The Latest on the May 25 death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air as a white police officer pressed a knee on his neck:
TOP OF THE HOUR:
— Police confront a group of several hundred protesters at Portland, Oregon.
In this Monday, June 1, 2020 photo, two Portland police liaisons, escort Eboni Samuels, 41, as she speaks passionately about keeping the peace and not having protests devolve into violence in Portland, Ore. Portland will not impose a curfew on Tuesday night for the first time in four days after several thousand demonstrators remained largely peaceful during a march the night before to protest the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. (Beth NakamuraThe Oregonian via AP)
— Arrest total reaches at least 9,300 in protest around country since George Floyd's death.
— Thousands of protesters on New York City streets after curfew.
— Protest in Washington on Tuesday lacking tension of previous night's demonstrations.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Several hundred people broke away from a massive peaceful protest in Portland, Oregon, late Tuesday and engaged in a confrontation with police officers guarding a public building.
Police Chief Jami Resch said in a video message posted on Twitter that members of the smaller group tried to tear down fencing set up to protect a facility that holds the police headquarters and a county jail and threw bottles, bats and mortars at officers.
Police declared an unlawful assembly and set off flash-bang grenades and tear gas.
It wasn’t clear how many arrests, if any, had been made.
The violence was in stark contrast to a rally and march earlier in the evening. Thousands of people laid down on a major bridge spanning the Willamette River for nine minutes and their bodies covered almost the entire span of the bridge.
The crowd then proceeded to Pioneer Courthouse Square for a peaceful rally before the much smaller group broke away.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler canceled an 8 p.m. curfew earlier Tuesday after praising protestors for Monday night’s demonstration, which was largely peaceful.
NEW YORK — At least 9,300 people have been arrested in protests around the country since the killing of George Floyd, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
Los Angeles has recorded 2,700 arrests since the protests, followed by New York with about 1,500. Police in Dallas, Houston and Philadelphia have also arrested several hundred people.
The count reflects how much police activity has surrounded the protests that have engulfed cities from coast to coast.
Floyd was an African American man who was killed by a police officer who pressed a knee into Floyd's neck for several minutes, even as he pleaded that he couldn’t breathe.
NEW YORK -- Thousands of demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd remained on New York City streets on Tuesday after an 8 p.m. curfew put in place by officials struggling to stanch destruction and growing complaints that the nation’s biggest city was reeling out of control night after night.
Mayor Bill de Blasio had doubled down on a citywide curfew, moving it up from 11 p.m. a night earlier, but rejected urging from President Donald Trump and an offer from Gov. Andrew Cuomo to bring in the National Guard.
Protests had resumed Tuesday during the day over the death of Floyd, a black man who died on May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee on his neck even after he stopped moving and pleading for air.
People marched in groups of thousands in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, as merchants boarded up their businesses. As the the curfew time arrived, many were still in the streets and continued marching, with officers initially standing by and allowing them.
But officers started ordering people to move along, and began taking people into custody. Demonstrators who had been on the West Side Highway in lower Manhattan were herded off, with parts of the roadway blocked off behind them.
“Something has to break, and it’s not going to be us,” said Evan Kutcher, one of hundreds of demonstrators who stood outside the Barclays Center chanting Floyd’s name Tuesday evening. “We’re here because something needs to change.
WASHINGTON — The protest in the nation’s capital on Tuesday night lacked the tension of the previous nights’ demonstrations.
The crowd outside Lafayette Park near the White House was peaceful, polite even, as they protested the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minnesota.
Instead of the spray-painted tags, the protesters Tuesday favored colorful children’s street chalk, writing Black Lives Matter slogans on the asphalt in front of St. John’s Church.
Protesters chanted and talked among themselves, most wearing masks, but not social distancing in the age of COVID-19. One protester, Mati Yiheyis, a 21-year-old college student at the University of Virginia, speculated that fears of coronavirus kept many older people away.
When one protester climbed a lamp post and removed a street sign he was roundly booed by others. “It’s not what we’re about,” said protester George “T.J.” Pierce of Washington.
The crowd started thinning out on its own after 8 p.m., an hour after a curfew went into place, although a core group of several hundred remained at the fence, chanting at the line of police and soldiers in riot gear on the other side.
On Monday, law enforcement officers on foot and horseback aggressively drove protesters away from Lafayette Park, clearing the way for President Donald Trump to do a photo op at St. John’s Church, known as the church of presidents. On Tuesday, pastors at the church prayed with demonstrators and handed out water bottles.
LOS ANGELES -- Thousands have taken to the streets of Los Angeles in peaceful protests Tuesday, and smaller demonstrations dotted other California cities while authorities renewed overnight curfews in LA and other areas that have seen clashes with police and groups of thieves wreck hundreds of businesses.
There were several sizable demonstrations in Los Angeles and Mayor Eric Garcetti took a knee at one while in a crowd outside police headquarters. However, later in the day, hundreds gathered outside the mayor’s house and protested.
Elsewhere in the city, police cordons backed by National Guard troops kept a tight watch on marchers in Hollywood, where hundreds were arrested a day earlier, and at a crowd of thousands at City Hall.
In San Francisco, a mass of people marched up the Great Highway along San Francisco’s Ocean Beach. At San Jose’s City Hall, several hundred people showed up for a demonstration and speeches organized by the local branch of the NAACP.
San Francisco Police Chief William Scott asked supervisors Tuesday to keep an overnight curfew order for at least the “next few days” to get ahead of people bent on using peaceful protests to pilfer stores and commit violence. Mayor London Breed ordered the 8 p.m. curfew Sunday following a night of thefts downtown, including at a major shopping mall where several fires were set.
MELBOURNE, Australia — Police are urging thousands of demonstrators planning to attend a protest rally in Australia’s second-largest city over George Floyd’s death to reconsider due to social distancing rules.
Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius on Wednesday described the rally planned for Saturday as the largest mass gathering in Melbourne since pandemic restrictions were introduced in March.
Public gatherings are limited to 20 people in Victoria state, and people must keep 1.5 meters (5 feet) apart.
Australia has recorded 7,221 coronavirus cases with 26 in hospitals on Wednesday. There have been 102 deaths.
Cornelius did not say whether police plan to fine protesters, but told reporters that “police would prefer people obey the law.”
Police have not enforced social distancing regulations when thousands gathered peacefully in Sydney and Perth in solidarity with U.S. demonstrators and to protest against the over-representation of indigenous Australians in prisons.
Protesters attempted to get around social distancing rules by demonstrating over an unrelated issue in their cars in Melbourne in April. But police fined 26 of them 1,652 Australian dollars ($1,145) each and arrested their organizer for breaching a ban on non-essential travel. That ban has since been lifted.
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis school board has voted to end its contract with the Minneapolis Police Department following the death last week of George Floyd.
The Star Tribune reports the vote was unanimous Tuesday.
Minneapolis Public Schools will stop further negotiations with the Police Department. Schools Superintendent Ed Graff must come up with a new plan for school safety by the board’s Aug. 18 meeting.
School board chairwoman Kim Ellison said in an interview that she values “people and education and life.” Ellison said she’s now convinced, “based on the actions of the Minneapolis Police Department, that we don’t have the same values.”
The Minneapolis and St. Paul school districts have faced criticism over the use of school resource officers. Both districts have sought to transform the role to be more of a mentor than an enforcer.