New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has extended his city’s curfew for a second day after another rioting and looting on Monday night. Initially, there was only a plan for a curfew for the night from 11 p.m. Monday evening to 5 a.m. Tuesday, due to protests this weekend following the death of black George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
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New York police have dispatched 8,000 officers to the streets and their presence in areas where destruction and looting had doubled, De Blasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo reported. The disturbances continued on Monday evening, after which the mayor announced an extension of the curfew for another evening and night starting at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
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Various media outlets reported the looting of Nike and Microsoft stores in Manhattan, a New York Yankees shop and two stores selling Rolex watches. There were also images on social media of looting at Macy’s department store.
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No military deployment
The protesters’ violence “overshadows the righteousness of the message,” Governor Cuomo said Monday. “It plays into the hands of the people and parties that do not want change.” President Trump’s threat to use military forces against the rioters rejected Cuomo, as did the Democratic governors in the states of Illinois and Michigan.
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Curfews have been imposed in nearly 40 other cities in the United States. In Washington, curfew went into effect at 7 p.m., but more than four hours later, there were still many activists on the streets, CNN reported. At least one army helicopter tried to disperse the groups, according to the news channel.
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Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser on Twitter denounced the federal police’s deployment against activists in Lafayette Square, where President Trump was strolling to a nearby church. “I had declared a curfew for 7 pm. More than 25 minutes before curfew, federal police used ammunition against peaceful protesters in front of the White House. An act that only makes the work of the police officers more difficult. Shame!”
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