A crowd of protesters tried to topple the statue of a former US president Andrew Jackson outside the White House, police replied with pepper spray to break up new unrest that erupted in Washington.
A wave of countrywide rallies calling for racial justice has swept the United States since the May 25 death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Hundreds of protesters were pushed back by at least 100 security force personnel after they had thrown ropes around the statue of Andrew Jackson, the divisive 7th US president, in Lafayette Square park.
The word “killer” had been spray-painted on the stone plinth, Andrew Jackson, in office from 1829 to 1837, owned more than 500 slaves over his life and was a key figure in the forced relocation of nearly 100,000 Native Americans, otherwise known as the Trail of Tears.
US President Donald Trump criticized the protesters by tweeting that “Numerous people arrested in DC for the disgraceful vandalism in Lafayette Park, of the magnificent Statue of Andrew Jackson, in addition to the exterior defacing of St John’s Church across the street.”
Donald Trump also warned that vandalizing the statue could be sentenced with jail time.
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