George Floyd protests
The George Floyd protests were a series of police brutality demonstrations and riots that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020.[7][8] The protests and civil unrest began as part of international reactions to the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, during an arrest. Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis Police Department officer, knelt on Floyd's neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds[9] as three other officers looked on and prevented passers-by from intervening.[16] Chauvin and the other three officers involved were later arrested.[17] In April 2021, Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.[18] In June 2021, Chauvin was sentenced to 22+1⁄2 years in prison.[19]
For lists of protests, see Lists of George Floyd protests. For the social movement mainly involved in the protests, see Black Lives Matter.George Floyd protests
In whole of the United States: May 26, 2020 – May 26, 2021 (1 year)
In Minneapolis–Saint Paul: May 26, 2020 – May 2, 2023 (2 years, 11 months and 1 week)
- Murder of George Floyd while being arrested by Minneapolis Police[1]
- Police brutality[1]
- Lack of police accountability[1]
- Inequality and racism[2]
- Police reforms in some cities and states, but no successful federal legislation. Political debate over the defund the police and police abolition movements and police militarization.
- Plans to disband the Minneapolis Police Department announced; provision for a city charter amendment passed by the Minneapolis City Council
- Referendum on city charter amendment revision originally announced for November 2020, but would later be postponed
- Federal forces began to be deployed in June 2020
- Operation Legend began in July 2020
- Wave of changes to practices perceived as racially insensitive, including names, monuments, songs, marketing, depictions in all media from television to museums to emblems, blackface, and casting white voice actors for black characters. Reduced media depictions of police, and the dissolution of a fraternity.
- Continued nationwide protests over racial and economic inequality, centering on broad social issues including police brutality
19 confirmed (May 26 – October 31, 2020)[3]
14,000+[4]
The George Floyd protest movement began hours after his murder as bystander video and word of mouth began to spread.[20] Protests first emerged at the East 38th and Chicago Avenue street intersection in Minneapolis, the location of Floyd's arrest and murder, and other locations in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area of Minnesota.[21] Protests quickly spread nationwide and to over 2,000 cities and towns in over 60 countries in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.[22][23][24] Polls in the summer of 2020 estimated that between 15 million and 26 million people had participated at some point in the demonstrations in the United States, making the protests the largest in U.S. history.[25][26][27]
While the majority of protests were peaceful,[28] demonstrations in some cities escalated into riots, looting,[29] and street skirmishes with police and counter-protesters. Some police responded to protests with instances of violence, including against reporters.[30][31][32] At least 200 cities in the U.S. had imposed curfews by early June 2020, while more than 30 states and Washington, D.C. activated over 96,000 National Guard, State Guard, 82nd Airborne, and 3rd Infantry Regiment service members.[33][34][35][36] The deployment, when combined with preexisting deployments related to the COVID-19 pandemic and other natural disasters, constituted the largest military operation other than war in U.S. history.[37] By the end of June 2020, at least 14,000 people had been arrested.[4][38][39] By June 2020, more than 19 people had died in relation to the unrest. A report from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project estimated that between May 26 and August 22, 93% of individual protests were "peaceful and nondestructive"[40][41] and research from the Nonviolent Action Lab and Crowd Counting Consortium estimated that by the end of June, 96.3% of 7,305 demonstrations involved no injuries and no property damage.[42] However, arson, vandalism, and looting that occurred between May 26 and June 8 caused approximately $1–2 billion in insured damages nationally, the highest recorded damage from civil disorder in U.S. history, and surpassing the record set during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.[6][43]
The protests precipitated a worldwide debate on policing and racial injustice that has led to numerous legislative proposals on federal, state, and municipal levels in the U.S. intended to combat police misconduct, systemic racism, qualified immunity and police brutality.[44][45] The protests led to a wave of monument removals, name changes, and societal changes throughout the world[46] and occurred during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic and amid the 2020 U.S. presidential election season.[47][48] Protests continued through 2020 and into 2021,[49] most notably in Minneapolis at the 38th and Chicago Avenue street intersection where Floyd was murdered that activists have referred to as George Floyd Square.[50][51] Several demonstrations coincided with the criminal trial of Chauvin in March and April 2021 and the one-year anniversary of Floyd's murder in May 2021. Officials in Minnesota and elsewhere proactively mobilized counter-protest measures for Chauvin's trial, but it did not result in unrest like what happened immediately after Floyd's murder.[52]
Local officials in Minneapolis–Saint Paul prepared counter-protest measures in early 2022 for the start of the federal trial for the other three police officers at the scene of Floyd's murder.[53][54] Relatively small protests took place during the trial and after the verdict announcement.[55] On May 25, 2021, the one-year anniversary of Floyd's murder, a number of protests took place; most of these were short-lived, with calm being restored on the early hours of May 26, 2021.[56] While the nationwide protests ended, the occupation of George Floyd Square in Minneapolis–Saint Paul persisted into 2023,[57] however as of 2022 vehicular traffic was finally allowed to pass through it.[58][59][60][61][62] On May 2, 2023, Tou Thao was found guilty of aiding and abetting manslaughter—the last federal or state court case related to Floyd's murder. The conviction fulfilled a key demand of protesters that all four police officers be held legally accountable for murdering George Floyd.[63][64]
Media coverage
The protests were the subject of extensive media coverage, documentaries, and television specials. The documentary Say His Name: Five Days of George Floyd, released in February 2021, contained footage of protests and unrest in a neighborhood of Minneapolis in the five days that elapsed between Floyd's murder and the criminal charges being filed against Derek Chauvin.[321][322] In August 2020, the occupied protests at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis was the subject of a multi-part PBS News Hour series, "George Floyd Square: The epicenter of a protest movement that's swept the world"[323] and in December 2020, it was the subject of a monthlong series by Minnesota Public Radio, "Making George Floyd's Square: Meet the people transforming 38th and Chicago".[324]
Several documentaries and news specials were broadcast to coincide with first anniversary of Floyd's murder.[325] The ABC-produced After Floyd: The Year that Shook America examined the "generation-defining movement" of Floyd's murder and Our America: A Year of Activism reflected on the year-long period of activism on social justice issues that followed. PBS-produced Race Matters: America After George Floyd reported on ongoing protests in communities over issues of police brutality a year after Floyd's murder.[325]
The Minneapolis-based Star Tribune newspaper received the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for the breaking news it reported of Floyd's murder and the resulting aftermath. Danielle Frazier, the then 17-year old who filmed Floyd's arrest and murder on her cellphone, received a Pulitzer special citation recognition in 2021 for her video.[326]
Misinformation
Official statements
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speculated that there was "an organized attempt to destabilize civil society", initially saying as many as 80% of the individuals had possibly come from outside the state,[352] and the mayor of St. Paul, Melvin Carter, said everyone arrested in St. Paul on May 29 was from out of state.[353] However, jail records showed that the majority of those arrested were in-state.[354] At a press conference later the same day, Carter explained that he had "shared... arrest data received in [his] morning police briefing which [he] later learned to be inaccurate".[355]
Numerous eyewitness accounts and news reporters indicated that tear gas was used to disperse protesters in Lafayette Square.[356] Despite this evidence, U.S. Park Police officials said, "USPP officers and other assisting law enforcement partners did not use tear gas or OC Skat Shells to close the area at Lafayette Park",[357][358] adding that they only used "pepper balls" and "smoke canisters". Donald Trump's presidential campaign demanded news outlets retract reports of "tear gas" use.[359] President Trump called the reports "fake" and said "they didn't use tear gas."[360]
Press statements
On the night of May 31, exterior lights on the north side of the White House went dark as usual at 11:00 pm,[361] while protesters were demonstrating outside. The Guardian mistakenly reported that "in normal times, they are only ever turned off when a president dies."[362] A 2015 stock photograph of the White House, edited to show the lights turned off, was shared tens of thousands of times online,[363] including by Hillary Clinton.[364] While the photograph did not depict the building at the time of the protests, Deputy White House Press Secretary Hogan Gidley confirmed that the lights "go out at about 11 p.m. almost every night".[365]
"Black Lives Fucking Matter", "A.C.A.B.", and "Fuck 12" graffiti on a looted Target store on Lake Street, Minneapolis the morning of May 28, 2020
Arrangement is chronological.