Americans awoke Sunday to charred and glass-strewn streets in dozens of cities after a night of unrest fueled by rage over the mistreatment of African Americans at the hands of police. Officers responded to the violence with tear gas and rubber bullets, the Associated Press reports. Tens of thousands marched to protest the death of George Floyd, who died Monday after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck until he stopped breathing. Many demonstrations sank into chaos as night fell: Cars and businesses were torched. The words “I can’t breathe” were spray-painted all over buildings. The damaged buildings include many near the White House. The scale of the protests rivaled the historic demonstrations of the civil rights and Vietnam eras. “We’re sick of it. The cops are out of control,” protester Olga Hall said in Washington, D.C.
People set fire to squad cars, threw bottles at officers and busted windows of storefronts. In Indianapolis, multiple shootings were reported, including one that left a person dead amid the protests, adding to deaths in Detroit and Minneapolis. In Minneapolis, police, state troopers and National Guard members moved in soon after an 8 p.m. curfew took effect to break up the demonstrations. In Madison, Wi., volunteers gathered to pick up after the violence that included setting a police squad car on fire, stealing from businesses and breaking windows at dozens of stores and an art museum. Few corners of the U.S. were untouched, from protesters setting fires inside Reno’s city hall, to police launching tear gas at rock-throwing demonstrators in Fargo, N.D. In Salt Lake City, demonstrators flipped a police car and lit it on fire. Police said six people were arrested and an officer was injured after being struck in the head with a baseball bat. Overnight curfews were imposed in more than a dozen major cities, including Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Seattle. At least 13 police officers were injured in Philadelphia, and at least four police vehicles were set on fire.