Central Manhattan was the scene of looting on Monday evening, prompting the mayor of New York to announce a longer curfew as early as Tuesday. Brand stores, such as Nike or Michael Kors on 5th Avenue, or electronics, cellphones or Lego stores of other major avenues in Midtown were looted in the early evening, before the entry into force of 'a new curfew from 23:00 local time (03:00 GMT), found AFP journalists.
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Groups of young people, often around ten people, circulated from one street to another, while entire streets of this district, which was normally very touristy but deserted with the pandemic, were blocked by the police. Images from local NY1 television included looters running from a Best Buy chain electronics store before being apprehended by police.
Mayor Bill de Blasio deemed the situation " unacceptable ". He announced that the curfew would start " earlier " on Tuesday, at 8 p.m., while it was imposed for the first time this Monday, from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. " The city is completely under control, and for the most part calm and peaceful, " nevertheless assured the mayor on the NY1 channel.
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The imposition of a curfew had been announced a few hours earlier by the mayor and the governor Andrew Cuomo, after demonstrations and looting during the weekend, notably in the trendy district of SoHo. The American economic capital thus followed in the footsteps of some 40 other American cities, which imposed curfews in an attempt to calm the riots which engulfed the country, after the death of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, Monday in Minnesota, a new symbol of police brutality against the black minority.
As in previous days, the protests started calmly on Monday afternoon, with more than a thousand gathered in Times Square, and about as many in Brooklyn. But things degenerated in the evening.
As New York faced new looting, President Donald Trump announced from Washington the deployment of " thousands of heavily armed soldiers " and police to Washington to put an end to " the riots " and " the looting ". The mayor De Blasio, a democrat, denounced " the bellicose terms " and the " polarizing rhetoric " of the Republican president, who is playing for his re-election in November. " But it was not his statements in the last few hours that caused all this, it is what he has done in recent years that has contributed to it, " he said.
