As-it-happened: US protesters take to streets defying curfews

The Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) Board of Education has endorsed a resolution to immediately cancel its contract with the Minneapolis Police Department.

The schools are currently provided with security officers on site at every location, and the board was assessing its plans for the next academic year.

"We must take all actions within our power to stop systems of oppression," MPS Board Chair Kim Ellison said in a statement. "For the MPS School Board, that means discontinuing our contractual relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department."

Hundreds of protesters gathered at Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s residence, urging him to "de-fund the police" and sack the city’s police chief, Michel R. Moore.

Moore came under heavy criticism on Monday after suggesting that looters bore equal responsibility for the death of George Floyd as the Minneapolis police officers involved - a statement he later apologised for.

A Buffalo woman has been charged after driving her car into a group of police officers on Monday night, injuring three of them.

Deyanna Davis, 31, faces several charges, including aggravated assault on a police officer and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, New York State Police annonced.

The Associated Press news agency has analysed protests over the past few days and found that demostrations over the killing of George Floyd had been held in every one of the 25 US communities with the highest concentrations of new cases.

There are growing fears that the tightly packed streets and squares with people often not even wearing and face masks could lead to a spike in the number of new cases.

There are currently 1.8 million confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US - with more than 106,000 deaths.

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The New York Police Department (NYPD) is actively chasing the authors of looting in the city, ABC News reports.

The NYPD's Intelligence Bureau was busy tracking down car registration numbers from vehicles that carried vandals, looters and thieves around Manhattan in the last two days, a police official told the US broadcaster.

Some of these people had been seen outside shops with sledgehammers, crowbars and power tools, it said - suggesting a degree of planning and organisation.

President Trump has berated New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo for the situation in New York.

“Chaos, lawlessness, and destruction take over New York," Trump cited Fox News, before asking: "When will Governor Cuomo ask the federal government for help?"

NYC is "totally out of control", the president said before calling on the governor to "put down rioting now".

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Most of the protests across the country were largely peaceful but in Atlanta police fired tear gas to disperse crowds gathered near the city's Centennial Park after the curfew started, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

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After a police officer shot and killed Greg Crockett's best friend, he left Minnesota for good. Then in the aftermath of George Floyd's killing, he decided he couldn't stay away. How everything and nothing changed after the death of Philando Castile.

Greg Crockett was sitting in the passenger seat of his grandfather's van when he saw that - in the midst of rapidly escalating protests over the death of an unarmed black man named George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer - an auto parts store near his old neighbourhood was on fire.

Although he moved away from Minnesota almost two years ago, Crockett told his grandfather he needed to go. In response, his grandfather, a retired Marine, quoted Che Guevara.

"The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall."

Read more here.

An investigation has been launched into the use of helicopters during the protests in Washington DC on Monday night, the National Guard has announced.

Military helicopters were seen hovering low over crowds in the city. The use of a helicopter in this way is a common military tactic used to incite fear and break up crowds, US media report.

On Tuesday, the District of Columbia National Guard wrote on Twitter that an investigation into its use of helicopters had been ordered.

"Our priority is the safety of our guardsmen who support civil authorities," it said. "We are dedicated to ensuring the safety of citizens and their right to protest."

Footage widely shared on social media appeared to show a medical helicopter using the wind generated from its rotor blades to disperse crowds.

American football player Amen Ogbongbemiga has said he tested positive for Covid-19 after attending a protest in Tulsa.

The Oklahoma State linebacker said in a tweet that he had been "well protective" of himself and warned others to "take care of yourself" if they were going to protests.

There are fears that the US could see new outbreaks of coronavirus as thousands continue to gather in close proximity as a result of the ongoing protests.

"Based on the way the disease spreads, there is every reason to expect we will see new clusters and potentially new outbreaks moving forward," US Surgeon General Dr Jerome Adams told news site Politico earlier this week.

Here's what the situation on the ground looked like across some major US cities on Tuesday:

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President Donald Trump has defended his decision to stage a photo-op outside a historic church that was caught up in the protests in Washington DC.

Police cleared a peaceful protest close by to the church with tear gas and rubber bullets on Monday evening. Moments later, Trump was pictured holding a Bible outside the church.

The move was criticised by religious leaders and top Democrats who accused officials of aggressively dispersing peaceful demonstrators for the photo-op. Read more about some of the shock expressed by clerics here.

But in a tweet on Tuesday, Trump said: "You got it wrong!

"If the protesters were so peaceful, why did they light the church on fire the night before? People liked my walk to this historic place of worship!"

You can watch footage of the incident below:

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In some US cities, police officers and soldiers have knelt in solidarity with demonstrators.

One such city was Los Angeles, where protesters cheered as members of the military took a knee. The demonstrators had reportedly asked the soldiers to march alongside them, but they said they needed to stay in the same place.

Elsewhere, police officers in Iowa and Georgia also knelt in a display of solidarity.

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The American rapper Jay-Z has taken out a full-page ad in newspapers across the US in honour of George Floyd.

The ad, which was shared on Instagram by the rapper's entertainment agency Roc Nation, quotes a passage from a 1965 Martin Luther King Jr address.

It has reportedly been placed in major papers such as The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and The Denver Post.

It was signed by Jay-Z along with families who have lost sons to police violence, along with some advocacy organisations and attorneys.

You can see the ad below:

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If you're just joining us, here's what you need to know to bring you up to speed:

• Protests over the death of African-American George Floyd in police custody are continuing for an eighth consecutive night. Floyd's death in Minneapolis on 25 May sparked civil unrest that has since spread nationwide
• Demonstrators are defying curfews in major cities, including in New York and Washington DC. At least 40 cities have imposed strict curfew measures
• The state of Minnesota has filed a civil rights charge against their police department over Floyd's death. Governor Tim Walz told reporters that the probe will be designed to root out "systemic racism that is generations deep"
• Elsewhere, crowds have gathered in Floyd's hometown of Houston, Texas, for a peaceful march alongside his family. Up to 20,000 people are expected to attend, local media report

• And in Washington DC, some 1,600 active soldiers have been flown in to bases around the city. A Pentagon spokesman said the troops were on “heightened alert status”

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Some 1,600 active duty soldiers have been flown to bases in the Washington DC area over the past 24 hours, the Pentagon says.

The move is a "prudent planning measure in response to ongoing support to civil authorities operations", a spokesman said.

These soldiers - who were moved from Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Drum in New York - are not currently in DC but are "postured on military bases in the National Capitol Region".

The move was authorised by Defence Secretary Mark Esper.

President Donald Trump has paid tribute to David Dorn, a black police chief who was shot dead during protests in St Louis, Missouri.

Dorn, 77, was found dead in front of a pawn shop that was looted in the early hours of Tuesday.

He retired from the St Louis police force in 2007 and since then had been serving as the police chief of a small town, ABC News reported.

Trump said: "Our highest respect to the family of David Dorn, a Great Police Captain from St. Louis."

The president said Dorn had been "viciously shot and killed by despicable looters".

No one has yet been arrested, police said.

Protesters across the US are not letting curfew orders stop them from marching.

In Fort Worth, Texas, a small crowd reportedly remained even after a 20:00 curfew came into force:

Protesters in New York also defied an 20:00 curfew. The city's mayor brought the curfew forward and extended it to a second night after looting erupted in Manhattan on Monday night.

And in Washington DC, an "enormous crowd" continued to demonstrate past the 19:00 curfew.

The Department of Justice has refused to comment on a report that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been granted new authority to "conduct covert surveillance" and to collect intelligence on people participating in protests.

The plan is outlined in a two-page memorandum obtained by Buzzfeed News.

The DEA's actions are typically limited to enforcing drug-related federal crime, but on Sunday it received approval to go beyond the agency's mandate to "perform other law enforcement duties", according to the report.

The memo indicates that DEA agents would be authorised to share this intelligence with local and state law enforcement authorities, to "intervene" and to "protect both participants and spectators in the protests", and to arrest protesters who are alleged to have violated federal law.

Three DEA sources told BuzzFeed News they were troubled by the memo and see it as an example of the justice department potentially abusing its power in an attempt to smear the protesters.