Confederate Statue Toppled; 50 Portland Arrests: Protest Update

(Bloomberg) -- Protesters gathered around the nation on Saturday in some of their largest numbers yet. Police in Portland, Oregon, said they made about 50 arrests after declaring a “civil disturbance and unlawful assembly.”

Streets and squares were packed in Minneapolis, where George Floyd died after a police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Atlanta and scores of places large and small. Global protests were held from London and Paris to Tokyo and Brisbane, Australia.

There were few reports of violence and more cities and states are limiting the use of police force for crowd management. Some demonstrators in Virginia toppled the statue of a confederate general, the Associated Press reported. The D.C. National Guard is set to pull additional troops out of the capital as early as Monday.

Key Developments:

• Trump’s Week to Be Remembered as His Undoing or His Revival
• Trump Assails Twitter After Campaign Video Pulled
• Black Unemployment Rate Rises While White Joblessness Falls
• Troubled Minneapolis Legacy Fanned Flames Over Floyd’s Death
• Atlanta Protests Reveal Divides in Bastion of Black Success

Portland Police Make 50 Arrests (4:35 a.m.)

Police in Portland, Oregon, said they made at least 50 arrests after declaring a “civil disturbance and unlawful assembly” about 11:30 p.m. local time. Most of the crowd had left downtown within an hour. Police shot pepper balls at protesters, the Oregonian said on Twitter.

Earlier the force thanked thousands of marchers in an eastside rally that featured “no destruction, no violence and no reports of any criminal behavior,” Portland Police said on Twitter.

London Police Condemn Violence (3:36 a.m.)

Cressida Dick, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, said she was saddened that 14 officers were injured after a minority of protesters became violent in central London on Saturday evening. One member of the mounted police fell from her horse.

A demonstration is planned outside the U.S. embassy today, and others are taking place in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Bristol, the BBC reported.

“I would urge protesters to please find another way to make your views heard which does not involve coming out on the streets of London, risking yourself, your families and officers as we continue to face this deadly virus,” Dick said.

Confederate Statue Toppled in Virginia (1 a.m.)

The statue of General Williams Carter Wickham was toppled in Monroe Park in Virginia, AP cited a police spokeswoman as saying. Someone urinated on the statue of the confederate official after it was pulled from its pedestal, while photos showed possible paint or spray paint on it, the report said. The statue had stood since 1891, it added.

San Antonio Spurs Coach ‘Embarrassed as a White Person’ (11 p.m.)

Gregg Popovich said he was horrified to see the “nonchalant” look on the officer’s face while he pressed his knee into George Floyd’s neck. “I’m just embarrassed as a white person to know that that can happen. To actually watch a lynching,” the award-winning coach said in a video released by the team.

Trump Tweets on Crowd Size (10:09 p.m.)

More than 10,000 people attended demonstrations in the nation’s capital on Saturday, the Washington Post reported. Nearly two miles of metal fencing has been erected around the White House, “as if it had been locked in a cage,” the newspaper said.

D.C. National Guard Says Additional Troops to Leave Monday (9:45 p.m.)

Almost 4,000 additional troops sent to Washington could leave as early as Monday, CNN reported, citing Major General William J. Walker, commander of the D.C. National Guard.

The troops were brought into the nation’s capital from other states and have been a point of contention between Trump and local officials.

Portland to End Use of Tear Gas for Crowd Management (9:05 p.m.)

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler told the Oregon city’s police to curb the use of tear gas at protests unless “there is a serious and immediate threat to life safety, and there is no other viable alternative for dispersal.”

The order came after concerns were raised by the community, he said.

Pence Says Restore Order First, Then Listen (8:55 p.m.)

Vice President Mike Pence said the Trump administration’s first order of business is to restore law and order to the country, and once that’s done “now is the time to have an open ear” to minority community leaders, including business owners and religious figures. “As we go forward, it’s incumbent on us to listen,” he said on Fox News Channel in an pre-recorded interview.

Pence said “long term inequities of this country” were laid bare by Floyd’s death. Trump plans to offer a “positive agenda” and “real results” for black Americans “unlike the failed Democratic agenda,” the vice president said.

Editor Resigns Over ‘Buildings Matter’ Headline (8:35 p.m.)

The executive editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer resigned after the paper published the headline “Buildings Matter, Too” on a story about the costs of unrest in the city that led to a walkout by dozens of staff members.

The editor, Stan Wischnowski, 58, was thanked for his 20 years at the paper by publisher Lisa Hughes. She did not name a successor, saying that the 191-year-old daily would look for “a seasoned leader who embodies our values, embraces our strategy and understands the diversity of the communities we serve.”

Other media outlets have faced turmoil since the unrest began over the death of George Floyd, including the New York Times and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

D.C. Protesters Move Toward White House (7:25 p.m.)

The largest protests yet around Washington, including on Capitol Hill, near the Lincoln Memorial and in residential neighborhoods, converged in the evening in Lafayette Park near the White House. The city isn’t under a curfew.

It was the ninth day of action on the streets of the capital to protest the death of George Floyd. President Donald Trump spent the day out of sight and mostly off Twitter.

New, higher fencing has encircled the White House this week, and television images showed military vehicles cordoning off streets to vehicle traffic. Mayor Muriel Bowser, derided by Trump on Friday as “grossly incompetent,” visited some of the protesters on the street she dubbed “Black Lives Matter Plaza” on Friday. Bowser said she “pushed the army away from our city” after Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Friday ordered active-duty soldiers on standby outside Washington to return to their home bases. The police and military presence on the streets Saturday was noticeably reduced.

As Curfew Nears, N.Y. Protesters Converge (7:20 p.m.)

Thousands of protesters in Brooklyn, who had demonstrated around the borough during the day, crossed the East River to join marchers in Manhattan as the city’s 8 p.m. curfew neared.

It was the largest day of protest, as people biked and marched in the sticky summer heat and occasional showers. They chanted “No justice, no peace,” and waved home-made signs calling to defund the NYPD. At Cadman Plaza, in downtown Brooklyn, activists whipped up crowds with megaphones calling on them to turn out to the polls in November and even explained the steps to vote by mail.

After nights marked by looting and mass arrests, the crowds laughed and applauded despite a heavy police presence. “We see you!” one of the organizers called out to a police chopper buzzing overhead.

Separately, Fox News said 292 New York police officers were injured during the protests since Floyd’s death.

Protests May Add Cases: Ex-CDC Head (6:10 p.m.)

Tom Frieden, former head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said big protest rallies may cause additional coronavirus cases, but he offered some strong offsetting factors. Chiefly, the spread of Covid-19 outdoors is far less than indoors, Frieden said in a “Fox News” interview, with a person 19 times less likely to catch the infection in the open air.

“That doesn’t mean the risk is zero,” said Frieden, chief executive of Resolve to Save Lives, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, whose founder, Michael Bloomberg, is majority owner of Bloomberg LP. Wearing masks, frequent hand-washing and attempting to maintain social distancing are key, he said.

Queens D.A. Also Limits Protester Prosecutions (4:15 p.m.)

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz joined her Manhattan counterpart Cyrus Vance Jr. in saying she would not prosecute protesters “based on curfew and social distancing violations.” On Friday, Vance said he wouldn’t prosecute peaceful protesters “in the interest of justice.”

As of Friday, there had been roughly 2,500 arrests around New York City in protests, the police said.

Long Lines to View Floyd’s Casket in N.C. (3 p.m.)

Mourners gathered at the Free Will Baptist church in Raeford, North Carolina, population 4,962, where George Floyd was born. Long lines waited to see his gold coffin, lined in blue, on Saturday. “I have kids that look like that guy, too,” Quavas Hart, a U.S. veteran waiting to see the casket, told WRAL.com. A family service, carried live on national TV, was held after the public viewing.

His body will then move to Houston, where Floyd grew up and spent most of his life.

Protests Swell Around the U.S. (2:20 p.m.)

Protests against police violence and the death of George Floyd reignited Saturday around the U.S. The marches appeared peaceful as states and cities announced measures to relax curfews and ban police tactics like chokeholds and tear gas.

Crowds gathered in Washington for what was expected to be the largest day of protests so far. With no apparent overarching organization, people marched by the thousands near the White House, the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial chanting and holding banners. The tone was described as peaceful, even festive on a hot, humid afternoon.

The Trump administration pulled back active-duty troops on Friday after the city’s mayor complained they were inciting tensions.

President Donald Trump is inside the White House but won’t make official remarks; he White House press office called a travel and photo “lid” just after 11 a.m. That doesn’t preclude the president commenting via Twitter, but the pace of tweets has been light so far.

Social media posts also showed large crowds in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and other cities. The protests swelled long before curfews set in many cities -- which have been widely ignored and led to confrontations with police. About 100 protesters were reported outside Trump’s golf resort near Miami.

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