Philadelphia Sets Curfew; Zuckerberg Fears Unrest: Protest Wrap

(Bloomberg) -- Philadelphia issued a citywide curfew Wednesday night after violent confrontations and arrests were reported in the city during a second night of protests over the Oct. 26 killing of a Black man by police. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf deployed National Guard troops to help control unrest in the state’s largest city, while police called for residents to stay indoors.

Walter Wallace Jr.’s family said they had called for an ambulance, not the police, to help with a mental health crisis, the Associated Press reported, citing their lawyer. Police said Wallace had a knife and was fatally shot after ignoring orders to drop it. Protesters and the family questioned why police did not try to subdue Wallace with a less deadly weapon.

In downtown Brooklyn, a demonstration against Wallace’s shooting erupted Tuesday night into acts of vandalism and attacks on police vehicles, resulting in about 29 arrests and minor injuries to five officers, the New York Police Department reported. At least 39 commercial properties were vandalized and nine vehicles were damaged in what law enforcement officials called a small but violent protest. Police made three arrests at a separate demonstration in Manhattan.

Meanwhile in Virginia, Governor Ralph Northam signed a bill on Wednesday that prohibits police from using no-knock search warrants and limits the use of chokeholds.

Key Developments:

• U.S. Police Facing More Lawsuits Over Protests, a Fiscal Drain
• Virginia Bans No-Knock Warrants, Limits Neck Restraints
• Cities Gird for U.S. Election Unrest After a Season of Violence
• Legal Affairs, Race Are Fastest-Growing Election Topics on Twitter
• Trump Stirs Rallies by Tarring Biden With Views That Aren’t His

The clashes in Philadelphia reignited the issue of police shootings of Black men in the waning days of a presidential campaign that has been shaped by protests since the May killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The city’s African-American community is considered key to Democrat Joe Biden’s push to win Pennsylvania’s electoral votes. Donald Trump’s narrow victory in the state four years ago helped send him to the White House.

With just days to go until the Nov. 3 presidential election, Trump is stirring his base by misrepresenting Biden’s views on policing. For instance, asked Wednesday in in Las Vegas about the unrest in Philadelphia, Trump said Biden “doesn’t want to condemn” the rioters.

Yet a day earlier, Biden had released a statement saying “no amount of anger at the very real injustices in our society excuses violence.”

At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on Wednesday, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg said private militia networks are a big concern for him, and he’s “worried about the potential of civil unrest.”

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With assistance from Bloomberg