Warning: Video contains strong language, viewer discretion advised
WASHINGTON — Shouting “Black Lives Matter” and “I can't breathe,” hundreds of people converged on the White House for a second straight day Saturday to protest the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and President Donald Trump's response.
President Trump, who earlier belittled the protesters, pledged to “stop mob violence.”
“I stand before you as a friend and ally to every American seeking justice and peace, and I stand before you in firm opposition to anyone exploiting this tragedy to loot, rob, attack and menace," the president said in Florida after watching the launch of a SpaceX rocket. "Healing, not hatred, justice, not chaos are the missions at hand.”
At Lafayette Park, across from the White House, three lines of barricades separated protesters from a line of police officers in riot gear.
Speaking over a megaphone, Cameron McCall said, “We don’t need violence. All we need are our voices.”
While some protesters stayed near the White House, others marched through the streets chanting, “No justice and no peace.” and “Say his name: George Floyd.” The mood was angry but decidedly non-violent with several speakers imploring marchers to remain peaceful.
Earlier, though, there were skirmishes between protesters and Secret Service officers on the edge of Lafayette Square, according to a reporter for radio station WTOP. Pepper spray was used to disperse one group of protesters, the station reported.
At multiple stops along the march, protesters openly taunted and verbally abused lines of uniformed police officers with riot shields.
The march paused between the Washington Monument and the African-American Museum and demonstrators sat down in the street for a nine-minute moment of silence for the nine minutes that the Minneapolis police officer knelt on George Floyd's neck.
At the Lincoln Memorial, one organizer spoke over a megaphone “Look to the left and to the right and thank that person. We can't hug anybody because of COVID but I love you anyway.” Many of the protesters wore masks, but did not socially distance themselves.
Another group circled through the Capitol Hill neighborhood for at least an hour in cars, honking. A helicopter hovered overhead.
In a series of tweets earlier Saturday, President Trump doubted their allegiance to Floyd’s memory, saying they were “professionally managed.” He offered no evidence to back his assertion, and the president even seemed to invite supporters to make their presence felt: “Tonight, I understand, is MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE???”
President Trump later rejected the suggestion that he was stoking a potential conflict between protesters and his supporters. “I was just asking. But I have no idea if they are going to be here," he said. “MAGA is Make America Great Again. By the way, they love African American people. They love black people.”
At Saturday's demonstration, there was no evidence of a counter-move by President Trump supporters.
President Trump said he had “watched every move” from inside the executive mansion during Friday's protest and “couldn't have felt more safe” as the Secret Service let the protesters carry on, “but whenever someone ... got too frisky or out of line, they would quickly come down on then, hard — didn't know what hit them.”
WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 30: Police work to keep demonstrators back during a protest in Lafayette Square Park on May 30, 2020 in Washington, DC. Across the country, protests were set off by the recent death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota while …
The president also criticized the mayors of Washington and Minneapolis.
President Trump said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey “is probably a very good person, but he’s a radical, left mayor.” He then described how he watched as a police station in the city was overrun. “For that police station to be abandoned and taken over, I’ve never seen anything so horrible and stupid in my life," President Trump said when speaking briefly to reporters at the White House.
He said Minnesota officials have to get tougher with rioters, and that by doing so they would be honoring the memory of Floyd.
The Secret Service said in a statement Saturday that six protesters were arrested in Washington and “multiple” officers were injured. There were no details on the charges or nature of the injuries. A spokesman for U.S. Park Police said their officers made no arrests, but several suffered minor injuries and one was taken to a hospital after being struck in the helmet by a projectile.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf on Saturday called the protesters “criminals” who committed “acts of violence while hiding behind their First Amendment right of lawful protest.”
Wolf said the Secret Service was “evolving and adapting to the changing nature of the threats they face.”
Floyd is the black man who was being held in handcuffs when he died Monday in Minneapolis after a police officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after Floyd stopped moving and pleading for air. Protests have erupted in U.S. cities in the days since.
As he tweeted, President Trump claimed that many Secret Service agents were “just waiting for action” and ready to unleash “the most vicious dogs, and the most ominous weapons, I have ever seen." His reference to “vicious dogs” potentially being sicced on protesters revisits images from the civil rights movement when marchers faced snarling police dogs and high-pressure fire hoses.
In a news conference Saturday afternoon, Muriel Bowser, mayor of the nation’s capital, called President Trump’s remark’s “gross” and said the reference to attack dogs conjures up with the worst memories of the nation’s fight against segregation.
“I call upon our city and our nation to exercise restraint, great restraint, even as the president tries to divide us,” she said. “I feel like these comments are an attack on humanity, an attack on black America, and they make my city less safe.”
In contrast with the president’s tweets, the Secret Service said it “respects the right to assemble and we ask that individuals do so peacefully for the safety of all.”
In protests that stretched into the early hours Saturday, people hurled pieces of bricks, bottles and other objects at Secret Service and Park Police officers who were in riot gear behind barricades around the White House. Protesters at times kicked and punched officers and wrestled over the barricades.
As some in the crowd grew more aggressive, police deployed pepper spray to keep them back and maintain a perimeter of officers around the White House.
The protest went on for hours before police declared the gathering “unlawful” and ordered everyone to leave Lafayette Square, a seven-acre public park located directly north of the White House. Dozens of officers pushed forward with their shields and fired off streams of pepper spray at protesters.
“Out of the park or you will be sprayed,” an officer shouted at the crowd.