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Protests in New York are more peaceful, according to de Blasio

New police strategies would have worked. Compared to the previous nights, it was “a completely different picture,” said de Blasio at a press conference.

After riots on the verge of peaceful protests after the death of the African American George Floyd, the demonstrations on Wednesday night in New York were “mostly peaceful” according to Mayor Bill de Blasio. Compared to the previous nights, it was “a completely different picture,” said de Blasio at a press conference on Wednesday.

However, on Wednesday night “there were also some incidents in which people decided to do something illegal or violent, but that was rare”. The police reacted quickly – and respected the peaceful protests. New police strategies have worked, but there is still a lot of work to be done, said de Blasio.

Protests even after the curfew

In the metropolis with millions of people, thousands of people again demonstrated against racism and police brutality on Tuesday and Wednesday night – many of them after a night curfew at 8 p.m. local time.

According to media reports, there were again numerous temporary arrests. A large group of protesters were reportedly stuck on the Manhattan Bridge for an extended period of time because police refused to allow them to be pulled off the bridge in Brooklyn or Manhattan. However, the situation ended peacefully and the demonstrators were able to leave the bridge.

Looting and rioting

In the previous nights there had been looting and violent rioting, especially in Manhattan and the Bronx. As a result, numerous shops had barricaded their shop windows with sheets of plywood.

The African American George Floyd was killed in a brutal police operation in Minneapolis last week. Protests then spread across the country.

But not only in the USA, the wave of protests also reached other cities such as Paris, London and Helsinki. Thousands of people gathered in London on Wednesday to protest against racism. Thousands of people also demonstrated in the Finnish capital Helsinki. They gathered on Senate Square in front of the city’s cathedral early Wednesday evening to show their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and to protest against police brutality, as live recordings on Finnish broadcaster Yle showed.

Since the beginning of June, gatherings in public places in Finland are again allowed under certain conditions with up to 500 people. The police, however, estimated the number of participants at around 3,000, whereupon they called on the organizers to end the demonstration because of the risk of infection. According to the police, the protest was ended by the organizers.

(WHAT / dpa)

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