Wave of protests fuels moves to shift funding from police
From New York to Los Angeles, protesters ask officials to defund police departments
The largest protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd remained mostly peaceful across the U.S. this weekend, as emboldened organizers said they didn't plan to stop rallying until they saw concrete changes in police policy.
From New York to Los Angeles, and in cities of all sizes in between, protesters asked officials to defund police departments and redirect those funds to other programs. They called for banning police chokeholds and revamping law-enforcement training programs.
After a largely peaceful demonstration in Washington, D.C., President Trump ordered the National Guard to withdraw from the capital, and mayors in New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia lifted curfews Sunday.
There were signs the protesters were being heard. In Minneapolis, where Mr. Floyd was killed in police custody, a veto-proof majority of the city council agreed to begin the process of disbanding the police department -- a necessary step, council members said, after decades of incremental police reform.
"Our commitment is to end our city's toxic relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department, to end policing as we know it, and to re-create systems of public safety that actually keep us safe," Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender said Sunday.
PROTESTERS, OFFICIALS CALL FOR POLICE TO BE DEFUNDED
Council members said they "don't have all the answers about what a police-free future looks like" but vowed to work with the community over the next year, according to a statement Ms. Bender posted on Twitter.
The police department didn't respond to a request for comment.
"It shouldn't have taken so much death to get us here," said Kandace Montgomery, director of Black Visions Collective, a Minneapolis-based community organization. "George Floyd should not have been murdered for so many people to wake up."
In addition, congressional Democrats said they plan to introduce legislation Monday that would lower barriers to prosecuting police for misconduct. Rep. Karen Bass, a California Democrat and chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Sunday that the Justice in Policing Act would strive to hold police officers more accountable, require bias training and improve efforts to track episodes of misconduct.
In a news conference Sunday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed a "next wave of reform," including shifting funding from the city's police department to youth and social services, and supporting increased transparency in police discipline.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom called for state police to stop using strangleholds, and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is proposing cutting police funding and putting the money into social services in minority communities.
A U.S. district judge in Denver signed a restraining order barring the city's police from using chemical weapons or projectiles against protesters acting peacefully. And in Buffalo, N.Y., two police officers were charged Saturday with felony assault in connection with a Thursday night altercation that injured a 75-year-old protester. The officers pleaded not guilty, according to Tom Burton, a lawyer for the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association, which represents the officers.
GEORGE FLOYD PROTESTERS PUSH TO DEFUND THE POLICE: WHAT IT MEANS
Mr. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed May 25 after police officers arrested him for allegedly trying to pass off a counterfeit $20 bill. Video that circulated widely on social media showed a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, with his knee on Mr. Floyd's neck as Mr. Floyd pleaded for mercy and said he couldn't breathe.
Mr. Floyd's body stopped in Raeford, N.C., the small town where he was born, for a public viewing and private service Saturday before traveling to Houston, where he lived before moving to Minneapolis. On Monday, the Floyd family will hold a public viewing, and a private funeral will follow Tuesday.
Former Vice President Joe Biden will travel to Houston on Monday to meet privately with the Floyd family, a campaign aide said Sunday. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee also plans to record a video message for Mr. Floyd's funeral service on Tuesday. Mr. Biden had previously spoken with Mr. Floyd's family over the phone, where he discussed the death of his son, Beau Biden, five years ago from brain cancer.
Mr. Biden is expected to unveil additional policies around police oversight and racial justice in the coming days.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R., Utah) joined a march on Sunday that went past the barricades near the White House at Lafayette Square, becoming the first Republican senator known to have joined the protests in Washington. "We need a voice against racism, we need many voices against racism and against brutality. And we need to stand up and say black lives matter," said Mr. Romney, a Trump critic who was the only Republican to vote to convict him in impeachment proceedings. Other senators who have joined protests include Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Kamala Harris (D., Calif.).
President Trump tweeted early Sunday, "I want great and well paid LAW ENFORCEMENT. I want LAW & ORDER!"
The Los Angeles police union said in a written statement that any cuts to police funding would "undoubtedly affect not only police operations, but more importantly the community members we serve each day."
Leaders of several of the weekend's protests stressed the importance of keeping gatherings peaceful, and in some cases they chanted that they were using their right to protest peacefully. Greater New York City Black Nurses Association, which organized an event at Union Square on Sunday, said in its social-media posts that "provocateurs will not be tolerated at this event."
Ty Hobson-Powell, an organizer in Washington, D.C., said the tenor of the protests has changed over the past week of protests.
"The first couple of days, I was coming out here with milk in my backpack and with towels because we were getting tear-gassed," Mr. Hobson-Powell said. "Now, I'm coming out here with water, just to survive the day and stay hydrated."
New York City has gone five days with no significant property damage and arrested only four people during protests Saturday, according to the mayor's office.
LOOTING COSTS BUSINESSES IN MAJOR METRO AREAS AT LEAST $400M, EXPERTS ESTIMATE
Many protesters said they didn't plan to stop demonstrating until they see substantial criminal-justice overhauls.
Near New York City's Times Square on Sunday, speakers took to the stage to urge protesters to keep going and try to attend meetings of powerful people, including Congress, to be agents of change. Chivona Newsome, co-founder of the Greater New York branch of Black Lives Matter and a Democratic candidate for the city's 15th congressional district, said the movement had entered its most important stage.
"We know that nothing happens for marginalized people unless there's an agenda, unless there's legislation," she said. "There would be no civil rights, there would be no voting rights and we would still be in bondage if there wasn't legislation."
Ms. Newsome said if elected she would propose a law dubbed the "I Can't Breathe Act" that would make it a felony if a person who was denied medical assistance died in custody. She also outlined a broad set of other proposals, including the banning of the use of chokeholds by police officers.
Tyhem Commodore, a local comedian and actor, told the crowd not to let the energy of the past week dissipate in coming days. The issues the black community faces are ever-present, he said.
"Black Lives Matter isn't one day. It's not one week," he said. "Black Lives Matter is forever."
U.S. Attorney General William Barr said Sunday he doesn't see systemic racism in law enforcement.
"There's racism in the United States still but I don't think that the law-enforcement system is systemically racist," he said on CBS. "I understand the distrust, however, of the African-American community given the history in this country. I think we have to recognize that for most of our history, our institutions were explicitly racist."
The Justice Department is investigating Mr. Floyd's killing to determine whether Minneapolis police officers willfully violated his civil rights. Mr. Chauvin faces charges from the state of Minnesota of second-degree murder; three other officers who were at the scene of the arrest were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Mr. Barr said investigators were examining things such as the officers' training and the department's use-of-force policies.
The Trump administration was criticized for deploying National Guard troops and federal law-enforcement personnel who used smoke canisters and pepper balls to clear Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., Monday before Mr. Trump went to St. John's Church, across the street from the White House.
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D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Sunday that Mr. Trump's response to the protests hadn't quelled them but motivated more people to turn out for peaceful gatherings. "What Americans saw was federal police forces tear-gassing peaceful Americans and how they responded made clear to the president that Americans would exercise their First Amendment rights and do it peacefully," Ms. Bowser said on ABC.
Many police departments had changed their tactics throughout the week-plus of protests. At a protest Sunday in New York City's Union Square, a handful of officers stood on the periphery, not wearing the helmets police donned at other protests.
Drake Madison, a public-relations officer for the Los Angeles Police Department, declined to detail whether or how police presence at future demonstrations might change. He said acts of looting have largely subsided across the city and there have been a lot of peaceful marches over these past few days.
"If it goes that way, heck, do those daily if you'd like," he said. "We always hope for the best, but we do plan for the worst, just in case."
--Joe Barrett, Sarah Krouse, Akane Otani, Sabrina Siddiqui, Dylan Tokar and Sadie Gurman contributed to this article.
Write to Jennifer Calfas at Jennifer.Calfas@wsj.com and Elizabeth Findell at Elizabeth.Findell@wsj.com