After the death of the African American George Floyd as a result of a brutal police operation, around 3,000 people protested against racism in New York. On Saturday night there were riots in the districts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, more than 200 people were arrested, as the chief of the New York police, Dermot Shea, said. There were injuries on both sides, he said on Saturday.
Many demonstrators carried placards that read “I can’t breathe” (“I can’t breathe”). These were the words Floyd said shortly before his death to the police officers who kneeled on him during his arrest in the city of Minneapolis. It was the second night in a row that protests broke out in New York.
Mayor Bill de Blasio wrote on Twitter late on Friday evening that it was about “de-escalating this situation and bringing people home safely”. He promised a “complete review of the events” and added: “We never want to see another night like this.” In other US cities there were protests, some of them violent, on Saturday night.
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