MAXINE WATERS URGES PROTESTERS TO IGNORE CURFEW AND TO RIOT

Maxine Waters attends protest over police killing of Daunte Wright 

 

By Kathianne Boniello

 

New York Post

April 18, 2021

 

 

 

Fiery California Rep. Maxine Waters joined hundreds of angry protesters who thronged Brooklyn Center, Minnesota early Sunday, all breaking the 11 p.m. curfew together during the seventh night of protests against the police killing of Daunte Wright.

“We’ve got to stay in the streets, and we’ve got to demand justice,” she urged the crowd, according to one tweeted clip.

“We’re looking for a guilty verdict” in Derek Chauvin’s trial for the police killing of George Floyd, where deliberations will begin next week, she said.

“And if we don’t, we cannot go away,” she added. “We’ve got to get more confrontational.”

Asked about the curfew, she said, “I don’t know what curfew means,” according to another tweeted clip. 

“A curfew means that ‘I want y’all to stop talking,'” she said, adding, “I don’t agree with it.”

Waters said she wouldn’t stay out at the protest much longer personally — but she urged everyone else to keep at it.

“I came here for one reason, just to be here, to make sure that I let my thoughts be heard among all of those who have spent so much time on the streets. And so I’m hopeful that the protests will continue,” she said.

Protesters began the night chanting and playing music outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department, apparently live video posted to YouTube showed.

“No good cops in a racist system!” “F–K your curfew!” and “No justice, no peace!” they shouted, amid more colorful slogans.

A day earlier, nearly 100 people were arrested after the crowd tried to tear down a fence around the police station.

Journalists who said they were assaulted and pepper sprayed were among those detained by police, who photographed press credentials before allowing any reporters to leave.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz slammed those actions Saturday against the press as “unacceptable in every circumstance,” and promised the incidents “would be looked into,” The Star Tribune reported.

Wright was fatally shot during a traffic stop April 11 by former Brooklyn Center Officer Kim Potter, who claims she had intended to use a stun gun. Potter resigned and has been charged with manslaughter.

Wright’s killing came just days before Chicago authorities released video of the March 29 police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo, sparking demonstrations and protests in that city as well.

By Saturday night, protests had spread to the streets of Washington, D.C., where a roving crowd of about 150 walked the streets chanting the names of those who have died at the hands of police, according to journalist Chuck Modi, who posted video on Twitter. 

“George Floyd means We Got to Fight Back. Sandra Bland means We Got to Fight Back Adam Toledo means We Got to Fight Back. Breonna Taylor means We Got to Fight Back,” they yelled.

In Portland, which has been dogged by fiery protests for several months, people spent the early part of Saturday trying to clean up after demonstrators set at least one fire the night before.

Police had declared the protest, which included shattered glass, graffiti and fires, a riot. Demonstrators destroyed a park and damaged a church which serves the homeless, The Oregonian reported.

“All the destruction is pretty gnarly,” one man covering a shattered window at a restaurant told the paper. “We had taken the boards down back in November. But I guess that was too soon.”

Area resident David Dickson said he understands the anger of the protesters but told The Oregonian, “we have to find a better way.”