This archive report was first published on 4 June 2020.
Published on June 4, 2020, at 8:26 PM
Protesters defied curfews across the United States on Tuesday, as President Donald Trump faced growing backlash over his handling of a violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrations.
Standoffs between police and demonstrators stretched into the night in cities from New York to Los Angeles, with tens of thousands gathering in Houston to pay tribute to George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man whose killing has sparked once-in-a-generation protests.
"Today is... about George Floyd's family -- we want them to know that George did not die in vain," Mayor Sylvester Turner told an estimated 60,000 people in Houston.
Despite the peaceful nature of the protests, police in Washington DC fired tear gas shortly after midnight, but the situation appeared to be calm overall.
"I'm just tired, essentially, of being scared of police, of not getting justice," said Jada Wallace, an 18-year-old protester outside the White House.
President Trump, who has rejected criticism over his handling of the protests, tweeted that the response in Washington was "overwhelming force. Domination," and accused the leadership of New York of succumbing to "Lowlife & Scum."
However, Trump's actions have been widely condemned, with Joe Biden, his presumptive Democratic rival, denouncing the crackdown as an abuse of power and promising to tackle "systemic racism" in the country.
"Donald Trump has turned this country into a battlefield driven by old resentments and fresh fears," Biden said in a speech in Philadelphia.
International allies, including Germany, Britain, and Australia, have also expressed concern over the situation in the United States.
