While the outcome of the protests in the United States is uncertain and the authorities of different cities are beginning to report numbers of deaths, injuries and people detained during them (the latter item would exceed 4,000), President Donald Trump has been emphatic in warning that anarchists are being watched, and also in calling for stronger action against the protests.
With information from Voanews and Sputnik
U.S. President Donald Trump lambasted the nation’s governors as “weak” on Monday, demanding they crack down on protesters and arrest them after six nights of chaotic demonstrations in dozens of American cities in the wake of the death of a black man at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis.
The U.S. leader told the governors in a video conference that they “have to get much tougher” with demonstrators after watching as Sunday night protests that often started peacefully devolved into clashes with police and other authorities clad in riot gear.
Police in several cities fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters to disperse them, even as some demonstrators torched police cars and also ransacked and looted stores.
“Most of you are weak,” Trump told the governors. “You’ve got to arrest people, you have to track people, you have to put them in jail for 10 years and you’ll never see this stuff again.”
Trump has also accused the Anfifa movement of being behind all these mobilizations, which leave unchecked fires, destruction, looting and vandalism in their wake.
First data on fatalities are known
And according to Sputnik reports, sixteen people have been killed and at least 30 others were injured in shooting incidents in the US city of Chicago over the last three days, a local branch of the NBC TV channel has reported, citing the police.
The first fatal case in the shooting spree was registered on Friday at approximately 12:41 p.m. local time, while the last incident was registered at 1:41 p.m. local time on Sunday.
According to the outlet, one of the incidents involved a drive-by shooting that killed two men who were also in a vehicle. They were shot in the head and pronounced dead at the scene.