?” I shouted to President Trump, before he turned and exited the Rose Garden without taking a single question. https://t.co/ks60ONgeUn
— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) June 5, 2020
Updated
Trump's comment about Floyd sparks outrage
Trump’s comment moments ago about this being a “great day” for George Floyd is already sparking outrage among the president’s critics.
“Hopefully, George is looking down right now and saying, ‘This is a great thing happening for our country,’” Trump said of Floyd, who was killed in police custody last week. “A great day for him, a great day for everybody. This is a great day for everybody.”
The liberal organization CAP Action said the president’s comment was “despicable”:
Less than 24 hours after George Floyd’s memorial service, Trump called this a “great day” for Floyd and others "in terms of equality.”
— CAP Action (@CAPAction) June 5, 2020
Despicable. pic.twitter.com/WD3YPy9t35
Updated
Trump wrapped up his prepared remarks (which seemed largely improvised) and signed legislation related to the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses.
Reporters shouted questions at him as he signed the bill, but the president only responded by continuing to brag about this morning’s jobs report.
One reporter asked how the economic growth could have helped George Floyd, after the president said this was a “great day” for Floyd, who was killed in police custody last week.
Another reporter, Yamiche Alcindor of PBS NewsHour, asked Trump to comment on how unemployment actually rose among African Americans and Asian Americans. Trump responded by dismissively waving his hand and telling Alcindor, “You are something.”
Updated
Trump just said hospitality and leisure gained 1.2m jobs last month - that’s true. Those jobs accounted for most of this months surprise gains,
But hospitality and leisure lost 8.4m jobs in the previous two months. While it’s true the reopening has brought people back to work, the unemployment rate at 13.3% is still at heights unseen since the worst days of the 1980s.
As Trump celebrates the country’s job gains and downplays the ongiong George Floyd protests, the street near the White House has been painted with the words “Black Lives Matter.”
#BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/OQg6977n5r
— Muriel Bowser #StayHomeDC (@MurielBowser) June 5, 2020
DC mayor Muriel Bowser said she had signed off on painting the message near the White House to emphasize the street belonged to the city after Trump sent thousands of additional law enforcement officials to the nation’s capital in response to the protests.
Trump: 'Hopefully George is looking down right now'
Trump is apparently using his press conference to declare both the coronavirus crisis and the George Floyd protests to be over.
“Hopefully, George is looking down right now and saying, ‘This is a great thing happening for our country,” Trump said of Floyd, who was killed in police custody last week. “A great day for him, a great day for everybody. This is great day for everybody.”
However, protests against police brutality are continuing across the country, and Democrats have called for a number of policy changes, including a national ban on chokeholds, that have not been enacted.
In terms of the coronavirus crisis, this morning’s jobs report showed unemployment had dropped to 13.3%, so the US economy still needs to recover much more before reaching pre-pandemic levels.
Here’s video of Trump’s mention of Floyd:
Updated
Trump appears to have abandoned his prepared remarks, assuming he had any to begin with. The president has celebrated the jobs report, while mocking his critics.
Trump described those who have criticized his response to the coronavirus pandemic as his “enemies,” and he characterized the policy goals of the Green New Deal as “baby talk.”
The president also enocuraged governors to allow him to send National Guard troops amid the George Floyd protests, saying he would send troops “so fast it’ll make their heads spin.”
Trump predicted this morning’s jobs report would be a sign of sustained economic growth, insisting unemployment would continue to fall.
“This is better than a V,” Trump said of the shape of the country’s recovery curve. “This is a rocket ship.”
The president also describe the drop in unemployment as “a tremendous tribute to equality,” even though black unemployment actually rose slightly last month while white unemployment fell.
New unemployment numbers by race:
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) June 5, 2020
White:
April 14.2%
May 12.4%
Black:
April 16.7%
May 16.8%
Trump claimed the country was “largely through” the coronavirus pandemic as states start the process of reopening their economies.
However, public health experts have warned that the country could see a second wave of infections later this year, which could require another round of social distancing.
The president has consistently downplayed the possibility of a second wave.
Trump veers between coronavirus and protests
Trump has started his White House press conference, and the president opened the event by quickly veering from the jobs numbers to the George Floyd protests then back to the jobs numbers.
The president called this morning’s jobs report, which showed unemployment had dropped last month but remained high at 13.3%, an “affirmation of all the work we’ve been doing.
Trump then said that, before the coronavirus pandemic, the US had the “greatest economy in the history of the world,” although that oft-repeated claim is not accurate.
The president called on states that have been more slowly reopening to ramp up that process, saying the states that reopened quickly have been “doing tremendous business.”
However, the president unexpectedly shifted from the jobs numbers to the protests, bragging about the progress seen in Minneapolis this week after demonstrations last week turned violent.
Bowser requests additional law enforcement be removed from DC
Trump’s press conference is running behind schedule, but the president may be asked about the DC mayor’s request this morning to remove all additional federal law enforcement officers from the city.
I request that @realDonaldTrump withdraw all extraordinary federal law enforcement and military presence from our city. pic.twitter.com/AvaJfQ0mxP
— Mayor Muriel Bowser #StayHomeDC (@MayorBowser) June 5, 2020
In a letter to the president, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said she was ending the city’s state of emergency in connection to the George Floyd protests, noting the demonstrations have been peaceful in recent days and no arrests were made yesterday.
Bowser insisted the city is “well equipped to handle large demonstrations,” and she said having additional federal law enforcement officers in Washington (some of whom have not worn identifying insignia in the past few days) would only intensify tensions.
Despite the mayor’s request, Trump may not easily agree to the removal of the forces from DC, considering governors across the country have not agreed with his suggestion to send active-duty troops to states that have seen George Floyd protests.
This is Joan Greve, taking over for Joanna Walters.
Trump is expected to hold a press conference at any moment, where he will likely tout the unexpected drop in the unemployment rate that was announced this morning.
However, many reporters’ questions will almost certainly focus on the George Floyd protests that have played out across the country in recent days and the president’s less-than-flattering words about the demonstrators.
Stay tuned.
Stocks surging as Trump prepares to brief press
Markets are taking off after the latest US jobs figures were upbeat, the opposite of what was expected from the figures for the last month.
Donald Trump will take to a podium at the White House in a few minutes after rejoicing via Twitter. His briefing is due at 10am ET. He’s been running incredibly late for briefings recently, so stay tuned.
It’s a piece of good news for the president, who has been battered in the polls of late over his response to the major crises rocking the country.
Nationwide protests continue, demanding and end to systemic racism in society, but specifically in policing, after the death of George Floyd.
The latest debate on reforms needed is only just getting started.
And the coronavirus pandemic, which cratered the economy, is far from under control. Experts worry that protesters, who are often not social distancing or wearing masks properly, are at fresh risk of catching Covid, which has already disproportionately battered communities of color across the US.
Ailing congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis has spoken out all week, however, to say he is optimistic that this really could be a turning point towards greater fairness in US policing.
Updated
Black Lives Matter painted on DC street
“Black Lives Matter” is currently being painted in huge lettering on one of the roads very near the White House.
Apparently with the nod from the Washington authorities.
A two-block stretch of 16th Street NW close to the White House has a new message today: "Black Lives Matter" written in 35-foot-tall letters, with D.C.'s blessing: https://t.co/ruImXJWtqc pic.twitter.com/twFUoTJ0Yb
— Martin Austermuhle (@maustermuhle) June 5, 2020
Short film:
On the road that leads to the White House, the #WashingtonDC government is painting “Black Lives Matter” with local muralists. They expect to be done by 11am. pic.twitter.com/sLDJWkqfUT
— Daniella Cheslow (@Dacheslow) June 5, 2020
Updated
Worldwide actions in solidarity with US protests over George Floyd
Police in Paris have banned an anti-racism demonstration in front of the US Embassy in the French capital tomorrow, citing the risk of social disorder and health dangers amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
But protests in solidarity with the strong wave of action across the US amid anger and grief at the killing of yet another black man by police are scheduled to take place this weekend in Britain, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Hungary, Brazil, South Korea, Australia and more.
Demonstrations have taken place this past week in those countries and Mexico, Liberia, Canada, Italy, Norway, Greece and many other places.
The protests in US cities large and small, coast to coast and north to south, have been massive and mostly peaceful, despite bouts of violent unrest and some aggressive policing tactics - and would have been, or would be, much, much larger if people were not still bound by caution over catching Covid-19.
We have all the details and reactions to the latest US jobs numbers in our Guardian business blog, here.
Donald Trump is not just pleased, he is ecstatic.
It is a stunner by any stretch of the imagination! @CNBC
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2020
And:
It’s a stupendous number. It’s joyous, let’s call it like it is. The Market was right. It’s stunning! @jimcramer @CNBC
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2020
Trump to hold press conference after jobs numbers better than expected
The dire numbers expected in the latest jobs report this morning did not happen - at all.
Covid-19’s devastating assault on the US economy waned in May as the unemployment rate dipped to 13.3% and the US added another 2.5m jobs.
The latest tally follows the loss of 20m jobs in April when unemployment hit 14.7%. In February the unemployment rate was just 3.5%. A decade’s worth of gains made in the labor market since the last recession have been erased in just three months.
All 50 states have now begun easing quarantine restrictions and the pace of this unprecedented hollowing has now slowed as some have returned to work but uncertainties remain, my business colleague Dominic Rushe reports.
The president has taken to Twitter and in about an hour will take to a podium at the White House.
I will be doing a News Conference at 10:00 A.M. on the Jobs Numbers! White House.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2020
Jim Mattis lit into Trump this week and has accrued both condemnation (and withering, personal counterpoint by the president, albeit containing untruths) and support from many quarters.
As my colleague Julian Borger noted: Mattis, Donald Trump’s first defense secretary, accused him of abusing executive authority in his response to the anti-racism protests that have convulsed cities across the US, and called for the president to be held accountable.
Mattis’s broadside broke a near silence from the ex-marine general since he resigned in December 2018. He expressed outrage at the militarisation of the administration’s response to mass protests over the police killing of George Floyd.
“I have watched this week’s unfolding events, angry and appalled,” he said.
His statement, published by the Atlantic magazine, came on a day of confusion and discord in the Trump administration over the role of the military. Mattis’s successor as defence secretary, Mark Esper, had contradicted Trump over the president’s threatened invocation of the 1807 Insurrection Act to deploy active duty troops on US streets.
Esper had ordered elite airborne troops, flown to the Washington outskirts on Monday, back to their bases on Wednesday, but then reversed that order hours later after a visit to the White House.
Trump shares letter calling peaceful protesters terrorists
Joanna Walters here in New York, taking over from my colleagues in London, it was another busy night and there’s a full-on day ahead in US political news.
The president has tweeted a copy of a letter that appears to have been written by one of his former attorneys, John Dowd, to former defense secretary Jim Mattis, after Mattis heavily criticized Trump on Wednesday for dividing America.
The tweet shows the text of the letter, which supports the violent clearing earlier in the week of the small Lafayette park area between the White House and St John’s church nearby, where protesters were gathered, so that Trump could hold a photo op outside the so-called “Church of the Presidents”.
The letter says: “The phony protesters in Lafayette park were not peaceful and are not real. They are terrorists using idle hate-filled students to burn and destroy.”
It warns Mattis: “This is the new nihilism”.
I thought this letter from respected retired Marine and Super Star lawyer, John Dowd, would be of interest to the American People. Read it! pic.twitter.com/I5tjysckZh
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2020
Black Lives Matter protestors urged to stay away from events in Scotland
Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon and Scotland’s chief constable, Iain Livingstone, have urged Black Lives Matter supporters to avoid taking part in large public protests in Scotland this weekend because of the risk of transmitting the coronavirus.
Livingstone said during the Scottish government’s daily press briefing he recognised people were “shocked and distressed” by the death of George Floyd. “I understand the desire of people to make their voices heard,” he added.
But attending the mass rallies planned in various cities in Scotland would be dangerous, he said. Police were liaising with the event organisers to urge them to avoid breaching Scotland’s strict lockdown and social-distancing rules, which prohibits gatherings of more than eight people and requires those groups to stay at least two metres apart.
‘Because the threat of coronavirus is still with us, people shouldn’t attend mass gatherings which pose a very clear risk to public health,” Livingstone said. “it is essential everyone sticks to the rules”.
The first minister said protestors should heed the appeal from prominent BAME politicians on Thursday, including Hamza Yousaf, the Scottish justice secretary, and Anas Sarwar, a senior Scottish Labour MSP, to find different ways to protest.
More racism trouble for the Republican party on the horizon, as the Texas Tribune has been reporting overnight that a fourth Republican leader had shared racist posts on Facebook in the last few days, some of which also floated conspiracy theories.
Governor Greg Abbott has called for two of them to resign. It is reported that the Republican chairs in Bexar and Nueces counties shared on social media a conspiracy theory that Floyd’s death was a “staged event”.
Another Republican leader had shared an image of a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr quote juxtaposed with a banana. A statement by Republican chairman-elect in Harris County, Keith Nielsen fell short of an apology, saying “It is unfortunate that the sentiment of the quote and my admiration for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has been overshadowed by people’s misinterpretation of an image.”
Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, the eldest son of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, posted on Twitter late last night to say that the party should not tolerate racism of any kind.
I have said it before and I will say it again now: the GOP must not tolerate racism. Of any kind. At any time. The appalling behavior by the four GOP County leaders must not stand. I urge them to do the honorable thing and step aside now. https://t.co/84CiZFW1kx
— George P. Bush (@georgepbush) June 5, 2020
Tom Perkins has been out for us in St Clair Shores, Michigan. It’s a largely white middle-class suburb about 17 miles north-east of downtown Detroit. And while the centre of Detroit has erupted in emotional protests and thousands of protesters have marched nightly through the city’s streets demanding justice, the view in St Clair Shores is very different.
Many in St Clair Shores share the president’s world view that the police and national guard are heroically battling violent agitators, not brutally suppressing largely peaceful protesters.
Several men who were part of a construction crew called the protests “stupid” and a “waste of time and energy”. Some even suggested Floyd was at fault for his death because he allegedly committed a crime, despite general worldwide outrage at the brutal manner of his killing and the criminal charges it has now brought against the officers involved.
You can read more of the report here: Detroit’s largely peaceful protests seen very differently from white suburb
Just a heads up on what we are expecting politics-wise today.
As mentioned in the intro, Donald Trump will be visiting Maine today - his first visit to the state since becoming president. He will be attending roundtable on supporting commercial fishermen and signing a proclamation in Bangor at 2pm.
He then goes on to tour Puritan Medical Products in Guilford at 3:30pm. It is a facility that makes swabs to test for coronavirus, and it is receiving significant sums from the government to ramp up production. We are expecting Trump to talk around 4pm, and to return to the freshly fenced-in White House at around 7.30pm.
Joe Biden is sort of on the campaign trail - there is still an election on - and we are expecting him to talk about the economy and the new jobless figures around noon in Dover, Delaware. Those jobless figures will be out this morning.
There’s also some interest in John Kelly, the former White House chief of staff, who’ll be taking part in a discussion chaired by notoriously short-serving White House director of communications Anthony Scaramucci at the SALT talks.
Updated
The George Floyd protests take place against the backdrop of the ever-worsening numbers of coronavirus outbreak in the US. The Johns Hopkins University currently puts the figures at more than 1.8m cases in the US, with over 108,000 fatalities.
Bloomberg have a fascinating piece this morning asking one very crucial question: Whatever happened to the coronavirus task-force?
The task force is now reduced to weekly closed-door meetings with Vice President Mike Pence. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the government, hasn’t spoken publicly at the White House since 29 April. In his last task force news conference, a week earlier, he cautioned that the country must “proceed in a very careful, measured way” to reopen.
Similarly, task force coordinator Deborah Birx no longer appears in public as frequently as she did. Her voice is mostly mediated through being quoted by White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
It’s an interesting read by Josh Wingrove about the current state of play: Fauci, Virus Task Force Sidelined With Trump All-In on Reopening
The way the Minneapolis Police force reacts to the death of George Floyd is going to place huge scrutiny on Medaria Arrandondo, the chief of police. He’s the first African American to hold the role in the city.
But if you think that might make it easier to reform the force responsible for the death of Floyd, you might need to think again.
My colleague Chris McGreal has been in Minneapolis, looking at one of the other key figures in local policing - Bob Kroll, leader of the Minneapolis police union.
Kroll wrote to his members this week describing Floyd as a “violent criminal”, because he did prison time, in an apparent attempt to imply Chauvin’s treatment of the unarmed man being arrested on suspicion of a non-violent minor crime was legitimate. The union chief also described those protesting over Floyd’s death as terrorists, and the dismissal of Chauvin and three other officers facing charges as depriving them of their rights.
You can read McGreal’s full and worrying report here: Hopeful that Minneapolis policing will change? Meet the police union’s chief ...
Australian court bans Black Lives Matter protest in Sydney
There’s been an ongoing row about whether a Black Lives Matter protest would be allowed to take place in Sydney, Australia at the weekend, which has been resolved in a last-ditch court case - and the protest remains banned because of coronavirus fears.
My Australian office colleague Elias Visontay has been following the case in the New South Wales Supreme Court where Justice Desmond Fagan ultimately assessed there would be a public safety risk in allowing the protest to go ahead, likening it to a “defiance” of decisions made by ministers and the expert health advice those decisions were based on.
Justice Fagan said he did not accept the argument of lawyers representing the protest organisers that people would attend the rally regardless of the legal decision, and that in that case, it would be safest for the public to have the cooperation of police to close of streets and allow for greater space for social distancing. He labelled the argument “futile”.
Justice Fagan also acknowledged the right to protest and the importance of the Black Lives Matter protest in drawing attention to the treatment of Indigenous Australians at the hands of police, but reasoned that many Australians had had to forfeit rights during the pandemic, including to attend church and forfeiting their livelihoods.
Organisers had previously indicated they and supporters would attend the protest regardless of the legal decision, and it has been noted that last week in Sydney some 3,000 people gathered to join a protest based on conspiracy theories over 5G and police took no action.
Amnesty International UK had called for the protest to be allowed, saying that “Peaceful protest is a fundamental human right, and the New South Wales police should work with organisers to ensure that attendees can social distance, and protests can be carried out in a safe manner. Police must also commit to not fine anyone inadvertently breaking a COVID-19 guideline.”
This story is going to run and run.
Organisers of Saturday's protest say the event will still go ahead. Greens MP David Shoebridge says he will personally attend. pic.twitter.com/6b2Gx0JyRD
— Elias Visontay (@EliasVisontay) June 5, 2020
Today so far
Yesterday was the tenth day of protests following the killing of George Floyd, and it was marked by the solemn occasion of a memorial service in Minneapolis for the 46 year old.
We’ll be bringing you ongoing coverage of the protest movement and today’s politics. Here are the key points so far:
- Civil rights groups are to sue Trump over the assault on peaceful protesters near White House
- Twitter has disabled a Trump campaign video tribute to George Floyd, they say due to copyright complaint. It will no doubt add to tensions between the president and the social media platform
- Police officers in Buffalo have been suspended for pushing a 75-year-old to the ground during the protests
- The New York Times has dropped its initial defence of a ‘Send in the troops’ article and now says Tom Cotton’s opinion piece did not meet editorial standards
- Ukrainian prosecutors find no evidence against Hunter Biden
Donald Trump is travelling rural Maine today, where he will be visiting a factory making swabs used in coronavirus testing.
He might also mention Hydroxychloroquine along the way, the controversial drug at the heart of the scandal of the Lancet withdrawing a study saying it was dangerous to Covid-19 patients.
And Trump might get a frosty reception - even the Republican senator for the state, Susan Collins, has been critical of Trump’s handling of the Floyd protests.
On the economic front, we are also expecting more grim US jobless figures to be announced later this morning.
Hello from London, I’m Martin Belam, and I’ll be running this live blog for a couple more hours now until I hand over to my colleagues in New York. You can contact me on martin.belam@theguardian.com or find me on Twitter @MartinBelam
