US protests latest: George Floyd memorial in Minnesota to take place as Al Sharpton speaks of hope for change
Mourners in Minnesota are due to attend an emotionally charged memorial service for George Floyd, an African American man whose death in police custody more than a week ago triggered global protests.
This story will be regularly updated throughout Friday.
Minneapolis commemorates George Floyd
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A memorial service for George Floyd, the black man whose death in police custody has sparked protests across the United States, is being held in Minnesota.
The Reverend Al Sharpton, a television political commentator and civil rights activist who will give the eulogy at the service, spoke on Thursday morning before the event and said he believes protesters may cause change in the nation.
“I’ve seen more Americans of different races and of different ages, standing up together, marching together, raising their voices together,” Mr Sharpton said.
“We are at a turning point here.”
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Huge crowds have defied curfews and taken to the streets of cities across the country for nine straight nights in sometimes violent protests that prompted President Donald Trump to threaten to send in the military.
The protests dwindled overnight after prosecutors on Wednesday levelled new and elevated charges against four Minneapolis police involved in Mr Floyd’s death.
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Several major cities scaled back or lifted curfews imposed for the past few days but not all was calm.
In New York City’s Brooklyn borough, police in riot gear charged into a crowd of about 1,000 protesters defying a curfew on Wednesday night
Mr Floyd’s killing has propelled the issue of race to the top of the political agenda five months before a November 3 presidential election.
Services for Mr Floyd will stretch across six days and three states, the lawyer for Floyd’s family told media.
Memorials will also be held on Saturday in Hoke County, North Carolina, where Mr Floyd’s sister lives, and in Houston on Monday, near where Mr Floyd previously lived.
A funeral is planned for Tuesday with private services at an undisclosed location.
Florida police under investigation for knee on neck takedown
Another video has shown a US police officer pressing his knee into the neck of a handcuffed black man, which has prompted an investigation and promises of transparency.
Two officers from Sarasota, Florida, are seen on video holding down Patrick Carroll, 27, during a domestic violence call on May 18 — a week before the death of Mr Floyd.
A third officer watched on standing nearby.
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The department told news outlets it was not aware the officer placed a knee on Mr Carroll’s neck until it was tagged in the video on social media on Monday.
Aerial video posted by the department on Tuesday shows the officers speaking with Mr Carroll for several minutes before placing him in handcuffs. He then resists being put in the patrol car and officers force him to the ground.
Mr Carroll — who faces charges of domestic battery, possession of ammunition by a convicted felon and resisting arrest — said he was trying to ask officers why he was being detained.
He said he had asthma and scoliosis in his back and was having trouble breathing.
The officer who placed his knee on Mr Carroll’s neck has been placed on administrative leave, the department said.
He has not been identified. The two other officers are on “desk duty” while the arrest is being investigated, news outlets reported.
Virginia will no longer ‘preach false history’
A towering statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee will be removed as soon as possible from the Virginian capital of Richmond, Governor Ralph Northam has said.
He pledged the state would no longer “preach a false version of history”.
The bronze equestrian statue, which sits on an enormous pedestal on state property, will be moved to storage while Mr Northam’s administration works “with the community to determine its future”.
“You see, in Virginia, we no longer preach a false version of history. One that pretends the Civil War was about ‘state rights’ and not the evils of slavery. No-one believes that any longer,” Mr Northam said.
Mr Northam reference to ‘state rights’ pertains to a long-standing post-Civil War narrative that emphasised that losing southern states of the Confederacy were fighting against the northern states’ aggression, instead of the desire to continue slavery.
Richmond served as the Confederacy’s capital, while numerous other Confederate monuments are concentrated in the US south.
The decision came a day after Richmond’s Mayor, Levar Stoney, announced he would seek to remove the four other Confederate statues along Monument Avenue, a prestigious residential street and National Historic Landmark district.
A descendant of Mr Lee’s brother, the Reverend Robert W Lee IV, also endorsed the monument’s removal, saying at the press conference that his line of the Lee family “wholeheartedly” commends the Governor’s decision.
Black inmate dies in US custody
A jail inmate in New York City has died after correctional officers sprayed him with pepper spray, the Bureau of Prisons has said.
Officers sprayed Jamel Floyd, a 35-year-old black man, on Wednesday local time after he barricaded himself in his cell at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Centre and broke a cell door window with a metal object.
“He became increasingly disruptive and potentially harmful to himself and others,” the agency said in a statement.
“Pepper spray was deployed and Floyd was removed from his cell.”
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Mr Floyd’s mother said her son suffered from asthma and diabetes and that jail officials were aware of his health conditions.
“They maced my son,” Donna Mays said.
“They murdered my son.”
Members of the jail’s medical staff checking on Mr Floyd later found him unresponsive and started life-saving measures and called an ambulance, but he was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The Bureau of Prisons said there is no indication Mr Floyd’s death was related to coronavirus.
The agency’s director, Michael Carvajal, said the Justice Department’s inspector general was investigating.
The FBI and US Marshal’s Service have also been notified.
$US55 million clean-up bill in Minneapolis
Officials in Minneapolis say the looting and property damage in the city following the death of George Floyd has caused at least $US55 million ($79 million) in damage.
Vandals damaged or set fire to at least 220 buildings in the city where Mr Floyd died, but that number was expected to go up, city officials said.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey will ask for state and federal aid to help rebuild after the civil unrest.
Until that happens, community members are pitching in to support Minneapolis neighbourhoods.
More than $US1 million has been raised to help businesses in north Minneapolis.
The West Broadway Business and Area Coalition said it would announce how it planned to use the money in the coming weeks.
NFL star apologises over ‘insensitive’ comments
SuperBowl-winning quarterback Drew Brees has walked back from recent comments he made about former San Francisco 49ers quarterback and social justice activist Colin Kaepernick and his kneeling during the US national anthem in 2016.
Brees had earlier this week reiterated his previously expressed views that Kaepernick kneeling was “disrespectful”.
Brees, who won the SuperBowl in 2009 with the New Orleans Saints season, was criticised by fellow high-profile athletes and others in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
Los Angeles Lakers great LeBron James, New Orleans Saints safety Malcolm Jenkins and former NFL player Martellus Bennett were just some of the high-profile athletes to admonish Brees on Twitter.
Brees was asked on Wednesday to revisit Kaepernick’s kneeling during the anthem to bring awareness of police brutality and racial injustice.
“I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States,” Brees began, adding that the national anthem reminds him of his grandfathers, who served in the armed forces during World War II.
“In many cases, it brings me to tears thinking about all that has been sacrificed, and not just in the military, but for that matter, those throughout the civil rights movements of the 60s, and all that has been endured by so many people up until this point.”
In an Instagram post on Thursday, Brees said he apologised to his friends, teammates, New Orleans, the black community, the NFL community and “anyone I hurt with my comments yesterday”.
“In an attempt to talk about respect, unity, and solidarity centred around the American flag and the national anthem, I made comments that were insensitive and completely missed the mark on the issues we are facing right now as a country,” he wrote.
