Minneapolis mayor says anger over killing goes back '400 years'

Minneapolis mayor says anger over killing goes back '400 years'

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Thursday said "what we've seen over the last two days and the emotion-ridden conflict over last night is the result of so much built-up anger and sadness... that has been ingrained in our black community not just because of five minutes of horror but 400 years."

"It's a reflection of the truth that our black community has lived," Mayor Frey said.

"To ignore it, to toss it out, would be to ignore the values we all claim to have." Protesters on Wednesday clashed with riot police firing tear gas for a second night in an outpouring of rage over the death of a black man seen in a widely circulated video gasping for breath as a white officer knelt on his neck.

The video, taken by an onlooker to Monday night's fatal encounter between police and George Floyd, 46, showed him lying face down and handcuffed, groaning for help and repeatedly saying, "please, I can't breathe," before growing motionless.

The second day of demonstrations, accompanied by looting and vandalism, began hours after Mayor Jacob Frey urged prosecutors to file criminal charges against the white policeman shown pinning Floyd to the street.