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Joe Biden condemns violence of US race protests
The Democrat also directed some criticism at his November election opponent, President Donald Trump, although he didn't mention him by name.
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Water gushes out a building that was burnt down during protests last night in the aftermath of a white police officer caught on a bystander's video pressing his knee into the neck of African-American man George Floyd, who later died at a hospital, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., May 28, 2020. (Reuters/Carlos Barria)
U
S presidential candidate Joe Biden on Sunday condemned the violence of race protests that have erupted across the United States but said Americans had a right to demonstrate.
"Protesting such brutality is right and necessary. It's an utterly American response," the Democratic White House hopeful said in a statement.
"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."
Biden called Friday for justice for George Floyd, the black man killed by a white police officer in Minnesota, and said it was time to heal the "open wound" of systemic racism in the United States.
"The very soul of America is at stake," the former vice president said in remarks broadcast online from his Delaware home.
The 77-year-old presumptive Democratic presidential nominee denounced what he called an "act of brutality" against Floyd and said he had spoken with members of his family.
"We need justice for George Floyd," he said.
Floyd's death triggered three nights of rioting in Minneapolis and protests against policy brutality in other US cities.
"The original sin of this country still stains our nation today," Biden said in a reference to slavery.
"Sometimes we manage to overlook it," he said. "But it's always there."
"We're a country with an open wound," Biden said. "And it's long past time that we made the promise of this nation real for all people."
The Democrat also directed some criticism at his November election opponent, President Donald Trump, although he didn't mention him by name.
"This is no time for incendiary tweets," he said.
"It's no time to encourage violence," Biden said of a Trump threat to potentially shoot looters.
"This is a national crisis and we need real leadership right now," Biden said, "leadership that will bring everybody to the table so we can take measures to root out systemic racism."
"With our complacency, our silence, we are complicit in perpetuating these cycles of violence," he said.
Derek Chauvin, the policeman accused of killing Floyd by kneeling on his neck for several minutes, was taken into custody on Friday and is facing charges of third degree murder and manslaughter.
