George Floyd: Riot police fire tear gas and rubber bullets and buildings burn as protests spread to dozen US cities

‘Disperse peacefully from the area immediately. If you continue to obstruct police you will be arrested immediately’

Riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas and more buildings were set alight as protests over the death in custody of an unarmed black man, spread to more than a dozen US cities.

Many of the protests were peaceful, or at least portions of them were. Elsewhere, people threw stones at police and set alight buildings, as officers responded by firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

In Minneapolis, The Independent witnessed a Wells Fargo bank office and a Post Office building located close to the city’s 5th Precinct Police Station, set on fire. Thick acrid smoke lifted in waves.

Elsewhere, protesters tried to set fire to a petrol station. At the same time, a number of residents urged people not to set fire to buildings in their own community. Some reports said in some cases people tried to put out the fires with water.

“Disperse peacefully from the area immediately,” police dressed in riot gear said on a loud-speaker, as they sought to drive away protesters from the area around the 5th Precicnt, in the Lyndale neighbourhood. “If you continue to obstruct, resist, or interfere with police officers, you will be violating Minnesota state statue and you will be arrested immediately.”

A 22-year-old woman called Emily Hamm, who was visiting from Houston, Texas, defended the decision to set alight to stores such as Target and a Post Office. “We’re tying to get people’s attention,” she said. “We’re trying to get the government’s attention. They will pay attention tonight.”

The protests reached from coast to coast, and took in places such as Charlotte, North Carolina, and Washington DC.

Brian Kemp said on Twitter he was declaring a state of emergency and calling up 500 soldiers to “to protect people and property in Atlanta”. He said the Georgia National Guard would deploy “immediately” to assist law enforcement.

In New York, protesters clashed with police following what had been peaceful protests. Having marched to Brooklyn, activists who walked from Manhattan chanted insults at officers lined up outside the Barclays Centre and pelted them with water bottles. Police sprayed an eye-irritating chemical into the largely diverse crowd a number of times, reports said.

The protests that taken authorities in several cities partly by surprise, followed the death of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, 46, after being taken into police custody. Fury over the incident soared after cellphone footage emerged showing a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on Mr Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes.

On Friday, Mr Chauvin, 44, was charged with third degree murder and manslaughter and taken into custody. Three other officers who were present and fired from the Minneapolis Police Department, have not been charged at this point.

Much of the anger was fuelled by the fact Mr Floyd was merely the latest in a long line of unarmed African American men to loose their lives at the hands of police officers. A number of protesters, many of them young African American, merely said “This is for our brother George.”

“This is payback,” said Cassie Macedo, 24, a student and organiser who said shops that had been damaged would recover. She said the nation’s entire criminal justice system and more, needed overall.

She said change would only come when the community was in charge of the police. Otherwise they would continue to act against the interests of people of colour. She said the community had been organising for ensure people could get access to medicine if their pharmacy had been destroyed.

“I’m here supporting my community,” she said. “But I’m also cleaning up afterwards.”

Lisa Bromer, 54, a white nurse, said she was concerned the setting alight to the buildings would distract from combatting racism in the city. “Would George Floyd have wanted this,” she asked.

Said Muhammad, a 28-year-old businessman, said he had called the police after protesters set light to several vehicles and a petrol station. Yet he said other than two officers stopping briefly and then leaving, nothing has been done. As he spoke, the cars blazed and a glow emerged from an office in the gas station.

“I don’t necessarily agree with setting fire to things but I understand the anger,” he said. “If this was not a poor neighbourhood, made up of people of colour, they would have sent the fire truck by now.”

He added: “This is America right now.”

Additional reporting by Associated Press