Eyewitness report from nation's capital
Editor’s note: University of Idaho journalism graduate Madison Hardy will join The Press as a full-time reporter June 15.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — For three nights, cities across the United States were ravaged by vandalism, Molotov cocktails, looting, and mass destruction of property, often in the wake of peaceful protests.
In Washington D.C., notable locations like war memorials, St. John’s Episcopal Church, CVS pharmacies, the Apple Store, and hundreds of small businesses were ransacked.
Those present at the rallies faced tear gas and rubber bullets, surrounded by a storm of burning buildings. In their homes, downtown residents hear echoes of flash-bang shells, demonstrator screams and police sirens into the wee hours of the night.
Since May 26, thousands of protesters have clashed with law enforcement over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died of asphyxiation after former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds.
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, Police Chief Peter Newsham, and Attorney General William P. Barr held a press conference Monday to brace the nation’s capital for further confrontation with demonstrators.
In an effort to quell protests, Bowser moved the city’s curfew earlier, from the previous 11 p.m. to 7 p.m. both Monday and Tuesday evening.
Monday, the day D.C. expected to begin Stage One reopening plans, businesses boarded up their windows to protect their assets after months of closures and financial devastation due to the coronavirus.
The mayor also made a point to notify the public of her contact with several federal agencies to protect the D.C. streets in the coming days.
Newsham reported D.C. officers made about 90 arrests affiliated to the recent protests, and are expecting that number to increase throughout the week. According to the police chief, two-thirds of the detained protesters are facing felony charges.
“We do expect that there will be more federal assets, as they say, deployed in or around the District of Columbia,” said Bowser at the conference. “Our focus and what we think would be important for those additional assets would be on federal properties and monuments and memorials.”
Monday night, the National Guard swarmed the area surrounding the White House and Lafayette Square — the epicenter of D.C. protests. U.S. Blackhawk and Lakota helicopters swarmed the sky, carrying officers and frightening those out after curfew.
Through shows of force, officials scattered demonstrators into smaller clusters.
