For an eighth day and night, tens of thousands of people staged peaceful protests and impassioned marches across the United States, while the widespread destruction and looting that had followed demonstrations in recent days was largely absent.
President Trump called on states to bring in the military to restore order and combat “lowlifes and losers,” as an infantry battalion from Fort Bragg was dispatched to the nation’s capital as part of a broader show of force. But governors resisted the president’s entreaties, instead bolstering the police presence, changing tactics and imposing curfews to prevent people from using the protests as cover to wreak mayhem.
While demonstrators in many cities defied curfews, they did so peacefully.
They sang “We Shall Overcome” at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn. Outside Wrigley Field in Chicago, crowds chanted “Hands up” as they raised their arms to the sky. In Los Angeles, hundreds gathered outside the home of Mayor Eric Garcetti, who earlier in the day had joined the crowds and taken a knee as he listened to pleas. On a bridge in Portland, Ore., hundreds lay face down, hands behind their backs, for a “die in” intended to emulate the death of George Floyd.
Mr. Floyd, a 46-year-old black security guard, died after his neck was pinned under a white police officer’s knee for nearly nine minutes in Minneapolis last week. The officer has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. The killing, captured on video, was the spark for the outpouring of anger and anguish expressed in demonstrations in more than 140 cities for over a week.
As the sustained protests have made clear, the fuse has been burning for a long time, and despair has mounted with each case of a black person dying at the hands of the police.
A week after Mr. Floyd’s death, Minnesota said it had started a human rights investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department, citing evidence of systematic discrimination against people of color, particularly African-Americans.
The Floyd family gathered in Houston on Tuesday for a memorial and were joined by about 60,000 people, according to city officials.
Speakers offered emotional testimonials to a man they recalled as a “gentle giant.” A video of Mr. Floyd’s 6-year-old daughter, Gianna, taking in the outpouring of support was shared widely around the country.
“Daddy changed the world,” she said.