vidual i didn't know anybody would just join with everyone else who was there because they were fighting against racism and fighting against injustice and there was one little girl who was carrying a sign she must have been about 7 years old that said i can't breathe and i was standing with her and her mother is taking a picture because she she found out who i was and we were taking a photo and then there was a police action and this huge crowd started just bolted towards us and all we could think about with this poor little girl and how frightened she must be and and we were during it was just after the official part of the march so the police hadn't given a chance for people to disperse i was there when you could see smoke from cars being set on fire and i saw police you know coming on masks and you know it's frightening at some points but you could tell everyone still shoulder is necessary to be there. really really good to get your thoughts and thank you very much indeed

for talking to al jazeera please give our best regards to your brother chris for me . live from los angeles thank you x. now if you're just joining us welcome to al-jazeera is just gone 3 am here in doha 8 pm just going in washington d.c. where a curfew has been in force now for about an hour or so president trump has been addressing the nation saying he's sick and revolted by the death in police custody of george floyd but he was warned but he has warned he's determined to dominate the streets and put an end to violent protests that have erupted across the country well police have been clashing with protesters in the streets surrounding the white house they fired tear gas and stun grenades to force back the demonstrators really live to our correspondents can be how couldn't she have a town see in a moment 1st here here's what donald trump had to say we cannot allow the righteous cries of peaceful protesters to be drowned out by an angry mob.

the biggest victims of the rioting are peace loving citizens in our poorest communities and as their president i will fight to keep them safe i will fight to protect you i am you're president of law and order and an ally of all peaceful protesters but in recent days our nation has been gripped by professional anarchists violent mobs arsonists looters criminals rioters and tiefer and others so let's bring in our white house correspondent kimberly health it can be so let's just roll the clock back a 2nd because of the president trump speaking there in the rose garden he was talking about justice will be served in the george floyd case he said he took an oath to uphold the law and order but this was this was donald trump talking tough wasn't even we saw that then that dramatic exits across lafayette park from the white house over to the cent john's episcopal church but just took us through what

he was talking about there before he threw the rulebook away out the window and started to walk across the park to the church high drama unprecedented as you were saying but just focus quickly through the points he was making when he was talking in the rose garden 1st. it was classic donald trump showmanship a powerful message but it was very scripted because as the president was speaking in the rose garden we were hearing the sounds of gunfire as outside the white house the protesters were being pushed back the president's message that he is a law and order president that he believes that the country has been gripped by people that were 1st protesting peacefully and expects or size in the right to to speak in the 1st amendment of the constitution but the peaceful protests have been hijacked by what he calls domestic terrorism he lay blame on the nation's governors that they had not been forceful enough in quelling the rest of his grip

the country and as a result he made an announcement without offering specifics that he as president was taking action to stop the violence that he was going to end the what he called mob violence and civilian and rest he was taking action deploying the national guard and if that did not quote the violence that he said he would deploy the military very briefly the president skating some very thin legal ground here because the u.s. president does not have the right to deploy the military in order to enforce policing or domestic policies that's the posse comitatus act of $878.00 now there is a small exception here that in the cases of insurrection or on rast the u.s. president can under the insurrection act of 1807 he has the power to restore order the president didn't clarify what he believes gives him the right to deploy but it was a very forceful presentation shortly after the u.s. president accepted the rose garden after making that announcement that he would

clamp down on the unrest that had caused just the night before for there to be flames outside the white house and on friday evening for the u.s. president to be in an underground bunker for his safety he was walking on the ferry same ground he had. dramatic show classic donald trump of the reality t.v. president he accepted the white house i don't precedented in modern history for a us president to walk out like that amid heavy police presence including some 200 military police he walked across pennsylvania avenue through lafayette park that had been the site of these protests and over to a church that had been burned in the basement set ablaze just the night before historic church nor does the church of the presidents church that for many many decades hundreds of years it is the st john's episcopal church he stood there with a bible made some very brief remarks and then walked back in this is a president who likes the show and he likes to show force earlier in the day he had

gotten into a very harsh confrontation over a video conference with the nation's governors accusing them of being weak outside the white house trying to show a projection of strength yeah even the white house press secretary they can be was was trying to defend donald trump's humbling of the unrest. but that didn't stop the accusations that trump had this bunker mentality this this way of hiding out on the issue of the protests he had a very strong statement to make by walking out of the white house and across to the church what what was the symbolism of all of that. well the symbolism is that this is a u.s. president who has from day one been building up the military this is not the 1st time we've seen the u.s. president flexing his military muscle if you will from day one he not only started to would ramp up the budgets something that we've seen a decrease in the united states for some time but we saw as of july 4th

independence day the u.s. president had the. air force show flying overhead there were tanks in the streets over the monument to see it made an address from the national mall this is a president who has been inspired by other leaders around the world who have used and shown this kind of force and he has emulated that and this is what we saw outside the white house that we got intimations for several days and even today that something like this was coming but in the last few hours it was very clear we saw the heavy presence of the guns atop the roof of the white house we saw the convoys of the carriers carrying soldiers the national guard or military police some 200 of them and then the park police that normally guard the national monuments on horseback we knew that these protesters were going to be pushed back and it was as the u.s. president was speaking it was an incredible split screen moment to the sound of gunfire rubber bullets pushing those protesters back that the u.s.

president again in a very dramatic fashion very scripted made this very strong announcement that he would be taking control of american streets if the governors did not commit a final thought for a move but before we talk to shit who's outside on the streets there outside the white house i mean talking to you earlier donald trump sees this unrest as domestic terrorism saying you mobilize all federal and state resources to stop the looting and the protests how do you see that playing out now. it's going to be difficult for this president to navigate because the problem is that there has also been an enormous showing of peaceful protest now while the president has continued to point against one particular group and tea which is a left leaning group that is a militant lee opposed to far right ideology he continues to point to them but we've also have reports that there have been protesters and rioting on that from

people with a right wing ideology white nationalist for example none of this is been 100 percent investigated it's going to take time for the department of justice to do that and they say that they will be doing this under the joint task force lens of domestic terrorism having said all of that there are concerns even from some of the african-american community that their history and tradition of protesting and exercising their civil rights their rights to exercise free speech has been hijacked now they haven't used the inflammatory rhetoric that we've heard from this president but it certainly is something that's been expressed not just in washington d.c. but around the united states whether it was the atlanta mayor whether we heard out of the west coast that this very peaceful black lives matter movement is being hijacked by people of other races including young white people who are intent on anarky are intent on causing destruction and we should point out even brock obama reflected on this in

a post he made on the blogging platform medium that many of the times the people that are getting hurt are the very people that these rioters white rioters often is the case are proposing that they are helping when in fact they're hurting small black business owners and. people who historically do not recover from this kind of damage and looting so donald trump has been very harsh in his rhetoric this is not sat well and this is the story of donald trump since the day you took office in january of 2017 but there is some of her. this message that has been expressed by even his opponents the concern that this effort to protest to bring about the end of systemic racism in america institutions this is being overshadowed by those who are really just intent on causing violence and harming others all right to. live outside the white house kimberly thank you for that all right let's cross over to show how baton excuse me who is live for us on the streets of washington d.c.

shihab look i mean it's been a dramatic unprecedented series of events today you were cool top layer on in that . effort by the police by the military just talk us through what happened because we saw you running on the tear gas they were they were stun grenades going off tell us what happened. proceeded donald trump's visits to some john's church and police cleared out the areas you as you might expect and then the usual way they're just suddenly charging up the peaceful protesters in front of them with stun grenades flash bangs and gas of various sorts and they've been very successful actually then now that. we did a really interesting standoff at the church where we were is around the corner to the right and the police of those sort of segregated several different groups now so they left a core group of protesters that cathal them basically their base there surrounding them in that i mean you can probably just see the police officers but behind them

about a dozen or so protesters who have now been trapped by the police that what was interesting isn't it apparently i guess maybe the police have learned a thing or 2 since the demonstrations during the inauguration when they didn't care who they kept the many journalists who were arrested and charged with felony rioting even though they were just doing it live during their jobs they were very careful to tell the media to leave and say that we were let out rather with a cli from that area so we're some distance away now surrounded by other reporters now so i was actually going to give you have talked to didn't talk with activists but stuck in the middle that they're not allowed to leave a stop there and presumably that surprise to them being arrested that's not normally what we would understand the point of coupling to be i suppose if you you make them sweat for hours and then finally arrest them and i wonder whether that's going to happen soon but in the bizarre thing was while we were over here i think. in the distance we suddenly saw dozens maybe hundreds of protesters marching northwards on a parallel streets and we don't know what was going on there way in the distance

but that just moved on as if that's just another part of the tapestry of washington d.c. this evening but right now there's a there is a the usual police kettling standoff where i suppose we're waiting for them to arrest the people quote not allowed to leave. surrounded by all the other police officers. and then you know we're surrounded by all the media right now which is always very concerning on the one hand the police insist that all media will cameras leave an area and they surrounded bunch of protesters we have a relatively good vantage point up here so we wait to see what they're going to do with these protests but as you said. it was preceded by a pretty emphatic pretty strong police police movements to. get rid of all of the protesters here and they've been actually rather successful it is very quiet here except for that particular area but again we get these little inkling that something else might be going on somewhere else when we catch sight of hundreds of

protesters 5 streets away walking up and we don't really know what's going on there . and she had you you were talking to us earlier about the symbolism of what donald trump was doing when he crossed over into the streets nearby you i mean i think they sent john's episcopal churches just around the corner from where you were. he was he was holding a bible outside the church it was quite extraordinary about this whole issue of of symbolism and appealing to his base and i just focused on that again chad because i was that was part powerful stuff. first of all he gave that speech in the rose garden where he didn't mention racism or george floyds didn't mention police violence he just mentioned uploading one law for america poll doing property rights he didn't address the issue that has. divided well i mean it's led to this on restless uprising that we've seen around the country that he marches off to the to the church and he

frowned this is a bible silently. i mean the symbolism there is places he's the defender of the faith and he suggested this is i'm going to religious war perhaps i'm not sure i mean that he's invoking terrorism all the time for peaceful activists in the streets. and then it was a really a nakedly faith a photo opportunity a moment he called members of his cabinet including the attorney general and others to stand next to the photos and then walk back. clearly that will that will appeal to the evangelical base. who how do you think of him as a defender of the faith despite the shortcomings from or from the religious standpoint and the question is the is that enough from that that we knew there was a discussion in the white house under way about what donald trump should do whether he should act as unifier in chief or whether he should take a hard line and clearly the hard line as well he simply he simply appealing to one part of the country that wants a crackdown and through and i mean whether that that will be sufficient for him to

you know going forward are a long way from the election of course but his mother's advice was saying look you do also need other voters to vote for you. it's another key moment in this from presidency isn't it but how many how many key scene of such drama. and just amazing symbolism it was it was quite something wasn't it. literally i'm still out of breath here just trying to to absorb it all as we try to make some sense of it here on al-jazeera thanks thanks the time being stay safe and we'll we'll we'll come back to you a little bit later tonight no doubt. so let's hear now from one of those protesters at the white house who spoke to shihab before the police fired tear gas at the crowd people need to come out like give positive energy give off. a push in the right direction against like how do i say this against. against

well the fact that everyone matters everybody has a place in this world the owner as you can see the end is yours half. i want i want a president trying to make better decisions everybody on his way on this planet matters everybody on this planet has a place everybody has everybody has power and we need to unite. well social media has captured thousands of encounters between a protest as looters and the police some future white demonstrators committing violence and vandalism while ignoring pleas from black protest us to stop and that's open to tens conversation about the role of non blacks in this movement. i was a black woman tries to cry stop to a group of white leaders in oakland but the chaos drowns her out this man was a black one who put in black man to non-black protesters vandalize a cafe but the african-americans whose lives are actually on the line fear they'll

pay let them down now does break them oh you want to go blind that people couldn't and black people didn't do it and in denver. sure that's what we want to set out black activist and school board director tae anderson intervened when he saw a white man defacing public property i do get very frustrated with. people of color are destroyed during a day or day and we end up getting the blame for it but you get asked for the. right the day time protests organized by black civil rights groups have been largely peaceful across the u.s. . but the nighttime rioting has involved people of all races. where the non-blacks are allies and are kiss or even white supremacist as some have accused is unclear. and we do have to write our arms our own stories and part of that is yes letting us you know. what you are grateful for what the divisions here

are not simple protesters of various races in washington d.c. attacked a white man after he destroyed a sidewalk then they turned him into police. and a young white woman jumped in front of a young black man near the white house blocking him from advancing police the widely shared clip showed a moment of racial solidarity even as many black americans insist they write this chapter of their own history. how did joe castro al-jazeera washington. or let's head out on to minneapolis where this all started it all began and talk to john hendren again john so we understand that george floyd's brother terence he's been calling for calm across the country he had some very moving was to say to me. that's right he did and he spoke at just this spot which is where george floyd spanned his last moments lying on the ground just over there under the knees of 3

police officers with one standing by terence his brother says that george would not have wanted the kind of looting and violence that we see here and i must say right now that is not what's happening is generally not the kind of protests we see here in minneapolis during the day this is a kind of mixture of somber and festive over there you've got people listening to a speaker over here people are chanting no justice no peace so much giving out free popsicles there and burgers here and over there there was a gentleman not long ago doing a weapons demonstration trying to urge people to sign up for concealed carry permits to carry a gun there's a sense of cooperation here that these people all have something in common because they don't trust the institutions around them and that was what terence floyd was talking about he said george would have wanted you to. fight the power to stand up

for him in this instance where in terence's words he was murdered but he would not have wanted the violence this is a little of what terence floyd had to say 2. probably. my brother. and i for one hope you know. do you agree with. zotto i highly doubt no i don't know i know. you know what next once out to be don't. and i'm not saying the people here who apples don't want to relax. and john the other thing i just want to pick up with you is the private post-mortem that was carried out by the floyd family it found that he died of asphyxiation but wonderingly that differs from the official preliminary report by the county medical

examiner. that's right there and i'm going to step back a little bit because i want to be able to show you this spot where he larry when that autopsy. the moment that autopsy was recording is right over here between this there's a bus stop to the left just under this cup food store in a street light he laid there with an 3 police officers with their knees on him and the original report that we see from prosecutors we'll we don't have the whole launch obscene from the hennepin county coroner's office but we do have some exurbs that are in the charging documents used by prosecutors in that says that he died of a heart problem he said police contributed to it but also that he had coronary artery disease and hypertension that might have contributed to it is well it doesn't mean that the officers weren't culpable in that report but it's dramatically different from the report we heard today that private autopsy report

said he definitely died of asphyxiation the direct cause was that 3 officers kneeling on top of him not just the one who would close them off to a george floyd's air path by putting his knee on his neck but also the other 2 who had crushed his lungs and made it difficult for air to come to his head so this is just a much more dramatic autopsy that more directly links those officers all of them all 3 of those who were on top of and with the death and it's there will probably be a little back and forth in court but that concludes that this was homicide and that they those officers with their direct cause of that and we do have some news here as well there will be some a moral services one here on thursday in minneapolis one in north carolina on saturday and one in huge. which is where george lloyd called his home that's on monday and on tuesday the funeral service and used to be for george floyd so there's a lot of remembering of him going on but that coroner's report will certainly be

a matter of contention those dueling 2 reports terence and john just before you go we know that there's a curfew in minneapolis as well just talk us through what's expected to happen tonight what can people do. things like it's heated tonight so all will remain peaceful as they seem to be now. well the curfew has been happening at 8 o'clock every night tonight it's moved to 10 and what happens at that hour is all stores are required to be close only emergency services or are open if you're in a hotel that little hotel store can serve you but gas stations and everything else is closed you can't call for takeout you can't call a taxi. and what has been happening is at 8 o'clock when that curfew has come into effect the protesters by the thousands have remained out they've gathered in public spaces and from tuesday through thursday nights through friday night they really dominated police could not even break them up in order to get fire trucks in there

to get to the fires that had been set they decided they couldn't protect the firefighters well enough that all changed when the foundation more national guard troops were brought in so for the past 2 nights the police have actually locked the place down and you haven't seen that kind of violence and the looting going on the police in their own right have been very aggressive they've been using tear gas and rubber bullets we've seen them with past us and we've smelt the tear gas as well but some of the protesters have been hit several times and i have to say having seen this at 1st hand many of those protesters were doing nothing but standing there but when the police want to move them they issue an order to disperse and. then they start firing immediately all right john hendren live for us there in minneapolis john thank you for that wind up come back to a little bit later now authorities in new york have imposed a curfew in the city all to large protests on sunday turned violent again there

were reports of police using excessive force which met bill de blasio condemn any situation or officer does something even in the context of a protest of a tense situation they do something offensive inappropriate there must be immediate investigation the must be the appropriate penalty and that penalty here include all the way up to being removed from the police force there's a video going around of a police officer in the middle of a situation that merely looked chaotic but were protesters were in front of that police officer a police officer drew his gun at some point yesterday. that to me seeing that video was absolutely unacceptable. when authorities in new york imposed a curfew on the city all to large protests on sunday turned violent joins us live now again from new york that is tell us where you are now and what's happening.

there word a story a park in brooklyn this is been a candlelight vigil that's been going on for well over an hour now here at this park this is thousands of people are here it's very quiet people are taking a need for a floor george they're listening to some people speaking around some candles or clapping as they are right now occasionally but this is not a protest about chanting or moving or marching around the city this is very quiet and somber reflection if you will lots of people here and i want to bring one of them in now clinton's talk to me. you're from here in queens. tell me to why are you here. i'm here to. begin to myself and hopefully. yeah. what is it about coming out to this candlelight vigil for you that so important. you know proximity i think that's a big thing. in your backyard i think that's

a big. community to you know. that you see in the streets and restaurants what does it make you feel to see everyone out here. did you see a cornucopia of people you know different different you know preaching genders and races an age in the kind of stuff that just. came when you saw that video. how did you think. honestly i just felt defeated because i don't see you know i mean you know the nation fit into your 3 weeks is going to be. is going to come maybe you know you need to fix it if they make a plea to the pope to. there's going to be change after these protests or you're pessimistic or optimistic optimistic i think with everything that's going on nationwide i think not just me at least i think that. the united states the. main

industry what is happening right. now never to be but i think it's something that you know. how long do you think these protests will go on how long do you plan. to be here for you know i think is the last one you know we have to be. watching to see thank you know my grandfather my mother grandmother everything is well so for you. here 30 years old yet really young it's a lot a lot of people your age yes i think it's i think it will you please come people like you know. where you're getting married people having their own kids you know looking for the kind of world heritage from there that kind of already going to you know get to the people younger than them and i think you know it's something that very. well said to me i want to ask you one last thing you were have to ask i'm wearing a mask yes this isn't how we normally would be doing this but new york is still in the epicenter of the corona virus outbreak pandemic. how does it make you feel i

mean what are you thinking right now i mean technically people are saying you should go out on the streets you should interact with people clearly you're out here to protest what's your thinking behind that given the pandemic. i think 1st of all. kind enough to be you know having to you know hope you don't see a spike but. you know i'm still trying to take all of these things if you can people you know i need to go to. the bigger the bigger ones get it when i read public transit having this one walking distance having it be more quiet it's. perfect great thank you for time and time we appreciate. appreciate thank you good luck to you. and that was that was one demonstrator here very articulately as you can hear there a curfew will be going into effect in new york city in about 3 hours or so and 11

pm local time just before you go let me talk again about the mayor bill de blasio he was talking earlier about action being taken against any police officers found using excessive force just remind us again why the mayor has been reiterating this point so strongly. well because we've seen multiple. social media posts and video over the last 3 nights of the police using very very heavy handed tactics here in new york there was one incident where 2 police cruisers actually started to plow through a group of protesters a couple nights ago very disturbing images we've seen some other images of police using pepper spray. on what appeared to be innocent or peaceful protesters i should say so listen there's a lot of tension on the streets there's a lot of anger on the streets overall the mayor of new york city says he backs the

police officers but so far there's been no disciplinary action being taken but there is a lot of confusion out on the streets especially late at night when some more of. the clashes between some of the more aggressive protesters against the police usually happens later in the evening 10 11 pm we've seen some looting search but we've also seen police using very very heavy handed tactics against innocent demonstrators as well so that's why you're seeing the mayor comments about this bottom line is tonight is going to be a very critical night because this is the 1st night of this curfew going into effect at 11 pm local time and so we'll have to see what happens when that curfew goes into place the governor and mayor both said they plan to double the police force that is on the streets this evening in new york city. in new york thanks for that we'll no doubt come back to you once nightfall is fully set now let's head

over to the west coast shall we where there'd been a series of protests throughout the day in los angeles reynolds has been amongst it and joins us live rob so just tell us where you are now and what's happening around you. hello there and we are in west los angeles this is. west wood it's close to the great university of southern university of california los angeles and as you can see there are protesters gathered here at this major intersection they are hauling or asking motorists who pass by to halt in support of their. their demands for a racial justice for a full investigation and justice in the case of george floyd and more comprehensively a look at systemic racism in the united states the crowd has gotten a little bit sick.