Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Sunday visited a location where protesters have been demonstrating against police brutality and racial inequality, according to a photo Biden posted on Instagram, as protests and riots rage across the U.S. following the death of George Floyd last week, Fox News informed.
Floyd on Monday died while in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department after authorities say an officer used his knee to pin Floyd, who is black, onto the ground by his neck for several minutes while Floyd begged for air. Floyd later died and the officer was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
“We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us,” Biden said in the caption on the photo. “We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us. We are a nation exhausted, but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us.”
Biden added: “The only way to bear this pain is to turn all that anguish to purpose. And as president, I will help lead this conversation — and more importantly, I will listen, just as I did today visiting the site of last night’s protests in Wilmington.”
Biden has expressed support for the protesters while also condemning the violence that has come with many of them. Buildings have been burned and looted. Objects have been hurled at police officers and people attempting to stop looting have been beaten down.
“Every person of conscience can understand the rawness of the trauma people of color experience in this country, from the daily indignities to the extreme violence, like the horrific killing of George Floyd,” Biden said in a statement early Sunday morning.
“Protesting such brutality is right and necessary. It’s an utterly American response,” he said. “But burning down communities and needless destruction is not. Violence that endangers lives is not. Violence that guts and shutters businesses that serve the community is not.”
About two dozen American cities have instituted curfews Sunday as the country braces for another night of violence.
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