By Canadian Press

As police, protesters clash in Minneapolis, Twitter blocks Trump’s ‘thug’ tweet

May 29, 2020 | 7:00 AM

WASHINGTON — The peace of America’s self-imposed COVID-19 exile has given way in dramatic fashion to violent unrest in the city of Minneapolis and across the United States as protesters rage against the police killing of an unarmed black man.

Several days of fiery protests and looting were punctuated early today with the arrest of a CNN reporter on live television — and a warning from Donald Trump, who tweeted that protesters were “thugs” and “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

That led Twitter to take the unprecedented step of censoring a sitting U.S. president, blocking the tweet for what it called “glorifying violence.”

All of it comes as the U.S. continues to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, easing restrictions on public mobility amid concerns of a second wave of the deadly novel coronavirus.

Minneapolis has been rocked by days of fires, looting and angry protests following the death Monday of George Floyd, who cried for help with an officer kneeling on his neck for at least eight minutes after he was arrested for allegedly trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill.

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Also overnight in the Kentucky city of Louisville, at least seven people were shot by fellow civilians during protests over the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, a black woman who was killed in her home during a police raid in March.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 29, 2020.

The Canadian Press