Protesters Clash With British Cops In Front Of Prime Minister's Residence As Europe Faces 2nd Night Of Rallies

By Tyler Durden / ZeroHedge

Update (1240ET): Reuters just reported that scuffles have broken out in front of No. 10 Downing Street as tens of thousands of people attended a rally in London Wednesday to protest the killing of George Floyd and express “solidarity” with American protesters, though they also drew attention to inequalities in British society.Others in London’s Parliament Square peacefully knelt on one knee like Kaepernick.

The London march started in Hyde Park before winding its way to Parliament Square. Many of the protesters chanted “George Floyd” and “Black lives matter.”

“This has been years in the coming, years and years and years of white supremacy,” one witness said.

Elsewhere, a rally in Rotterdam got so rowdy that Dutch police on Wednesday asked several thousand protesters to go home because the anti-racism rally was too crowded and made social distancing impossible.

* * *

Update (1105ET): As more indications that last night was largely peaceful despite isolated clashes in certain cities, the great scramble to avoid blame for an attack on peaceful protesters outside St. John’s Episcopal Church has now kicked into high gear with Trump claiming during a Fox News interview that he didn’t order police to clear the demonstrators, which they reportedly did with rubber bullets, tear gas and other crowd control measures.

After a former colleague from the Obama era called on Esper to resign, the Pentagon chief said he didn’t support the deployment of active-duty forces to confront protesters in American cities, saying that the National Guard is better suited for such purposes. Esper told reporters he knew that he would be joining the president to walk through Lafayette Park in front of the White House on Monday, but was not aware of specific plans at the church, Bloomberg reports.

“I did know we were going to the church. I did not know a photo op was happening,” Esper said.

During a Wednesday morning interview on Fox News, President Trump insisted he didn’t order authorities to clear protesters from a park next to the White House to make way for his photo in front of a burned church late Monday. Trump and the US Park Police have been criticized for using munitions including smoke cannisters and pepper balls to clear peaceful demonstrators so the president could stand in front of the damaged St. John’s Episcopal Church while holding up a Bible for what has been disparaged as a photo op in poor taste by some.

“I didn’t say, oh, move them out,” Trump told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade during a radio interview.

“They didn’t use tear gas. They moved them out,” Trump added, denying that tear gas had been used.

The NYPD, meanwhile, said it arrested fewer than 300 people last night, something they attributed to an earlier curfew and the peaceful handling of a situation on the Manhattan Bridge that nearly erupted in chaos.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson denounced George Floyd’s murder as “appalling” and “inexcusable” and said that while protests are legitimate, protesters should remain peaceful and obey the law.

Finally, from Walnut Creek, another example of a cop being mad extra.

The_Real_Fly@The_Real_Fly

“IF YOU DO NOT MOVE, YOU WILL BE DEAD” WALNUT CREEK, CA

25.8K

10:36 PM – Jun 2, 2020

Twitter Ads info and privacy

15.1K people are talking about this

* * *

After four straight nights of anarchy and unrest across the US, demonstrations in dozens of cities across the US took on a distinctly more peaceful tone during night No. 5, as several tense situations were successfully de-escalated, while demonstrations and in some cases violent protests sprang up in Europe and around the world.

Tuesday evening was the 7th night of protests (if one counts from the first rallies in Minneapolis) and the fifth night of nationwide unrest, as demonstrations had spread to other cities by Friday.

After closing all of Manhattan below 96th street to cars, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio called for an end to “coordinated criminal activity” and looting. Fortunately, the protests on Tuesday night were much less violent and chaotic. A clash between protesters and police was avoided on the Manhattan Bridge, where police allowed them to turn around and walk back to Manhattan. Some store owners lined the streets and “cheered on the demonstrators”, CNN reported. We imagine many more stood outside their boarded up stores with makeshift weapons, ready to take matters into their own hands after the NYPD refused to intervene to stop looters in parts of the city last night.

DTCNEWS@DTC_NEWS_2

Police in riot gear block protesters on New York’s Manhattan Bridge, make arrests.
 

5

3:35 AM – Jun 3, 2020

Twitter Ads info and privacy

See DTCNEWS’s other Tweets

ABC News✔@ABC

Protesters blockaded by police on New York’s Manhattan Bridge chant slogans, during a demonstration against the death of George Floyd. https://abcn.ws/3gIGB3j 

497

3:47 AM – Jun 3, 2020

Twitter Ads info and privacy

238 people are talking about this

At one point, Spider-Man made an appearance.

Anya Volz@AnyaVolz

A huge development at the Manhattan Bridge protest right now

249K

6:32 PM – Jun 2, 2020

Twitter Ads info and privacy

58.7K people are talking about this

Looting broke out in downtown Brooklyn at Flatbush Avenue and Pacific Street, an area with a lot of big box stores and the Atlantic Terminal mall near the Barclays Center. The department also said there was a shooting in Crown Heights, where a cop shot “somebody with a firearm”.

Though they remained mostly peaceful, thousands of demonstrators steadfastly refused to abide by Mayor de Blasio’s 8pmET curfew, likely because the mayor refused to bring in the national guard and state troopers to assist the NYPD.

“Something has to break, and it’s not going to be us,” Evan Kutcher, one of hundreds of demonstrators who stood outside the Barclays Center chanting Floyd’s name Tuesday evening, told the AP. “We’re here because something needs to change.”

In Philadelphia on Tuesday, CNN noted that protests culminated in a nine-minute “moment” of silence, while city officials opted to move a controversial statue of a former mayor that had become a locus for vandalism.

The Daily Beast✔@thedailybeast

Overnight, Philadelphia officials removed the statue of Frank Rizzo, the ex police chief and mayor who once told people to “Vote White” https://trib.al/QYSoYfK 

Philadelphia Tears Down Statue of Hated Ex-Police Chief, Mayor Frank Rizzo

In 1971, Rizzo publicly urged his supporters to “Vote White.”

thedailybeast.com

4,896

3:22 AM – Jun 3, 2020

Twitter Ads info and privacy

1,895 people are talking about this

After Virginia recalled national guardsmen, clashes continued between police and rioters and demonstrators in Washington DC. Cops pepper-sprayed protesters and again shot them with rubber bullets during a protest in Lafayette Square in Washington DC. Video showed a TV camera operator being sprayed at a fence erected at the edge of the park just north of the White House.

In Tennessee, members of the national guard kneeled with protesters.

Accountist @AccountistLisa

The National Guard in Tennessee put down their shields and stood with protesters.

63.4K

11:19 AM – Jun 2, 2020

Twitter Ads info and privacy

16.9K people are talking about this

Perhaps the most interesting development on Tuesday night were the demonstrations and, in a few instances, violent clashes that broke out in Paris and other European cities.

Bloomberg QuickTake✔@QuickTake

The protests against the death of #GeorgeFloyd and police brutality continued overnight in major cities across the U.S. and Europe

94

5:07 AM – Jun 2, 2020

Twitter Ads info and privacy

61 people are talking about this

In central London, thousands gathered to chant “no justice, no peace” on Wednesday morning.

NEVER MISS THE NEWS THAT MATTERS MOST

ZEROHEDGE DIRECTLY TO YOUR INBOX

Receive a daily recap featuring a curated list of must-read stories.

Birgit Maass@birgit_maass

“No justice, no peace!”

More and more people arriving for #HydeParkProtest in London.#BlackLivesMatter

164

5:33 AM – Jun 3, 2020

Twitter Ads info and privacy

72 people are talking about this

Protests even broke out in Sub-Saharan Africa, with protests staged in Kenya and Nigeria.

Pope Francis weighed in for the first time, saying “We cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye” to racism.

“I have witnessed with great concern the disturbing social unrest in your nation in these past days, following the tragic death of Mr. George Floyd…We cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life.”

According to a tally from the AP that was just updated, roughly 9,300 people have been arrested in demonstrations around the world.

Instead of the spray-painting graffiti, protesters in the US capital used chalk to draw messages on the asphalt.

Protesters chanted and talked among themselves, most wearing masks, but not keeping to social distancing for the coronavirus. One protester, Mati Yiheyis, a 21-year-old college student at the University of Virginia, told the AP that many older protesters stayed away because of COVID fears

When one protester climbed a lamp post and removed a street sign, others loudly booed, per the AP.

“It’s not what we’re about,” said protester George “TJ” Pierce.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced Tuesday that the Minnesota Department of Human Rights is launching a sweeping civil rights investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department which will look into practices of systemic racism. In a statement to the press, he said the inquiry will try to determine whether police engaged in “systemic discriminatory practices towards people of color and ensure any such practices are stopped.”

Derek Chauvin, the officer who placed his knee on Floyd’s neck, is expected to make his first appearance in court on charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter on June 8. Floyd’s funeral is set for June 9. One last important date: Analysts at Fundstrat projected that if a surge in new cases doesn’t arrive by June 11, then that would suggest the feared resurgence in infections never came to pass.

Carl Quintanilla✔@carlquintanilla

FUNDSTRAT: Protests “started 5 days ago .. and ~92% of those exposed to COVID-19 are symptomatic by day 14 (50% by Day 7). Day 14 is June 11th. So if no massive second wave starts by June 11th, we have a definitive break” in transmissability.” – @fundstrat

534

4:31 AM – Jun 3, 2020

Twitter Ads info and privacy

239 people are talking about this

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/clashes-police-continue-washington-tense-standoff-manhattan-bridge-diffused-during