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LIVE UPDATES
Updated 
June 7, 2020, 1:31 a.m. ET6 minutes ago
6 minutes ago

Live Updates: Protests Swell in U.S.

and Beyond as George Floyd Is
Mourned Near His Birthplace
Demonstrators massed around the world, and even small towns with Klan histories saw
protests. The Minneapolis mayor was shouted down by protesters.

RIGHT NOW

Protesters in New York City, particularly in Brooklyn, remain out hours after curfew.

Here’s what you need to know:

 Passionate but peaceful crowds took to American streets as protests

cohered into a movement.
 Minneapolis protesters put Mayor Jacob Frey through a walk of shame.
 Protests grew in smaller towns, including some with Klan histories.
 Solemnity marked George Floyd’s memorial in North Carolina. A sheriff
said police were ‘part of the problem.’
 Police Departments across the country are re-examining their use-of-force
policies.
 Around the world, protests against racism and police brutality multiplied.
 Florida is seeing a stunning level of sustained protest.

Video
TRANSCRIPT
0:00/2:14

Protesters in Washington,
D.C., Continue Call for Justice
Peaceful protesters came together in the nation’s capital as another weekend of
demonstrations unfolded across the country in response to the killing of George
Floyd.

What do you want? Justice! When do you want it? Now! What do you
want? Justice! When do you want it? Now! Black lives matter! Black
lives matter! Black lives matter! Justice! Now! Justice! Now! Justice!
Now! If we don’t get it— shut it down! If you don’t get it— shut it down!
No justice— No peace! No racist police! For the mothers! For the
mothers! No justice, no peace. We appreciate y’all, we appreciate y’all.
Get us some water. DJ [unintel]., back to action. it’s been a lot of crazy
things going on in the last week. Say hello to the person next to you. We
swap! Here at the White House. Black lives matter! Black lives matter!

2:13Protesters in Washington, D.C., Continue Call for

Justice
Peaceful protesters came together in the nation’s capital as another weekend of
demonstrations unfolded across the country in response to the killing of George
Floyd.CreditCredit...Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times

Passionate but peaceful crowds took to American

streets as protests cohered into a movement.
Demonstrations across the United States, which began as spontaneous eruptions of
outrage after the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police less than
two weeks ago, appeared to have cohered by Saturday into a nationwide movement
protesting systemic racism.

Thousands marched in big cities like New York and Seattle, and tighter groups in small
towns like Vidor, Texas; Havre, Mont.; and Marion, Ohio, denouncing a broken law
enforcement system marked by racial injustice.

The outpouring of activism came at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has
underscored many deep inequities in society, and has also removed competition for the
public’s attention by disrupting work, school and entertainment.

One of the largest protests was in the nation’s capital, where new fences, concrete
barriers and a force of unidentifiable guards have shrouded the White House, projecting
a new symbolism of militarized defensiveness rather than openness and democracy.

A multiethnic, multigenerational crowd of thousands of protesters converged there, at

the mouth of Lafayette Square. Demonstrators on foot and bicycle headed to the freshly
painted Black Lives Matter mural on the main thoroughfare, passing cars with “BLM”
and “Stop Killing Us” written on their rear windows. Later, they also passed people
sipping cocktails at a few upscale restaurants open for outdoor dining.

At times, it felt as if the entire city had emptied into downtown Washington as the
numbers swelled to high for the two weeks. Lines of protesters — often but not always
masked against the virus — snaked their way through side streets, while others
converged in nearby parks.

By early evening, 16th Street had the feel of a street fair. Ice cream trucks idled on the
side of the road, parents rolled tired children in strollers, people played guitars and
harmonicas. Music was playing out of the back of cars. Some people danced.

Protesters also gathered in the once predominantly black neighborhoods of U Street and
Columbia Heights, north of the White House. In Meridian Hill Park, which locals call
Malcolm X Park, a large crowd gathered to chant, “No justice, no peace.”

Just down the street, the intersection of 14th and U Streets was filled with protesters
who had gathered to listen to D.J.s and musicians play go-go music, a type of funk music
recently designated the official music of the district. The chanting crowd paused to listen
to a woman sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which black Americans have embraced for
more than a century as an anthem of liberation.

Although Saturday’s demonstrations were largely peaceful, President Trump continued

to hammer home a familiar message.

“LAW & ORDER!” he wrote on Twitter on Saturday evening.

 Here are highlights of some of the larger protests around the country.

 In New York, nearly a thousand people streamed into Grand Army Plaza in
Brooklyn, and several thousand gathered near Central Park in Manhattan. Some danced
and others played music, and chants of “Whose streets? Our streets!” rang out even as
the clouds broke and a downpour soaked the crowds. Protesters continued marching
more than three hours after curfew, mostly in Brooklyn. Here’s the latest.
 In Seattle, a demonstration organized by health care workers drew thousands
who walked from Harborview Medical Center to City Hall. Many wore scrubs and lab
coats and carried signs that read, “Black Health Matters” and “Racism Is a Public Health
Emergency.”
 Protesters in San Francisco briefly stopped traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge in
one of two dozen demonstrations planned for the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend.
“This is the awakening of America,” said one protester, Nate Payne, who was clad in a
gold San Francisco 49ers jacket and holding a cutout of the team’s former
quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, kneeling.
 In Los Angeles, just south of the University of Southern California campus and
the historic core of the city’s black community, a procession of marchers decked out in
Trojan cardinal and led by the U.S.C. Black Student Assembly completed a three-mile
walk around the campus. Members of the Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social, a
Latina and Native American activist group, led a protest walk around At California State
University, Los Angeles.
 In Philadelphia, thousands of people filled the Benjamin Franklin Parkway,
marching from the Philadelphia Museum of Art to City Hall, with some demanding that
the city cut the Police Department budget by at least 10 percent.

Minneapolis protesters put Mayor Jacob Frey

through a walk of shame.
Video
TRANSCRIPT
0:00/1:54

Minneapolis Mayor Booed

Out of Rally
Chanting “Shame” and “Go home, Jacob, go home,” demonstrators drove Mayor
Jacob Frey out of a rally after he declined to commit to defunding the police.

Jacob Frey, we have a yes or no question for you. Yes or no: Will you
commit to defunding Minneapolis Police Department? What did I say?
We don’t want no more police. Is that clear? We don’t want people with
 guns toting around in our community shooting us down. You haven’t
answered. It is a yes or a no. It is a yes or a no. Will you defund the
Minneapolis Police Department? All right, be quiet, you all. Be quiet.
Because it’s important that we actually hear this. It’s important that we
hear this because if you all don’t know, he’s up for re-election next year.
[cheering] He’s up for re-election next year. And if he says no, guess
what the [expletive] we’re going to do next year. What did you say?
Louder, one more time. All right! You’re wasting our time. Get the
[expletive] out of here. Get the [expletive] out. Go home, Jacob. Go
home. Go home, Jacob. Go home. Go home, Jacob. Go home. Shame,
shame, shame.

1:54Minneapolis Mayor Booed Out of Rally

Chanting “Shame” and “Go home, Jacob, go home,” demonstrators drove Mayor Jacob
Frey out of a rally after he declined to commit to defunding the
police.CreditCredit...Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

It was humiliation on a scale almost unimaginable outside of cinema or nightmare.

But for Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, a 38-year-old civil rights lawyer who swept
into office in 2018 on promises to fix the broken relationship between the community
and the police, it was all too real.

There he was on Saturday, retreating through a sea of protesters yelling “Go home,
Jacob, go home!” and “Shame! Shame!” after he refused to commit to defunding the
Police Department. As he walked away, the crowd continued to chant “Shame! Shame!”
— a moment reminiscent of the excruciating walk of shame from “Game of Thrones.”

The scene, which ricocheted across social media, reflected the intense pressure
protesters nationwide are putting on elected officials to commit to sweeping changes in
the nation’s law enforcement system after the death of George Floyd nearly two weeks
ago.

Across the country, calls to defund, downsize or abolish police departments have gained
new traction since Mr. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man from Minneapolis, died after a
white police officer pressed a knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes.

On Wednesday, Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles announced that he would cut as

much as $150 million from a planned increase in the Police Department’s budget. And
in New York, Corey Johnson, the City Council speaker, and Daniel Dromm, a council
member from Queens, vowed even before the latest protests to cut the Police
Department’s $6 billion budget.

In Minneapolis, at least four members of the City Council have called for dismantling
the Police Department, where four former officers have been charged in the death of Mr.
Floyd.

“And when we’re done, we’re not simply gonna glue it back together,” Jeremiah Ellison,
a member of the City Council, said on Twitter this week. “We are going to dramatically
rethink how we approach public safety and emergency response.”

Protests grew in smaller towns, including some

with Klan histories.
Anti-racism demonstrations unfolded not only in major cities across the United States,
but also in smaller towns and largely rural areas.

More than 100 people gathered on Saturday for a protest against racism in Vidor, Texas,
a town about 10,000 that has a history of Ku Klux Klan and white supremacist activity.
The demonstrators, many holding “Black Lives Matter” signs, stood in a grassy area,
chanting, “I can’t breathe!” and “No justice, no peace!”

Michael Cooper, the president of the N.A.A.C.P. chapter in nearby Beaumont, addressed
the gathering and emphasized that the protest was peaceful. “Just like Waco, Texas is
now known for something else, Vidor, Texas, will now be known for love!” he declared to
cheers, according to video from KFDM.

Vidor, which is near the Louisiana border, has been the site of Klan rallies as well as
a major fight over integration in the early 1990s, when two black men trying to
desegregate a housing project moved out because of harassment and intimidation.

On Saturday, video posted on Twitter by a local reporter showed a number of white men

with guns standing near the demonstration. The said they were there to protect a nearby
veterans memorial, according to the reporter, Jordan James of 12NewsNow.

Other towns where protests were held on Saturday included Marion, Ohio; Simi Valley,
Calif.; Richmond, Ky.; Washington, Pa.; Athens, Ga.; and Ephrata, Pa. Protesters also
took to the streets of Huntsville, Texas, just blocks from the state’s execution chamber.

In recent days, Havre, Mont.; Garden City, Kan.; and Harvard, Neb., have all had
protests.

On Saturday morning, crowds converged in Alpine, Texas, to support the Black Lives
Matter movement.
The scene in Alpine, which has a population of about 6,000 and is in the Big Bend
region of Texas near the border with Mexico, surprised some local observers.

Hundreds of protesters walked through the streets, hoisting Black Lives Matter placards
and the flags of the United States, Mexico and Texas, before arriving at the Brewster
County courthouse.
“Pretty sure this is the largest turnout for a protest I’ve ever seen in the Big Bend region,
equal to or bigger than the anti-pipeline protests from a few years ago,” Travis Bubenik,
a journalist based in West Texas, said on Twitter.

Scrutiny of the police in Alpine has been growing in recent days amid an uproar
over racist tweets attributed to Devon Portillo, a candidate for Brewster County sheriff.
Mr. Portillo contended that his Twitter account had been infiltrated and that he was not
to blame for the tweets, according to local media reports. His account has since been
deactivated.

“My generation, we did a lot of good, but we stagnated,” Andy Ramos, 72, the mayor of
Alpine, told protesters. “We need a push in the butt and you guys are the ones who have
to do it. You have to bring social change to this world.”

Starkville, a town of 26,000 in Mississippi, also had its own protest on Saturday.
Participants said that turnout numbered well into the hundreds.

Ariana Sirgew, a student at Mississippi State University, said it was the first time she
saw a protest in Starkville, the town where the university is based. She said she was
moved by a discussion at the protest of the 8 minutes and 46 seconds during which
George Floyd died at the hands of the police in Minneapolis.

“Everyone felt it in their soul,” said Ms. Sirgew.

Solemnity marked George Floyd’s memorial in

North Carolina. A sheriff said police were ‘part of
the problem.’
Video
TRANSCRIPT
0:00/0:52

Mourners Remember George

Floyd in North Carolina
Mourners came together in Raeford, N.C., for a memorial service and public viewing
of Mr. Floyd’s body in the state where he was born.
 Come onto me, at rest. Brother George, time for you to get to rest. Black
power. Black power. Black power. [cheering] Let justice flow like a
mighty stream. Let truth stand tall like the majestic oak. Let hope be as
broad as the distant horizon. Let kindness rain like a summer shower.

0:52Mourners Remember George Floyd in North

Carolina
Mourners came together in Raeford, N.C., for a memorial service and public viewing of
Mr. Floyd’s body in the state where he was born.CreditCredit...Phyllis B. Dooney for The
New York Times

The body of George Floyd lay in a plush blue coffin, dressed in a tan suit and brown tie.
His face bore a serene and peaceful look.

Inside a Free Will Baptist church in tiny Raeford, N.C., Mr. Floyd’s body had been
returned to the state of his birth for a public viewing on Saturday. His coffin was
surrounded by floral arrangements, left by mourners despite a request from his family
for no flowers.

One by one, peeling off from two lines of hundreds of people, each lined up in the
searing morning sun, mourners filed past the coffin in silence. Some murmured prayers.
Others whispered softly, “God bless,” or simply, “Peace, brother.”

Church officials in black suits and white shirts handed out bottles of water, gently urging
people to move quickly so that others in the growing lines outside would have an
opportunity to pay their respects. One minister filtered slowly through the crowd, telling
mourners, “I know it’s hot, but bless you for coming out.”

The crowd filed past a phalanx of State Highway Patrol vehicles and police officers at the
church parking lot entrance. The mood was serene, with only short, occasional chants:
“Say his name — George Floyd!” “No justice, no peace!”

It was church officials and ushers, not police officers, who shut down the chants. The
family had requested that there be no demonstrations or protests, said Sheriff Hubert A.
Peterkin of Hoke County, who helped the family organize the viewing.

At a private memorial service later in the day, Sheriff Peterkin earned a standing ovation
when he said that the nation’s police officers “are part of the problem” and, looking
directly at Mr. Floyd’s family, that ingrained racism had led to Mr. Floyd’s death.

“If there were four brothers that threw a police officer on the ground and one of them
put his knee on that officer’s neck and killed him on a video,” there would be a “national
manhunt,” said the sheriff, who is black.
More than 300 mourners attended the private service in Raeford, about 25 miles west of
Fayetteville, N.C., where Mr. Floyd was born. A number of family members, many
dressed in white, rose to clap and to sing hymns. But it was Sheriff Peterkin’s remarks
that drew the loudest response in a service that featured soaring gospel music and fiery
sermons.

Sheriff Peterkin said he had dreamed of being a police officer since he was 10 years old.
But because of Mr. Floyd’s death and the killings of other black men in police custody,
“that dream is now turning into a nightmare,” he said.

“If I deny all the wrong that law enforcement is doing today, I am denying the color of
my skin,” Sheriff Peterkin said. “I am a black man first, and then law enforcement.”

The Rev. Dr. Christopher D. Stackhouse said the video of Mr. Floyd’s death lasted eight
minutes and 46 seconds, but that “it was 401 years in the making” — a reference to
the history of slavery in America.

“They killed him in broad daylight,” the minister said. “George Floyd’s family had to
watch him die.”

Police Departments across the country are re-

examining their use-of-force policies.
Image

Marching past the Minnesota State Capitol on Friday.Credit...Alyssa Schukar for The
New York Times

Police Departments across the United States are re-examining their use-of-force policies
as protesters continue to express outrage over such tactics in the wake of George Floyd’s
death as Democrats in Congress plan expansive legislation to address police brutality
and racial bias.

In Minneapolis, where the police use force against blacks far more often than against
whites, the authorities said on Friday that they were immediately banning the use of
chokeholds and strangleholds. Such tactics were previously reserved for life-or-death
situations for officers.

City officials also said officers would be required to intervene and report any use of
unauthorized force, a move that comes after nearly two weeks of protests over the death
of Mr. Floyd, a black man whom a white Minneapolis police officer pinned under his
knee for nearly nine minutes.

On the West coast, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California called on Friday for the removal of
neck restraints from the state’s police training programs. And Seattle’s police chief,
Carmen Best, said she was banning the use of tear gas on protesters for at least 30 days
and calling for a review of the department’s crowd control tactics.
In New Mexico, the Las Cruces Police Department said it was prohibiting the neck
restraint technique. The authorities in the city also said on Friday that an officer
involved in the killing of a man who fled from a traffic stop in late February would be
fired and charged with involuntary manslaughter. Officers tased the man, Antonio
Valenzuela, 40, twice as he ran away after being pulled over. Officer Christopher
Smelser then used a chokehold technique on him.

And in Colorado, where legislation to ban the use of chokeholds by law enforcement was
introduced this week, a federal judge in Denver issued a temporary restraining order on
Friday to limit officers’ ability to fire rubber bullets or use tear gas on protesters.

Around the world, protests against racism and

police brutality multiplied.
Video
TRANSCRIPT
0:00/0:51

People Across the World

Stand in Solidarity With Floyd
Protesters
Marchers in London, Sydney, Tokyo, Paris and other cities came out to oppose
racism and show support for U.S. demonstrations.

“No justice, no peace! No justice, no peace!” “I can’t breathe! I can’t

breathe!” “Black lives matter!” “No justice, no peace!” “Justice! Justice!”
“Justice!” “Justice!” “Justice!” “Justice!”

0:51People
Across the World Stand in Solidarity With
Floyd Protesters
Marchers in London, Sydney, Tokyo, Paris and other cities came out to oppose racism
and show support for U.S. demonstrations.CreditCredit...Henry Nicholls/Reuters

Protests over the death of George Floyd were held in cities around world on Saturday.

Thousands gathered in Britain, France and Germany, following marches earlier in the
day that drew thousands in cities like Tokyo and Sydney. And while many of the global
protests were inspired by the unrest in the United States, they have also pointed to
issues of racism and police brutality at home.
Protesters in central London filled Parliament Square and the surrounding streets
despite cold weather and spitting rain.

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Most wore wearing face masks, but their collective chants were loud and clear: “George
Floyd,” “Black Lives Matter” and “No justice, no peace.”

Silence fell for about a minute as everyone knelt on the wet ground. Most raised fists in
the air.

In Paris, the authorities barred gatherings in front of the U.S. Embassy, but thousands
protested there anyway in the late afternoon, as well as near the Eiffel Tower, echoing a
protest on Wednesday that drew nearly 20,000 people to remember Adama Traoré, a
Frenchman who died in police custody in 2016.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel called the killing of Mr. Floyd “terrible” and
“racist.” “We know ourselves that we know something of racism here, and have a lot to
do regarding that — I would like to say that clearly,” she said in an interview with the
German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. “But I trust in the power of democracy in the
United States, that they will be able to come through this difficult situation.”

And in cities and towns across Australia on Saturday, tens of thousands rallied in

support of the Black Lives Matter movement, despite a warning from Prime Minister
Scott Morrison that large gatherings could harm efforts to control the pandemic.
Masked protesters, angry in part over the government’s treatment of Aboriginal people,
shouted, “I can’t breathe,” and held signs saying “How many more?” and “Australia is
not innocent.” The intensity, scale and scope of the demonstrations seemed to dwarf
anything the country had seen on the issue of race in years.

Florida is seeing a stunning level of sustained

protest.
Image

Protestors gathered in Miami on Saturday.Credit...Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

There have been protests all week in Tampa, Orlando and Tallahassee. And in South
Florida, better known as a sunny playground than as hotbed of political activism,
protests filled the entire day on Saturday.

For starters, a large group of protesters marched downtown under palm trees and
blooming royal poincianas to the Miami-Dade County Courthouse to pray. In the early
afternoon, several dozen gathered across the street from Trump National Doral, the
president’s resort, blaring salsa. “Trump you’re a racist,” one sign read.

Protesters marched in the rain in Tampa, huddled in a West Palm Beach park and
chanted to take down Confederate statues in Jacksonville.

In the evening, hundreds marched along Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami. The
crowd was nearly equal parts black, white and Hispanic, young and old, with more than
a few families.

“We’re not here to break nothing,” Jonni Gartrelle said, yelling through a bullhorn as
people gathered at the Torch of Friendship monument, a 1960 beacon for Caribbean and
Latin American immigrants.

“It’s not just the racist institutions that we’re fighting,” he said later in an interview. “It’s
the apathy of the people,” he said. “People think racism is like a rock in a boat that you
can throw overboard and fix it, but it’s really a hole in the boat that has to be fixed.”

As she walked up the boulevard, Martha Julme recalled that when her family lived in a
mostly white suburb of Fort Lauderdale, the police would stop her father on his way
home and ask whether he lived in the neighborhood. She also remembered back to when
a boy on her school bus called her a racial epithet.

“And I hit him,” she said. “I got suspended for 10 days and nothing happened to him.”
The principal, Ms. Julme said, had said it was OK for the boy to use the slur.

“I’m scared when I see a cop and I’m scared when I see a white person,” she said. “I just
don’t want to fear when I see a cop or a white person.”

Two Buffalo officers were charged after shoving a

protester.
Video
TRANSCRIPT
0:00/0:39

Buffalo Police Shove Man to

the Ground
Police officers knocked a man down on a sidewalk in Buffalo on Thursday as he tried
to talk to them. The 75-year-old man appeared to hit his head and lie motionless on
the ground.

“Move back!” “Hey!” [gasps] “He is bleeding!” “Bleeding out his ears,
bleeding out of his ears.” “Call a medic! Call a medic!” “He’s bleeding
out of his ear.” “Get a medic.” “What the [expletive] you walking up on
me?” [unclear] “Oh [expletive].” “Back up. Back up. Get off the steps,
let’s go, get back. Get back!” “Better get an ambulance for him.” “He’s
— there — we have EMT on scene.”

0:39Buffalo Police Shove Man to the Ground

Police officers knocked a man down on a sidewalk in Buffalo on Thursday as he tried to
talk to them. The 75-year-old man appeared to hit his head and lie motionless on the
ground.CreditCredit...WBFO NPR
Two Buffalo police officers were arraigned Saturday morning on charges of assault in
the second degree for pushing a 75-year-old man who was protesting outside City Hall
on Thursday night, according to the Erie County District Attorney.

“We had two of our police officers who crossed the line,” District Attorney John J. Flynn
told reporters after the arraignment in Buffalo City Court. “My job is to prosecute those
who have violated the law, plain and simple. And I believe, and I’m alleging, that these
two officers violated the law.”

Prosecutors identified the officers as Aaron Torglaski, 39, and Robert McCabe, 32. They
were arraigned before Judge Craig D. Hannah, who released the men on their personal
recognizance.

The felony charges were filed after a widely viewed video showed two police officers
appearing to shove Martin Gugino, who has been identified as an activist and a member
of the Western New York Peace Center. Mr. Gugino approached the officers in Niagara
Square and was shoved. He staggered backward and landed hard on the ground. Blood
immediately began leaking out of his ear.

Mr. Flynn said that if Mr. Gugino was violating curfew and refused to move, officers
should have moved to arrest him.

“You don’t take a baton and shove him,” he said, noting the other officer shoved Mr.
Gugino with his right hand, knocking him down. “That’s what you don’t do. You
properly arrest him if he was committing a crime.”

Mr. Flynn said Mr. Gugino is still hospitalized and remained in serious condition.
Mr. Gugino’s age makes the assault charges a felony, rather than a misdemeanor. If
convicted, the officers face up to seven years in prison.

Outside the courthouse, at least 100 people, most of them white men, stood together,
some holding the American flag. Many were armed and appeared to be in police
uniform. Others wore T-shirts that said “BPD Strong.”

At one point, one of them hoisted up an umbrella in an apparent attempt to block a

television camera from filming them.

A handful of counterprotesters showed up with megaphones, chanting “Support good

cops, not bad cops.”

One counterprotester chanted, “don’t push old men.” The crowd of police supporters
stared back at them but remained peaceful.

When the officers left, the crowd erupted in applause and cheers.

Coronavirus cases are emerging among some who

have attended protests.

Image
Lining up at a coronavirus testing site in New York City last month. Although the United
States has passed a peak in infections, the virus remains a threat.Credit...James
Estrin/The New York Times

As Americans gather by the thousands to protest the death of George Floyd,

scientists have warned that the crowded events could contribute to the spread of the
coronavirus. Already, there are signs that those fears were well-placed.

Though no city has yet attributed a major outbreak to the protests, individual
demonstrators in several places have contracted the virus, including in Lawrence, Kan.,
where someone who attended a protest last weekend tested positive on Friday. That
person did not wear a mask while protesting, local officials said.

“Similar to what we would ask anyone who goes out in public right now, we are asking
anyone who attended the recent protest to self-monitor for Covid-19 symptoms and
isolate if they become sick,” Sonia Jordan of the local health department said in a
statement.

Across the country, similar tales are emerging. Although the United States has passed a
peak in infections and deaths, the virus remains a persistent threat. Around 20,000 new
cases are being identified across the country on most days, and about 1,000 new deaths
are being announced.
In Athens, Ga., a local commissioner who attended a protest said that she had tested
positive. “I am asymptomatic but infectious,” Commissioner Mariah Parker wrote
on Facebook. “If you spoke on Sunday or were near me in the crowd, please get tested.”

In Columbus, Ohio, health officials said someone who protested there on May 27 had

later tested positive.

And in Oklahoma, a college football player who demonstrated said that he had later
tested positive for the virus. “After attending a protest in Tulsa AND being well
protective of myself, I have tested positive for COVID-19,” Amen Ogbongbemiga, a
linebacker at Oklahoma State University, wrote on Twitter. “Please, if you are going to
protest, take care of yourself and stay safe.”

It could be several days, or even weeks, before it is known whether any major clusters
emerge from the protests.

“As people gather in large crowds with varying degrees of social distancing,” Dr. Ngozi
Ezike, the Illinois Department of Public Health’s director, said in a statement, “there is
cause for concern about Covid-19 spread and outbreaks, especially if masks were not
worn universally.”

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases, said in a radio interview on Friday that he was “very concerned” that
gatherings of any kind were “a perfect setup for the spread of the virus in the sense of
creating these blips that might turn into some surges.

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s editor resigned after a

‘deeply offensive’ headline: ‘Buildings Matter,
Too.’
Stan Wischnowski, the top editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, resigned on Saturday,
days after a walkout by dozens of staff members over a headline on an architectural
critic’s column about the effects of civil unrest on the city’s buildings that
read “Buildings Matter, Too.”

The headline, published with the article on Tuesday, played on the slogan “Black Lives
Matter,” a rallying cry for activists protesting police violence against blacks, particularly
since the death of George Floyd last month.

Lisa Hughes, the publisher of The Inquirer, said in a memo to the staff on Saturday that
she had accepted Mr. Wischnowski’s decision to step down after 10 years across two
stints as the leader of one of the country’s largest newsrooms.

The day after the Inquirer column was published, the paper’s top editors, including Mr.
Wischnowski, issued an apology that appeared on its website.
 “The Philadelphia Inquirer published a headline in Tuesday’s edition that was deeply
offensive,” the editors wrote. “We should not have printed it. We’re sorry, and regret
that we did. We also know that an apology on its own is not sufficient.”

“The headline offensively riffed on the Black Lives Matter movement, and suggested an
equivalence between the loss of buildings and the lives of black Americans,” the apology
continued. “That is unacceptable.”
Staff members, working remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic, convened for a
regularly scheduled videoconference that day. It turned into an hourslong discussion of
newsroom diversity, pay inequity and other issues, said Diane Mastrull, a weekend
editor and the president of the NewsGuild of Greater Philadelphia union.
Reporting was contributed by Davey Alba, Livia Albeck-Ripka, Emily Badger, Mike
Baker, Peter Baker, Kim Barker, Ken Belson, Katie Benner, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs,
Julie Bosman, Derrick Bryson Taylor, Julia Carmel, Damien Cave, Emily Cochrane,
Nick Corasaniti, Maria Cramer, Michael Crowley, Elizabeth Dias, John Eligon, Reid J.
Epstein, Tess Felder, Lisa Friedman, Thomas Fuller, Matt Furber, David Gelles,
Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Katie Glueck, Erica L. Green, Anemona Hartocollis, Christine
Hauser, Jack Healy, Shawn Hubler, Jon Hurdle, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Thomas Kaplan,
Michael Levenson, Neil MacFarquhar, Iliana Magra, Patricia Mazzei, Terence McGinley,
Sarah Mervosh, Benjamin Mueller, Richard A. Oppel Jr., Elian Peltier, Richard Pérez-
Peña, Adam Popescu, Neil Reisner, Campbell Robertson, Katie Rogers, Simon
Romero, Eric Schmitt, Mitch Smith, Carly Stern, Derrick Taylor, Marc Tracy, Daniel
Victor and Neil Vigdor.
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