New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio have imposed an 11pm-5am curfew in New York City and are adding 4,000 cops to the stre...
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio have imposed an 11pm-5am curfew in New York City and are adding 4,000 cops to the streets to try to regain control after a violent night of looting and protests.
More than 250 people were arrested last night and arrests were still being made in the early hours of Monday morning.
Looters ransacked Soho and stores on Fifth Avenue in an orchestrated attack on the city that many have labeled an opportunistic grab for goods at a time of national crisis when thousands of others are peacefully protesting over the death of George Floyd, a black man killed in Minneapolis last week by white cop Derek Chauvin who knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
Protests have erupted around the country and many have turned violent. New York City's curfew is among the latest. In Minneapolis, it is 10pm and in Los Angeles it is 6pm.
There has not been a citywide curfew in New York for decades. The only other one on record was in 1943 when then Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia placed an 10.30pm curfew in place in Harlem amid riots over the shooting of a black soldier by a white cop.
Monday's order applies to all residents apart from essential workers, anyone seeking medical attention and the homeless are exempt from the curfew. Cuomo, announcing the curfew in a radio interview on WAMC, said on Monday: 'Last night was a bad night in New York City.
'There are people who use the chaos of the moment. It's an opportunity. If you want to steal it, that's the night to do it.'
Six cops were injured, none seriously, and a man in his twenties was shot in the abdomen after an argument with a different group of young men at 12.30am at Spring Street and Crosby Street on Sunday night.
NYPD officers scrambled to chase looters out of stores but they were all pillages and dumpster fires were started in the streets. President Trump told New York to 'toughen up' on Monday in a call with governors across the country.
Floyd's death has sparked a national conversation about racism and police brutality amid a backdrop of a country that had already been shaken by economic uncertainty and public health fears caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Chanel in Soho on Monday morning after looters smashed windows to ransack luxury stores in another night of chaos
Inside the Leica Gallery in New York City on Monday morning after looters smashed the front and some of the framed artwork inside
The looters pulled down plywood to get into the stores. They are not thought to have been part of the Floyd protests
A young man on a Citibike on Monday morning after taking from Balmain, one of the many stores that was looted on Sunday night
Street cleaners on Monday morning in Soho. Boxes of goods from the stores were also seen lying in the streets
The smashed window at G-Shock on West Broadway on Monday morning
Happy Socks on West Broadway on Monday morning
NYPD officers on Monday morning outside Chanel in New York City. More than 250 people were arrested in NYC on Sunday night
Another jewelry store on West Broadway that had its windows smashed on Sunday night
Jewelry store Aurate on Monday morning after being smashed up by the looters
Some of the dozens of stores in Soho that were looted on Sunday night as the NYPD struggled to keep up with crowds of violent looters in one part of the city while hundreds of others gathered elsewhere to protest
Conspiracy theorists have accused police departments of planting pallets of bricks at protest locations after many inexplicably appeared.
There are also fears that ANTIFA and alt-right groups are deliberately inflaming tensions by showing up at protests and tipping them towards violence.
Trump was speaking on a call with governors when he made the remarks.
'What happened in New York, I have to say, I live in Manhattan. What's going on in Manhattan I have no idea... New York's finest, they've got to be allowed to do their jobs. I don't know what's happening but it's terrible. Because it's New York it gets a lot of press.
'They really spend a lot of time on it.. New York is going to have to toughen up. We'll send you National Guard if you want.
'You have the largest police force in the country, 40,000 people I understand, so what's going on in New York is terrible. Of all the places,' he said.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea earlier said the city did not need to call in the National Guard, as 20 other states have done, and that imposing a curfew would be useless. Shea also said a 'groundswell' of civilian support was needed to 'end the terrible situation we are in'.
Gov. Cuomo said on Monday that the National Guard was on standby but that he will discuss with de Blasio and Shea if they are needed later.
He suggested that unlike in Minneapolis - where police departments were outnumbered - the NYPD is large enough to cope with the problem but that their tactics failed on Sunday night.
Speaking at his press conference on Monday which, until this week, was used to give COVID-19 updates, de Blasio said: 'To date we have not believed a curfew has been the right strategy but we have to look at it as an option. That being said, we have not made a decision.
'There are advantages and disadvantages.
'Previous nights were different than what we saw last night.'
Commissioner Shea said he was nervous on Sunday night that peaceful protesters and looters would clash in the streets.
'I saw doormen, residents coming down trying to aide, the NYPD is a significant part of the story but it's a groundswell that's really going to end this terrible situation that we're in now.
'We encourage all New Yorkers to speak up, speak your cause, whether you agree or disagree, but do it peacefully and work with us,' he said.
Gov. Cuomo said at his press conference - where he announced that fewer than 1,000 people tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday out of 50,000 tested - that he stands with the protesters but that the looters were distracting from the debate.
'There are no sides here last night was bad for everyone. It accomplishes nothing.
'We're losing the moment and not making the political point that the protesters want to make which is a good point.
'We have 13,000 national guard who we can use at any moment,' he said.
He urged people against violence and looting and said they 'fed into' a narrative that Conservatives, including President Trump, will push.
Inside Uno de 50, a jewelry store on Prince Street in Soho that was ransacked on Sunday night
Workers inside Gucci on Monday morning trying to repair some of the damage that was done. The store was completely empty. It is unclear how much stock was in the store when rioters went there last night and how much had already been taken out by the fashion house but nothing remained there this morning
Workers at the front of Gucci on Monday morning. The store's windows had been boarded up
Workers board up the windows of Equipment in Soho on Monday in anticipation of another night of violence and looting
Louis Vuitton had been boarded up but the looters ripped plywood from one window to break their way inside. George Floyd's name was scrawled on one of the boards
A man is arrested on Monday morning in Soho with a dollar bill taped over his mouth. The arrests continued into Monday morning
Cuomo said the way the situation was handled on Sunday night was 'not acceptable on any level.'
'The national guard we have on standby.
'They are trained to do this, but I don't know that it's a person power issue in New York City.
'In Minneapolis it was a person power... they just don't have a police force large enough.
'I don't know that that's the situation, that the NYPD isn't big enough, I don't think that's an issue.'
Commissioner Dermot Shea said earlier, during an interview on Today, that the entire weekend was 'incredibly challenging' for cops.
'Ninety percent of yesterday went very well.
'Five or six thousand protesters throughout New York City, less violence as the days before.
'The majority of the protesters were peaceful making their point.
'When it got dark it got ugly and it got ugly quick.
'We had some violence, we had another incident of an individual with a Molotov cocktail in Brooklyn.
'We had an individual, two officers in a marked car in Queens, a bullet hit that car.
'That's clearly alarming to us. The looting. The looting turned very quickly in portions of the city, in Brooklyn, and primarily in Manhattan
'There were hundreds and hundreds of arrests in a very short time in that area and some are still going on.
It was a very challenging time for police officers,' he said.
Commissioner Shea rejected claims that the National Guard needed to be brought in.
'We don’t need the national guard. We could impose a curfew today and the problem is people need to listen to a curfew and that’s not going to happen,' he said.
Inside the North Face store on Fifth Avenue on Monday morning after looters smashed it
Cops outside North Face on Fifth Avenue on Monday morning
An NYPD officer outside Best Buy on Fifth Avenue on Monday morning
The Barbour store in Soho on Monday morning
Balmain on Wooster Street was among the stores that were hit on Sunday night
Shea also said that the NYPD was investigating several incidents in which police officers have been seen allegedly using excessive force when handling the protests.
In one shocking video that circulated on social media over the weekend, a cop was filmed driving into a crowd of protesters in Brooklyn.
The cop car had been surrounded by crowds when he accelerated into them. The protesters jumped on the roof of the vehicle once it came to a stop again.
Another disturbing video showed a police officer throwing a woman to the ground violently in the street.
Shea said both would be looked at but that they represented a handful of incidents among thousands of interactions between the police and the public over the weekend.
'Anyone that looks at that has to be troubled by what they saw...In literally tens of thousands of encounters we have about six that our internal affairs officers are looking at in the process of identifying the officers.
'There's a couple of other incidents in cars that we released to the media and weren’t shown.
'It shows a similar situation where the cop cars are getting attacked and have to basically get out of there as quickly as possible.
'It's a very difficult situation without a good ending either way,' he said.
Among the hundreds of people arrested over the weekend was de Blasio's 25-year-old daughter Chiara. He insisted she was protesting peacefully and is a 'very good human' who had done nothing wrong.
Chiara was arrested for allegedly not following police instructions to disperse on Saturday night.
De Blasio said on Monday: 'I trust my daughter. I've known her her whole life.
'She's an incredibly good human being, she cares for other people. She has also been an activist for years. This is not someone who would ever commit any violence.
An NYPD cop points his gun at a man who was driving erratically and crashing into cars in Soho on Sunday night
The man crashed into multiple vehicles while looters ran riot in the streets. He was arrested outside Balthazar
The man was pulled from the vehicle by an NYPD cop
Dozens of people were arrested in Soho on Sunday night, including the driver of the car. Cops knelt on his back to subdue him
A cop on Sunday night in Manhattan calling for back up as a dumpster fire rages behind him
Rioters set fire to trash cans and debris in the streets on Sunday night
People loot store in New York city's Soho Sunday
Looters take on an AT&T store in Manhattan on Sunday night
There were clashed between protesters and looters throughout the night. Most of the protesters were peaceful and were not involved in the looting
Looters smash the windows at Kate Spade on Sunday night to steal goods from the windows
NYPD cops in helmets at the Kate Spade store once it had been ransacked
Looters taking from a store in Soho on Sunday night before police arrived
The looters not only took on luxury stores - they smashed windows of smaller independent retailers and smoke shops to seize goods that were in the windows
It's unclear which store the looters were ransacking here. Some worse coronavirus masks and others did not
A looter smashes the window at Dolce and Gabanna on Sunday night in New York's Soho
Looters ransack Uno de 50, a jewelry store on Prince Street, on Sunday night
NYPD officers in Soho on Sunday night after the looters tore down plywood at Chanel
Chanel on Sunday night after looters ransacked the store
The aftermath of riots and looting inside Coach on Sunday night
Mercer Street in New York City on Sunday night
An NYPD car was set on fire outside Bloomingdales. Its torched shell remained there after the looters had passed through the area
Smashed windows at Lululemon on Sunday after the looters overran it
A looter inside a store in New York City's Soho on Sunday night
The window at Lululemon in Soho on Sunday night after it was targeted
'She recounted in tremendous details what happened and she believed she was following the instructions of police officers,' he said.
He added that it was wrong for the police department to leak details of her arrest to the media, and said he found out about it when his office received a media inquiry about her arrest.
An NYPD spokesman told DailyMail.com on Monday morning it was unclear whether the looters had come from out of the city or if they were planned groups who had nothing to do with the Floyd protests but were merely taking advantage of the escalating chaos.
The New York Post cites witnesses who say they had a system whereby one group would enter the store and grab the goods then flee on scooters and bikes.
'The looters have been going systemically from store to store. They had people go in, grab the [items]. Then had people on Revel [scooters] take off. It was hundreds of people,' they said.
This week hundreds of protests have unfolded in at least 145 cities across the country as people gather in outrage over the horrifying death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed while in the custody of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Memorial Day.
The demonstrations have marked unparalleled civil unrest in the US that hasn't been seen since the 1968 assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Trump spent Sunday berating his enemies on Twitter and demanding 'law and order' in Democratic-run cities, but did not appear in public and opted against making a televised address to calm tensions.
He has been abhorred for his early response to the riots.
When tensions first flared in Minneapolis, he tweeted: 'When the looting starts, the shooting starts.' Twitter censored his post.
The National Guard has now been deployed in more than 20 states and there are growing fears that the protests and riots will continue.
Donald Trump is holding talks with his Attorney General, law enforcement officials and state leaders on Monday as violent protests continued to escalate in cities all over the country in the wake of George Floyd's death.
Attorney General Bill Barr will visit the White House for an Oval Office meeting with the president Monday morning, and shortly after, Trump is scheduled to host a video conference with governors, law enforcement leaders and national security officials in the Situation Room to discuss ways to keep American communities safe.
Cities across the nation appear war-torn after rioters set establishments and cars in the middle of streets on fire, smashed windows of local stores and looted their shelves and clashed with law enforcement.
Many governors activated the National Guard in their states and sent them to cities being affected by protests turned to violence.
The president did not appear publicly on Sunday to address the rioters, who have engulfed the perimeter of the White House as well taken to the streets in several other U.S. cities, he did weigh in on Twitter, claiming that governors need to activate the National Guard in their states.
He lauded the improvements over the weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota by the National Guard's presence – and while the demonstrations have appeared less violent since they started at the end of last week, police in the city said they discovered Sunday caches of homemade firebombs around the city.
Trump had to flee to the White House bunker to shelter in place for a short period of time on Friday, it was revealed on Sunday.
The president has also told aides that he's concerned about his safety as the White House turned off its lights Sunday night while protests and riots continued a few hundred yards away from the residence.
The rioters also set a fire to American Flags in Lafayette Square, the park adjacent to the North Lawn of the White House – and they were hit by tear gas by law enforcement.
Trump has urged governors to activate the National Guard, demanding they 'get tough, but has not sought control of the Army reservists himself to quell the nationwide riots.
The violence ensued after George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed while in a white police officer's custody in Minneapolis on Memorial Day.
A cellphone video of the incident went viral where Derek Chauvin, 44, can be seen holding his knee on Floyd's neck during an arrest for more than eight minutes as the victim repeatedly said he could not breathe.
While Floyd was handcuffed, four cops, including Chauvin, were holding him down.
Chauvin was fired after the video emerged and taken into custody on Friday after the violent protesters demanded he be arrested – and he is being charged with third-degree murder.
The other three officers have not been arrested.
Trump has also blamed the media, Democrats and outside groups for exacerbating the riots – asserting on Sunday that he is classifying the far-left anti-fascists group Antifa as a terrorist organization.
Antifa has no official leaders, and it could appear their fingerprints are all over the riots as their demonstrations include violent tactics that they deem justifiable.
'Congratulations to our National Guard for the great job they did immediately upon arriving in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last night,' Trump tweeted Sunday morning. 'The ANTIFA led anarchists, among others, were shut down quickly. Should have been done by Mayor on first night and there would have been no trouble!'
Minnesota law enforcement say that they believe white supremacists have infiltrated the riots in Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul to stoke violent demonstrators.
'They're agitators, 'Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell told CNN on Sunday, adding that there have been reports of Antifa members attending demonstrations.
While governors and mayors scramble to create more peace in their major cities, the president is blaming them not calling in the National Guard for aggravating the violent situations.
'Get tough Democrat Mayors and Governors,' Trump urged in a tweet. 'These people are ANARCHISTS. Call in our National Guard NOW.'
'The World is watching and laughing at you and Sleepy Joe,' he continued, referring to presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. 'Is this what America wants? NO!!!'
By Sunday evening, Trump followed up his calls for the National Guard with a tweet that simply read: 'LAW & ORDER!'
So far, 15 states and Washington, D.C. have deployed the Guard.
Rioters continue to take to the streets, becoming especially active after sundown, in major cities like New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Seattle, Washington, D.C. and beyond.
As chaos unfolded around the country, Chauvin was moved to one of the most secure prisons in the US Sunday night, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
In a highly unusual move, Chauvin, who is facing a murder charge in the death of George Floyd, was transferred late Sunday to Oak Park Heights Prison - Minnesota's only Level Five maximum security facility.
The 407-inmate prison boasts of never having had an escape and is also regarded as one of the country’s safest, having only had one homicide in its history. Located on the border with Wisconsin, between the cities of Bayport and Stillwater, it accepts some of America’s most hated and high-risk inmates.
Chauvin was due to appear in court on Monday but with Minneapolis still gripped by unrest the appearance was pushed back until June 8.
According to recent data released by the Minnesota Department of Corrections, the Oak Park Heights Prison currently houses 297 murderers, 69 sexual predators and eight kidnappers.
Chauvin had spent the weekend locked in solitary confinement in a heavily fortified Minnesota jail guarded by police marksmen and barbed wire barriers, DailyMail.com can reveal.
SWAT teams armed with rifles and binoculars kept lookout from the rooftop of the Ramsey County Adult Detention Center while a phalanx of Sheriff’s Deputies stood guard behind hastily erected steel fences.
Chauvin was held there Friday through Sunday because of the carnage unfolding outside jail facilities in Minneapolis.
Ramsey County deputies took no chances, sealing off the area with concrete bomb-proof barriers and mounting round the clock patrols in case protesters decided to target the jail in downtown Saint Paul.
But despite demonstrators running amok across large swathes of the Twin Cities, the expected onslaught never happened and authorities were able to quietly transfer Chauvin to downtown Minneapolis Sunday afternoon.
WASHINGTON DC: Protesters jump on a street sign near a burning barricade near the White House late on Sunday
ATLANTA, GEORGIA: A protester is pinned down by a police officer as cops in riot gear including shields and helmets clash with protesters on Sunday night
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: People flee for their lives as a tanker truck drives towards thousands of protesters on a highway yesterday. The truck did not appear to have struck anyone
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Smoke and debris at a looted hardware store in Philadelphia last night after it was targeted by looters during the George Floyd riots
SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA: An armed vigilante attempts to stop a bank robbery in Santa Monica during the widespread riots yesterday, as protesters turned on looters in some places
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Protests continued to rage fury in Boston on Sunday evening where a police car was set ablaze
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA: A woman is bundled into a vehicle by police officers as protests in downtown Charlotte turned violent on Sunday night
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA: Protester Kendrick Cutkelvin of Savannah uses a SWAT vehicle loudspeaker to disperse a small crowd of protesters after a peaceful protest in Georgia last night
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