Tens of thousands of people in the US hold peaceful protests, amid violence and looting, against police killings of black people
A building in the park with bathrooms and a maintenance office went up in flames and people broke into banks and jewellery stores. As demonstrations persisted past curfew, Washington police said they were responding to multiple fires set around the capital.
The entire Washington, DC, National Guard — roughly 1,700 soldiers — was called in to help control the protests, according to two defence department officials who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorised to publicly discuss the matter. At least 4,400 people have been arrested over days of protests, according to a tally compiled by The Associated Press. Arrests ranged from stealing and blocking highways to breaking curfew. As the protests grew, President Donald Trump retweeted conservative commentator Buck Sexton who called for “overwhelming force” against violent demonstrators. Secret Service agents had rushed Trump to a White House bunker on Friday night as hundreds of protesters gathered outside the executive mansion, some of them throwing rocks and tugging at police barricades. The president spent nearly an hour in the bunker designed for use in emergencies like terrorist attacks, according to a Republican close to the White House who was not authorised to publicly discuss private matters and spoke on condition of anonymity. The account was confirmed by an administration official who also spoke on condition of anonymity. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, visited the site of protests in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, and talked to some of the demonstrators. He also wrote a post on Medium expressing empathy for those despairing about the killing of George Floyd.As President, I will help lead this conversation — and more importantly, I will listen, just as I did today visiting the site of last night's protests in Wilmington.
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