The current protests have continued for more than a week after police killed Floyd in Minneapolis. While some have been peaceful, violence has erupted at demonstrations around the country.

According to The New York Times, the protests have spread to at least 75 cities and reached the White House gates. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey pleaded with residents to stop the destruction of local businesses.

“You’re not getting back at the police officer that tragically killed George Floyd by looting a town,” the mayor said. “You’re not getting back at anybody.”

Police have been blamed for instigating the violence in some cases, and other opportunists have been accused of using the protests to commit crimes.

“We are now confronting white supremacists, members of organized crime, out of state instigators, and possibly even foreign actors to destroy and destabilize our city and our region,” Frey wrote on Twitter.

We are now confronting white supremacists, members of organized crime, out of state instigators, and possibly even foreign actors to destroy and destabilize our city and our region.

— Mayor Jacob Frey (@MayorFrey) May 30, 2020

In the case of King, outrage followed after the public saw a video of police brutally beating the Black man. The four officers charged for the beating, three of whom were white, were then acquitted, leading to five days of riots in Los Angeles, NPR reported.

"When the verdict came out, it was a stunner for people coast to coast. My jaw dropped," Jody David Armour, a criminal justice and law professor at the University of Southern California, told NPR. "There was ocular proof of what happened. It seemed compelling. And yet, we saw a verdict that told us we couldn't trust our lying eyes. That what we thought was open and shut was really 'a reasonable expression of police control' toward a Black motorist."

1992 business owner

Get relevant content delivered to you once a week