CHICAGO, June 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Two people have been killed during unrest in the Chicago suburb of Cicero as protests continued over the death of George Floyd, says a town official.
Spokesman Ray Hanania said 60 people were arrested but did not provide additional information about those killed or the circumstances of their deaths.
The Illinois State Police and Cook County Sheriff’s Office were called in to help local police as businesses were broken into and items stolen.
The Cicero Police Department has urged residents to stay at home.
In WASHINGTON, President Donald Trump vowed to order a military crackdown on once-in-a generation violent protests gripping the United States, saying he was sending thousands of troops onto the streets of the capital and threatening to deploy soldiers to states unable to regain control.
The dramatic escalation came a week after the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who had been pinned down with a knee to the neck by a police officer — leading to the worst civil unrest in decades in New York, Los Angeles and dozens of other American cities.
After being criticized for his silence on the worsening crisis, Trump struck a martial tone in a nationwide address from the White House as police fired tear gas on protesters outside.
“I am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting, looting, vandalism, assaults and the wanton destruction of property,” he said.
He slammed the previous night’s unrest in Washington as a “total disgrace” and called on governors to act quickly and forcefully to “dominate the streets.”
“If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them,” he said, denouncing “acts of domestic terror”.
Meanwhile, in NEW YORK, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged restraint by US authorities toward protestors and believes allegations of police violence should be investigated, his spokesperson said.
Protests should remain peaceful, while “authorities must show restraint in responding to demonstrators in US as in any other country in the world,” Guterres believes, according to spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
“We have seen over the last few days cases of police violence,” Dujarric told reporters at the United Nations in New York, where protests have been held every night since Wednesday over the death of an African American, George Floyd, in police hands last week in Minneapolis.
“All cases obviously need to be investigated. Police forces around the world need to have adequate human rights training,” he told reporters.
Dujarric said that Gutteres is also concerned about police attacks on journalists during the protests which have hit dozens of US cities, in many cases turning violent and resulting in arson and looting.
“When journalists are attacked, societies are attacked. No democracy can function without press freedom,” he said. — NNN-AGENCIES
