Businesses, volunteers come together to clean up riot wreckage
Photos show devastation to businesses across country
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Business owners and altruistic volunteers throughout the U.S. were out in force Sunday to clean up the damage left behind by rioters who have used protests in the name of George Floyd as an opportunity to cause destruction.
Floyd, 46, died in police custody after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for eight-to-nine minutes while he was pinned down and handcuffed. The incident, which took place on Memorial Day, May 25, has resulted in Chauvin's arrest and a third-degree murder charge.
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Video of the altercation has sparked public conversations of police brutality against African Americans and subsequent protests throughout Minnesota and the rest of the country, some have which have turned violent.
Cleanup initiatives have kicked off in cities that have been severely impacted by riots. In these photos from Associated Press journalists, volunteers are seen sweeping up broken glass from smashed windows and scrubbing graffiti off walls.
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Georgetown resident Tracey Thaler volunteers to sweep up shattered glass outside a boarded-up store, Sunday, May 31, 2020, in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, following protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
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Rioters defaced property from big and small businesses. In Georgetown, Washington, D.C a Michael Kors store's glass door and windows were destroyed, as were local restaurants like The Oval Room and Lebtav Lebanese Restaurant. Some business owners have resorted to boarding up windows for protection.
Similar circumstances have taken place in Madison, Wisconsin, where glass windows were smashed at a university book store and graffiti was sprayed on the walls of Madison Museum of Contemporary Art – both of which are being cleaned. In San Francisco, California, the San Francisco Department of Public Works has been deployed to restore the city.
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A worker with San Francisco Public Works cleans graffiti off the window of a Marshalls store in San Francisco, Sunday, May 31, 2020, after protests over the Memorial Day death of George Floyd. Floyd was a black man who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Other notable cities that have endured violent protests this weekend include Columbia, South Carolina; La Mesa, California; Pittsburgh and Chicago.
In Columbia, business owners are checking on their properties and are surveying for damage or taking preventative measures like boarding up windows. Over 2,340 miles away, volunteers in La Mesa are doing their best to clean up broken glass from destroyed storefronts and torched vehicles.
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Big businesses such as Starbucks, CVS Pharmacy, Dollar Bank are being repaired by workers in Pittsburgh. A Chase Bank is also getting shattered glass removed in Chicago.