June 6 George Floyd protest news

Our live coverage of the nationwide George Floyd protests has moved here.

US President Donald Trump tweeted about the protests in Washington, DC, tonight.

“Much smaller crowd in DC than anticipated. National Guard, Secret Service, and DC Police have been doing a fantastic job. Thank you!” he tweeted.

Fact check: There were tens of thousands of people on the streets in DC today, in what appears to be the biggest gathering in the city since Floyd’s death, said CNN Correspondent Alex Marquadt, reporting from the scene.

Things stayed peaceful all day, with no reported clashes with police. Reflecting the more peaceful nature of the protests, there is no curfew tonight.

There was also a much lighter police presence, in sharp contrast to earlier in the week, when National Guard troops and federal agencies swarmed the city. Earlier today, the commanding general for the DC National Guard told CNN that the thousands of out-of-state troops could start leaving the city as soon as Monday.

Demonstrators calling to defund the Minneapolis Police Department march on University Avenue on June 6, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

There’s a growing group of dissenters who believe Americans can survive without law enforcement as we know it. America, those dissenters believe, may even be better off without it.

The solution to police brutality and racial inequalities in policing is simple, supporters say: Just defund police.

What does this actually mean? This proposal means instead of funding a police department, a sizable chunk of a city’s budget is invested in communities, especially marginalized ones where much of the policing occurs.

The movement is a spectrum: Some supporters want to reallocate some, but not all, funds away from police departments to social services. Some want to strip all police funding and dissolve departments.

Both interpretations center on reimagining what public safety looks like.

It also means dismantling the idea that police are “public stewards” meant to protect communities, since many black communities and people of color feel unprotected by police, said Philip McHarris, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Yale University and lead research and policy associate at the Community Resource Hub for Safety and Accountability.

What about implementing reforms? Police trainings and body cameras haven’t brought about the change supporters want – and often, communities don’t feel safe calling the police when they face real threats of danger and violence. Growing up, McHarris instead relied on neighbors who helped him navigate these threats.

What if, he said, those people could provide the same support they showed him on a full-time basis?

So where would the funds go? Instead of the police force, city funding could go toward social services for mental health, domestic violence and homelessness, among others.

Those dollars can be used to fund schools, hospitals, housing and food in those communities, too – “all of the things we know increase safety,” McHarris said.

Read more here:

TOPSHOT - A Police officer charges forward as people protest the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police in front of the White House in Washington, D.C. on May 31, 2020. - Thousands of National Guard troops patrolled major US cities after five consecutive nights of protests over racism and police brutality that boiled over into arson and looting, sending shock waves through the country. The death Monday of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, at the hands of police in Minneapolis ignited this latest wave of outrage in the US over law enforcement's repeated use of lethal force against African Americans -- this one like others before captured on cellphone video. (Photo by Samuel Corum / AFP) (Photo by SAMUEL CORUM/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article There's a growing call to defund the police. Here's what it means

In Seattle, Washington, police and protesters are clashing near Capitol Hill.

Police, standing on the other side of a fence, appear to be trying to clear protesters by using flash bangs on the street. There is smoke hanging in the air.

This comes after the Seattle police chief ordered the suspension of tear gas in crowd management on Friday.

Zachary Nealy leads a brass band calling itself the Protesters Mass Band atop a parking garage in downtown Atlanta, on Saturday, June 6.

Earlier today in Atlanta, the marches saw pockets of joy, as protesters danced to blaring music on the crowded streets.

They danced to Childish Gambino’s “This is America,” and did the electric slide dance near Centennial Olympic Park in the city’s downtown.

The mood was light, with cheering and applause. Families marched with children; at one point, a live band even played on top of a parking garage.

“Music has completely changed the atmosphere, as you can see,” the band director told CNN. “As soon as we started playing, the crowd just immediately came this way. We just want justice. We understand what’s going on. Music will bring togetherness and everybody is here now.”

CNN Correspondent Martin Savidge said: “We went from a street protest to what is now a party in the street – but still with the consciousness of what this is all about. You can dance and still chant ‘Black Lives Matter.’”

It’s a stark contrast to just a week ago. Last Friday, there was chaos on the streets of Atlanta, when demonstrators lit a car on fire and broke windows at the CNN Center. Protesters threw firecrackers at police and smoke bombs into buildings.

Watch:

Robert McCabe, left, and Aaron Torgalski.

It’s past curfew in the city of Buffalo, in upstate New York, but there is still a small group of protesters on the street.

They’re gathered in Niagara Square, in the city’s downtown – where police officers pushed over and injured a 75-year-old man, Martin Gugino, during protests on Thursday night.

Video of the demonstration shows a row of officers walking toward Gugino and two pushing him. His head bleeds onto the sidewalk as officers walk past him, some looking down at him.

Gugino was hospitalized with a head injury.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the incident “wholly unjustified and utterly disgraceful,” and said on Twitter that “police officers must enforce — NOT ABUSE — the law.”

Officers plea not guilty: The two officers were suspended without pay, and pleaded not guilty earlier today to charges of assault in the second degree.

Following their suspension, 57 Buffalo police officers resigned from the force’s emergency response team. They did not resign from the force.

A demonstrator stands in front of West Hollywood Sheriffs Police Department during a peaceful protest in West Hollywood, California on June 6.

It’s about 10:30 p.m. in New York and Washington, DC, and 7:30 p.m. in Los Angeles, but big crowds are still out on the streets in both cities, and spirits are high.

In New York, protesters are marching through Greenwich Village in downtown Manhattan. Curfew was at 8 p.m., but there isn’t a heavy police presence tonight, and police haven’t been enforcing the curfew with arrests like earlier this week.

The protesters have been marching for hours now. Some of the organizers and leaders keep morale up with call-and-response chants like “Do not engage, we are united, we are peaceful” and “United, the people will never be defeated.”

In Washington, DC, crowds are massive tonight – perhaps the biggest since they began, said CNN Correspondent Alex Marquadt on the scene.

Curfew was lifted earlier this week, and protests remain peaceful. People are gathering on the edge of Lafayette Park, close to the White House, taking photos with a new street sign that reads “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”

There are some members of law enforcement and National Guard troops in sight – but nowhere near the aggressive numbers seen earlier in the week, Marquadt said.

In Los Angeles, curfew has also been lifted and protests remain peaceful, with the mood light tonight.

The marchers, numbering at least 1,000, is diverse, said CNN reporter Lucy Kafanov on the scene. She described seeing “members of the Asian community, Latino community, white people, black people, LGBTQ, everyone.”

Riot policemen gather during a protest at the Champ de Mars, with the Eiffel Tower in background in Paris on June 6, as part of "Black Lives Matter" worldwide protests.

The Black Lives Matter movement and ongoing US protests have struck a chord with many around the world – perhaps most notably in Paris, where protesters have been demonstrating throughout the week, and are on the streets again on Saturday.

The Paris protesters are marching in solidarity with those in the United States – but also to protest racial injustice and police brutality in their own country.

At least 20,000 people demonstrated in Paris on Tuesday, in support of the family of Adama Traoré, a black man who died in 2016 in Paris police custody.

Traoré died on his 24th birthday after he was taken into police custody for fleeing an identity check.

His sister, Assa Traoré, says police told her his final words were “I can’t breathe.”

Adama and George Floyd “died in the exact same way. They carried the weight of … three cops on them. They had the same words,” she told CNN.

The protests on Saturday: Earlier in the day, several thousand people demonstrated in Paris as well as other French cities.

Traoré’s name appears often in these protests, on signs and in chants – but protesters here have also adopted some of the slogans from their counterparts in the US, like “No justice, no peace.”

“You really sense this is a movement that’s been given inspiration,” said CNN Correspondent Melissa Bell at the scene.

Demonstrators wear face masks during a protest at Washington Square Park in New York on Junedenouncing systemic racism and the police killings of black Americans rally in Washington Square Park in the borough of Manhattan on June 6, 2020 in New York City. This is the 12th day of protests since George Floyd died in Minneapolis police custody on May 25. (Photo by Scott Heins/Getty Images)

The protests are seeing large crowds gather in close quarters across the country – and, experts warn, could lead to a second wave of Covid-19 infections.

“Honestly, I am worried about a new spike. But I was worried about this new spike well before there were protests,” said epidemiologist and former Detroit health commissioner Abdul El-Sayed.

Instead of framing it as a choice between protesting and coronavirus, here are some things he suggested protesters do to keep themselves as safe as possible:

Authorities have a responsibility to address these concerns too, he said: keeping people tightly packed together in vans or cells can be dangerous for potential infection.

Members of the DC National Guard stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on June 2.

The Commander of the Washington, DC National Guard told CNN in an exclusive interview today that some of the nearly 4,000 additional National Guard forces brought to DC from other states could leave as early as Monday. 

The presence of approximately 3,900 out-of-state National Guard members has been a major point of contention between DC officials and the Trump administration.

He said that the out-of-state National Guard forces, hailing from 11 states, had been requested by the Defense Department to bolster the 1,200-strong DC contingent that had been activated.

He added that National Guard troops were not involved in using force to clear Lafayette Park on Monday night – an action that caused many former military officers to criticize the Trump administration’s handling of the protests. Walker said that National Guard personnel held their positions and did not advance on the protesters.

He also denied that the controversial low overflights of helicopters on Monday night were directed by the Pentagon leadership, as the New York Times reported Saturday. Walker said the incident is under investigation.

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told CNN in a separate exclusive interview that the possibility of sending out of state National Guard troops home is under serious consideration due to the peaceful nature of the ongoing protests.

In New York City, night has fallen and it’s now past the 8 p.m. curfew, but crowds are still marching through the city.

It’s been a relatively quiet night, with smaller crowds than earlier in the week, said CNN Correspondent Bill Weir. One group is marching down Manhattan toward the Manhattan Bridge, which would cross into Brooklyn.

Though crowds are smaller, they’re also more festive and peaceful, said Weir.

Police have also taken a more hands-off approach, Weir said. It seems like “the tactic  tonight is to just let the crowd move as they want to and let it dissipate on their own,” rather than arrest and detain people for being out past curfew as seen earlier in the week.

Women raise their hands while standing on the roof of a car during a protest outside City Hall inm Los Angeles, California, on June 6.

As evening approaches in Los Angeles, there are multiple protests taking place across the city.

In downtown Los Angeles, hundreds, if not thousands, of people are gathered on the steps of City Hall, by the courthouse. Protesters have been gathering there nearly every day this week – and they say they will continue to until they see the change they demand.

The atmosphere is peaceful and spirited, with protesters chanting slogans like “Defund the Police” and gathering to listen to speakers. It’s a diverse crowd, with people from all ethnicities and backgrounds, said CNN reporter Lucy Kafanov.

There aren’t many police or law enforcement in the area, she added – there are some officers on the steps of City Hall, but no National Guard members or police in riot gear.

It’s “another visible effort by the city to deescalate the tensions and prevent the scenes that we saw last weekend that involved a lot of difficult and heavy clashes,” Kafanov said. “This is a very different atmosphere.”

Elsewhere in Los Angeles, in the Fairfax district, protesters are peacefully demonstrating – there’s even a dance-off between participants. Here, too, police are nowhere to be seen.

Protestors gather along 16th Street NW near the White House on June 6.

Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have participated in protests across Washington, DC, on Saturday.

The protests were peaceful all day, with no clashes reported with police. No arrests were made today, said a Metropolitan DC Police spokeswoman.

The police department estimated there were at least 6,000 protesters at several locations at noon – which was before any major events began. Several different protests scattered across the city later drew major crowds. 

Earlier in the day, a large group gathered at the Lincoln Memorial. Later, several blocks full of people marched from Capitol Hill past the National Museum of African American History, before heading towards the White House and then to other locations. 

At the same time, protests filled blocks going north from Lafayette Park, which has been the center of activity. As evening fell, crowds began to dwindle a little, but protesters still filled several blocks north of the park, which is close to the White House.

What it looks like in DC now:

People are painting the street with protest slogans such as “Defund the police,” said CNN Correspondent Alex Marquadt, reporting from the scene.

“You can see this huge “Black Lives Matter” banner hanging from the fence that was installed earlier this week around the northern edge of Lafayette park. This fence now stretches all the way around, most of the way around the White House,” said Marquadt.

He added that previously, often law enforcement would be on the other side of the fence during protests – but that’s not the case tonight, in a reflection of how peaceful recent protests have been.

The Sacramento Police Department has suspended the use of the carotid control hold, according to a tweet from the agency.

The hold is no longer authorized for use within the department and all trainings on the hold have been discontinued, the department said in a series of tweets Saturday.

The department is also revising it’s use of force policy to reflect the changes, another tweet said.

Utah National Guard soldiers stand guard as demonstrators gather to protest near the White House on Thursday, June 4.

The White House wanted to have 10,000 active duty troops on the streets of Washington and other cities earlier this week to quell protesters, but Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint of Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley pushed back at the idea, according to a senior defense official. 

Epser did move approximately 1,600 active duty troops to the Washington region to respond if needed, but the 5,000 National Guard troops never needed assistance. Those active troops began to leave Thursday night.

A second defense official said Milley strongly felt the threshold informally described as dire circumstances for calling in active duty troops could not be met, opening the door to whether such a potential presidential order would be legal.

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.

CBS first reported that the White House wanted 10,000 troops.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has directed the police chief to no longer use gas to disperse crowds “unless there is a serious and immediate threat to life safety, and there is no other viable alternative for dispersal,” he said in a series of tweets Saturday.

Simone Lewis, a demonstrator in Washington, explained why protesters were in front of the White House Saturday.

Lewis added that change starts with voting.

“Please go outside, vote in your various states. Please vote, convince your friends to register to vote and all that. Please vote, it matters,” she said.

Demonstrators flood the streets of Washington on Saturday, June 6

Doctors from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director on down have cautioned demonstrators that crowds provide a perfect opportunity for the coronavirus to spread.

But, after weeks of holing up at home under pandemic lockdown, Jazondre Gibbs was glad to finally have something she could do. She was up early Saturday morning, packing her car and driving with her mom into the center of Washington, DC, so they could set up a table loaded with bags of snacks, water, hand sanitizer and other supplies to hand out to crowds demonstrating after the death of George Floyd.

“We can’t really control how many tests there are and how many masks there are – those types of things,” Gibbs told CNN. “But I can control the time that I spend to put these bags together and I can control how much time I want to spend doing this. Those are things I can be in control of.”

Sarah Foster also felt the demonstrations were a chance to take action after weeks of passive inaction.

The 36-year-old engineer had walked from her home to join the demonstration.

“So this is finally something we can do, and something important that we can be part of, that we can help solve,” Foster told CNN. “Obviously, people are a little bit closer together than is the recommended six-foot distance, but I think what we are doing is so important. Everyone’s gotten used to finding a way to stay separated.”

Monica Schoch-Spana, a senior scholar of medical anthropology at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, sees the issue of George Floyd’s killing as a crisis pressing enough to bring people out despite their fears about the coronavirus.

“People have been sequestered for a long period of time. And, quite frankly, the majority of people have stuck in there with regard to physical distancing. They have now found a reason to break with that established pattern that has gone on for weeks and weeks and weeks,” Schoch-Spana told CNN.

Numerous people gathered on Berlin’s Alexanderplatz for a “silent” demonstration against racism and police violence.

Here’s what the scene looked like:

George Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, will testify before Congress Wednesday during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on policing practices and law enforcement accountability, a source familiar with the situation tells CNN.

The source said it had not yet been determined whether Floyd would testify in person or virtually. House Judiciary Committee Democrats invited Floyd to speak, this person said. 

CNN has reached out to the Committee for details. 

ABC News first reported that Floyd would be appearing before Congress. 

Floyd said last week he spoke with both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, saying his talk with Trump was “brief” while Biden was talking to him “constantly.”

“He didn’t give me an opportunity to even speak,” Floyd said of his conversation with President Trump.