Police violence

External video

Arrests in New York City, May 30

 Two NYPD vehicles driving into a

crowd of protesters, @pgarapon on

Twitter[90]

 Grand Rapids police pepper spraying

a protester and then firing a tear gas

canister at their head on YouTube

There have been numerous reports and videos of aggressive police actions using physical force
as well as "batons, tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets on protesters, bystanders and
journalists, often without warning or seemingly unprovoked." [91] These incidents have provoked
"growing concern that aggressive law enforcement tactics intended to impose order were instead
inflaming tensions."[91] Police responded that such tactics are necessary to prevent vandalism and
arson, and that police officers themselves have been assaulted with thrown rocks and water
bottles.[91] In response to the violence, Amnesty International issued a press release calling for the
police to end excessive militarized responses to the protests. [92][93]
Two New York City Police Department (NYPD) vehicles were recorded ramming into protesters
surrounding and throwing objects at the vehicles;[94] New York City mayor Bill de Blasio defended
the officers' actions and an investigation into the event was initiated. [95] Another NYPD police
officer was recorded throwing down a female protester with both hands while calling her a "stupid
fucking bitch." The protester was hospitalized after the assault and claims to have suffered a
seizure.[96] An NYPD officer approached a protester, ripped off the protester's mask, and pepper-
sprayed the protester in the face.[97] The NYPD has said it is investigating the incident. [97] An
officer in Salt Lake City pushed an unarmed elderly man walking with a cane to the ground. [98][99]
On May 30, multiple incidents of police violence occurred during protests. One video was posted
online showing police officers in Minnesota ordering residents on their porches to go inside and
after a few demands, they fired paint rounds at the residents after shouting "Light 'em
up!"[100] In Atlanta, two police officers broke the windows of a vehicle, yanked a woman out of the
car and tased a man. The two victims were identified as two college students who joined the
protests. The two police officers were fired after a video showed them using "excessive force".
  A grandmother participating in a protest in La Mesa, California was shot by the police with a
[101]

rubber bullet between her eyes, and ended up being taken to an intensive care unit. [102] At a
protest in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a viral video showed Grand Rapids Police pepper spraying a
protester and then immediately firing a tear gas canister into their head. [103][104][105] The Grand
Rapids Police Department announced on June 2 that they would conduct an internal
investigation on the incident. [103]
In Seattle, an officer placed his knee on the back of the neck of a looting suspect; after onlookers
shouted for him to remove his knee from the man's neck his partner pulled it off. [91] The Seattle
Office of Police Accountability received about 12,000 individual complaints regarding the police
department's conduct during that weekend, including complaints about "[p]epper spraying a
young girl", "[p]unching a person on the ground who was being arrested", "[p]lacing a knee on
the neck area of two people who had been arrested", "[f]ailing to record law enforcement activity
on body-worn video", and "[breaking] windows of a Target store". [106]
Several African American politicians, including State Senator Zellnor Myrie, U.S. Rep. Joyce
Beatty, Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin and Franklin
County Commissioner Kevin Boyce, have been pepper sprayed by the police. [107][108][109][110]
President Trump went to the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church, whose basement had been
damaged by fire, and posed for pictures in front of it holding up a Bible. To clear the route so that
he could walk there, police and national guardsmen had used tear gas and rubber bullets to clear
a crowd of peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square.