White House Down Due To George Floyd Protest

As Washington’s 11 p.m. curfew neared, the crowd of protesters in front of the White House was reaching a breaking point. The barricade sliced Lafayette Square in two: a line of police officers, dressed in riot gear, on the side closest to the White House, and the demonstrators, dressed in face masks, spilling out onto H St., stationing themselves in the grass or in trees, or on the steps of St. John’s church.

As the crowd grew, so did the chaos. Water bottles soared overhead, landing with thwacks on the ground or bangs against the shields of police officers. They responded with tear gas, which traveled across the park in wispy chemical clouds that sting the eyes and the throat, making it hard to breathe.

Just outside the White House, fires burned and plumes of tear gas filled the air. The president gave his final statement of the day at 8 p.m. on Twitter: “FAKE NEWS!”

“Who the fuck is throwing shit?” a young female protester screamed. Six days after the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by a white police officer in Minnesota, a day of peaceful demonstrations in Washington — and in cities around the country — was giving way to a night of American carnage. She charged at the group of men hurling water bottles, “Are you trying to hurt us?”

For a while, at least, she seemed to be in the majority. The agitators — whom the president has claimed are led by “left-wing extremists” and “Antifa” — were outnumbered by people with signs that read “AM I NEXT?” and “WHO DO YOU SEE? I AM NOT YOUR ENEMY.”

The 11 p.m. curfew just minutes away, a man dragged a large construction sign from the sidewalk and into the middle of the street. He set it aflame, aided by others who added kindling: bags of trash, branches snapped off of trees. Another fire was set across the street at a small building on the edge of the park. A third fire was set on the sidewalk, near a shattered streetlight.