George Floyd is protesting across the United States
It’s past midnight in New York and Washington, DC, and evening in Los Angeles, but the streets in both cities are still heavily crowded and the ghosts are great.
In New York, protesters march through Greenwich Village in midtown Manhattan. The curfew was at 8 p.m., but there is no large police presence tonight, and the police are not conducting police arrests as arrests as earlier this week.
Protesters have been marching for hours. Some of the organizers and leaders hold morale with tunes like calls and responses like “Don’t get involved, we are united, we are peaceful” and “United, people will never be defeated.”
“The system is not going to win,” one protester told CNN. “People now have a voice and they listen to us. They listen to us because we are united. They listen to us because things like that happen in the middle of Manhattan, where thousands and thousands of people don’t have to let injustice happen anymore.”
In Washington, DC, the crowds are big tonight – perhaps the biggest since they started, CNN correspondent Alex Marquadt said on the scene.
The curfew was lifted earlier this week and protests are peaceful. People gather on the edge of Lafayette Park, near the White House, taking photos with a new street sign that reads “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”
Some members of the police and the National Guard are in sight – but nowhere near the aggressive numbers seen earlier in the week, Marquadt said.
In Los Angeles the curfew has been removed and the protests remain calm, tonight a light of mood.
The protesters, numbering at least 1,000, are diverse, CNN reporter Lucy Kafanov said on the scene. She described seeing “members of the Asian community, the Latino community, whites, blacks, LGBTQ, everything.”
“The vibe of the community is really noticeable,” she said. “A lot of people walk around handing out snacks, masks, hand cleaners, food to the protesters … One of the nice things on a human level that we’ve seen is that they pass by various apartment buildings, people go out on balconies, start clapping pots and pans solidarity with the protest. “
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