George Floyd’s death: Protesters set Minneapolis police station on fire

Protests increases over the death of George Floyd as protesters continue to rage in Minneapolis.

On Thursday night, cheering protesters broke into a Minneapolis police area station after the department abandoned it, setting it on fire and igniting fireworks.

A police spokesman confirmed at around 10pm Thursday that staff had evacuated the 3rd precinct station, the focus of many of the protests, “in the interest of the safety of our personnel.”

Live stream video showed the protesters entering the building, where fire alarms blared and sprinklers ran as fire were set.

Protesters were sighted setting fire to a Minneapolis Police Department jacket and cheering. But, police said late Thursday that no serious injuries had been reported.

How George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer

This online news platform recalls that a one minute, fifty-nine seconds video sighted online showed how the United States Black man, George Floyd could be seen pinned down by a police officer with his knee, leading to massive outrage on social media. The shocking but rather sad video showed the police officer pinning down George Floyd to the pavement with his knee on his neck for several minutes, despite the black man yelling that he cannot breathe.

The black man could be heard saying: “I can’t breathe” 13 times before becoming unresponsive and dying. He said “They gonna kill me” 4 times before the police officer killed him. Late George Floyd begged for his Mamma in the sad video.

Trump’s reaction

Reacting to the the happening, President Donald Trump on Friday called protesters in Minneapolis “thugs”.

Trump tweeted after protesters outraged by the death of a black man in police custody set Minneapolis police station on fire.

He urged the Minneapolis Mayor, Jacob Frey, to control the protesters or he would issue directive of the use of dangerous force against them.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1266231100172615680

The National Guard confirmed their presence at Minneapolis as they said they were ready to escort the Minneapolis Fire Department to ensure a hitch-free operation.

“We have activated more than 500 soldiers to St. Paul, Minneapolis and surrounding communities. Our mission is to protect life, preserve property and the right to peacefully demonstrate. A key objective is to ensure fire departments can respond to calls,” said the National Guard at Minneapolis.

Although, Trump’s message can now be read-only after clicking on a notice which says: “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest the Tweet to remain accessible.”

In a thread, Twitter said it had taken the action “in the interest of preventing others from being inspired to commit violent acts”. People will still “be able to retweet with a comment, but will not be able to like, reply, or retweet it.”

This reliable online news platform understands that Twitter’s action came few hours after President Trump said he would introduce an executive order that may scrap or weaken a law that has protected internet organisation, including Twitter and Facebook in an extraordinary attempt to regulate social media platforms where he has been criticized. The proposed law is part of an executive directive Trump signed on Thursday.

Trump had attacked Twitter for tagging tweets about unsubstantiated claims of fraud about mail-in voting with a warning prompting readers to investigate the post.