SAFE HOUSE
TROOPS armed with riots shields lined up outside the barricaded White House as tens of thousands of George Floyd protesters marched on Washington DC Saturday.
National Guard soldiers surrounded the President's residence as demonstrators poured into the nation's capital to decry institutional racism, 12 days after Floyd's death.
Grassroots activists called on thousands of Americans to show up as DC braced itself for another weekend of unrest, guarding landmarks and patrolling closed-off streets.
Black fences between seven and nine feet high were erected around the perimeter of the White House to prevent protesters from accessing it.
Military vehicles and officers in fatigues closed off much of downtown Washington to traffic ahead of the protest, which authorities estimated would attract up to 200,000 people outraged by Floyd’s death.
Large protests also took place across the US and in major cities overseas, including London, Paris, Berlin and Sydney, Australia despite the risk of COVID-19 in large gatherings.
In the nation’s capital, thousands gathered at the Lincoln Memorial and elsewhere before converging on the White House.
Despite the armed guards and soldiers, President Donald Trump said he was unimpressed with the turnout today on Twitter, three hours after tweeting "LAW & ORDER!"
"Much smaller crowd in D.C. than anticipated," he wrote shortly after 10pm. "National Guard, Secret Service, and D.C. Police have been doing a fantastic job. Thank you!"
Earlier, crowds of people passed the George Washington University Hospital chanting “Hands up, Don’t shoot!” “We March for hope, not for hate,” and “I can’t breathe!”
The latter echoed Floyd's last words on May 25 as a white Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes and contributed to his death, an autopsy revealed.
Protesters assembled on the newly rechristened "Black Lives Matter" Plaza – where park police fired smoke grenades and chemical irritant “pepper balls” at protesters on Monday.
But Reuters noted that on Saturday, the area had a block party atmosphere before the lively crowd marched toward downtown.
People waved giant tributes to Floyd, singing “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond and blaring “Alright” by Kendrick Lamar.
Families and people of all ages carried signs with slogans like “Fed up,” “All lives do not matter until black lives do,” and “My black son matters.”
Uniformed officers were out in smaller numbers than earlier in the week and generally assumed a more relaxed posture, wearing patrol uniforms rather than body armor and helmets.
Six buses unloaded hundreds of military personnel who donned body armor and carrying shields, at the White House grounds, reports said, with military Humvees parked nearby.
DC Chief of Police Peter Newsham noted that it "may be one of the largest that we've had in the city" and said no arrests had been made there since Tuesday, a trend he hoped would continue.
"We anticipate the largest demonstrations with regards to numbers that we've seen in the city to date," he told the Washington Post.
"And we anticipate that the protesters will continue to be as peaceful as they have been over the past couple of days."
Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser formally renamed the street outside "Black Lives Matter Plaza" in the wake of Floyd's death on May 25.
The phrase was painted in enormous yellow letters on Friday ahead of what is expected to be the biggest protest yet.
At least 6,000 people had already gathered in DC between The Lincoln Memorial and nearer the White House as of 12 pm on Saturday.
Last night, Trump issued a thinly-veiled dig at Bowser on Twitter, describing her as "grossly incompetent, and in no way qualified to be running an important city like Washington, DC."
"If the great men and women of the National Guard didn’t step forward, she would have looked no better than her counterpart Mayor in Minneapolis!" he raged.
Earlier on Friday, the President said the unemployment numbers marked "a great day" for Floyd – 12 hours after retweeting Candace Owen's video saying he was "not a good person."
Members of the National Guard into the White House fences as the protest kicked off while chants of "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" could be heard near Layette Square.
Most of the demonstrators donned masks or face coverings to stop the spread of coronavirus in the enormous crowd of people.
Cops had closed down much of the downtown area to traffic where a pedestrian-only protest was designated between the Mall and L Street NW, while the metro system also reopened cars indefinitely after they were closed as a result of COVID-19.
Some demonstrators are even planning to run through until Sunday, focusing on the US Senate office buildings, the DC government’s Wilson Building, Judiciary Square and Freedom Plaza, and the White House.
The Post reported the Park stopped issuing protest permits, while in-person meetings between agencies and community organizers were stopped.
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While protests formed in DC and other states, in the small town of Raeford, North Carolina, people waited in line outside a church to mourn his death.
In the town where Floyd was born 46 years ago, hundreds of mourners lined up to squeeze into a church to pay their respects on Saturday.
A private memorial service was scheduled for later in the day.
WATCH LIVE: George Floyd memorial and public viewing in North Carolina