US Pentagon Steps into Crisis, Humvees Deployed in D.C.

In the US, the Pentagon stepped into the crisis and sent army cars to the nation's capital, Washington D.C.

Some 1,600 soldiers have been deployed to the region around Washington D.C. to manage ongoing demonstrations over the death of George Floyd, the Pentagon said, noting the troops had not yet been deployed in the city.

“Active duty elements are postured on military bases in the National Capitol Region but are not in Washington DC,” Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman said in a statement, adding that the soldiers are on “heightened alert status” but “are not participating in defense support to civil authority operations.”

In a message to the military on Tuesday night, Defense Secretary Mark Esper called on the troops to “stay apolitical,” apparently urging them not to take sides in the heated protests, which were sparked by the death of Floyd, an unarmed black man killed in police custody in Minneapolis last week.

Major new protests have broken out in multiple cities in the United States over the brutal killing of George Floyd.

Demonstrators smashed windows and looted stores in New York, including luxury retailers on Fifth Avenue, and set fire to a Los Angeles strip mall. Four officers were shot in St. Louis and one in Las Vegas who was critically wounded, authorities said.