United States President, Donald Trump, has threatened to deploy the military to states if governors fail to stamp out violent protests over police brutality that have roiled the nation over the past week.
His announcement came as police under federal command forced back peaceful demonstrators with tear gas so he could walk to a nearby church and pose with a Bible.
At the White House address, Trump blamed anti-fascist groups such as Antifa for the unrest. He vowed to ensure lawbreakers were “arrested, detained and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law”.
“You have to dominate. If you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time. They’re going to run over you.
“You’re going to look like a bunch of jerks”, he reportedly told the state chief executives during the virtual meeting,” He said.
If governors throughout the country do not deploy the National Guard in sufficient numbers to “dominate the streets,” Trump said the U.S. military would step in to “quickly solve the problem for them.”
“We have the greatest country in the world,” the president declared. “We’re going to keep it safe.”
Floyd died last week after he was pinned to the pavement by a police officer who put his knee on the handcuffed black man’s neck until he stopped breathing. His death set off protests that spread from Minneapolis across America. His brother Terrence pleaded with protesters on Monday to remain peaceful.
