Riots breakout in downtown Cleveland during the rally for justice for George Floyd as police cars are torched and Mayor Frank Jackson calls for the National Guard and issues a curfew for residents....One protester was seriously injured and several others were arrested....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com

Protesters in Cleveland who rallied for justice for George Floyd on May 30 torched  police cars as violence erupted in the largely Black major American city

Thousands gather at the Free Stamp next to Cleveland City Hall in downtown Cleveland on Sat., May 30 for a rally for  justice for Minneapolis police murder victim George Floyd, a rally that turned violent and erupted into riots. Photo by Tristan Rader

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief (A longtime Cleveland activist and community organizer, Coleman, also a former educator, attended the rally and march in Cleveland, Ohio on May 30 for justice for George Floyd)

George Floyd

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Riots broke out in downtown Cleveland Saturday afternoon as thousands of protesters rallied for justice for Minneapolis police murder victim George Floyd, forcing Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, the city's third Black mayor, to call for the National Guard to be called into the largely Black city.

The four-term mayor has also set a curfew from 8 pm-8 am beginning on Saturday, and noon-8 am Sunday beginning Sunday, both relative to downtown Cleveland. (Editor's note: The mayor has since extended the curfew from a deadline of 8 pm Monday to Tuesday at 8 pm).

Rioters torched or completely destroyed some five police cars, broke out the windows of multiple businesses, including the downtown Arcade, destroyed some downtown shelters, and threw rocks and boulders at police.

They wrote messages and profanity on some government buildings, and a group of protesters clashed with police.

Police shot off tear gas repeatedly, and in some instances unnecessarily, said activists.

Some 99 protesters, most of them White, and young, were arrested with charges ranging from disorderly conduct to criminal damaging and aggravated rioting.

There were 45 felony arrests and practically all of those arrested were from Ohio, mainly Cleveland and its suburbs.

And while there were no casualties, a White woman protester allegedly got seriously injured.

"One woman lost her eye from debris and EMS, though called, did not show up," said activist Yvonne McKoy, wife of longtime community activist Art McKoy, who said they waited for two hours and then took the woman to a nearby hospital.

McKoy said that all things were calm and that all of a sudden the violence just erupted and protesters started torching police cars and throwing debris.

They shouted at police as some rode on horseback along the strip between City Hall and the Justice Center and the Justice Center and Public Square where more than three thousand protesters gathered.

"Am I next"? a sign read that was held up by a young Black woman as police and their horses trotted through the streets.

Most of the protesters were under 30 and many were White as well as Black with participants across ethic lines joining in one of at least three different marches and chanting such phrases of "No Justice No Peace," Black Lives Matter," and "Dump Trump."

Led by Black Lives Matter Cleveland, the rally, which began at 1:30 pm at the Free Stamp next to Cleveland City Hall, began peacefully as an array of speakers took to the podium.

But by the time protesters had marched from the Free Stamp to the Justice Center and settled in, some became anxious and the once peaceful event quickly turned violent.

One protester wore a t-shirt that read "F--- the police."

Organizers begged protesters to act right.

"They expect us to misbehave," a Black Lives Matter Cleveland organizer said to no avail.

Given Cleveland's history of excessive force killings against Blacks and a pending consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice for police reforms and the climate nationally relative to police brutality, the upheaval was not at all surprising, sources said, though Cleveland's Black leaders have said for years that Cleveland is a sleepy town when standing up against police brutality.

Saturday's disturbance proves otherwise.

City officials say that it was a small group of agitators who precipitated the violence.

Others say it is deeply rooted in systemic racism and the ongoing undercurrent between police and the Black community and that it cannot be laid at the feet of protesters alone.

The violence at Cleveland's rally follows a national pattern of racial unrest since Floyd's death last week by Minneapolis police.

Five people were arrested and two cops injured following two nights of protests over Floyd's death in Columbus, Ohio's state capital. And seven people were shot in Louisville, Kentucky Thursday, one critically, during a protest for Breonna Taylor, a 26-year Black EMS worker whom Louisville police shot and killed in March when three cops barged into her home.

Other incidents with police and protesters have occurred across the country, including during protests in Oakland, Detroit, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Also center stage at Cleveland's violent protest were Staten Island police murder victim Eric Garner, whom New York police choked to death in 2014, and 12-year-old Tamir Rice, whom Cleveland police gunned down in 2012 at a park and recreation center on the city's largely White west side, and the death of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old community activist who was found hanged in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas in 2015.

Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell, both Black and unarmed but gunned down in a car in 2012 by some 13 non-Black Cleveland cops slinging 137 bullets, were a subject of the protest too.

Floyd died Monday after since fired White cop Derek Chauvin, the arresting officer, held his knee on his neck until he killed him, and before a crowd of people as the Black man pleaded for his life and cried out that he could not breathe.

The unarmed Black man was pronounced dead an hour later at an area hospital.

The disturbing video of the incident, taken by a bystander, has shocked the conscience.

Chauvin and the other three involved officers, all of them White, were immediately fired.

Chauvin has since been charged with third degree murder and manslaughter charges and currently sits in jail without bond, the other three former officers currently under investigation for possible charges.

Protesting in Minneapolis has been continual with rioting and widespread looting and fires breaking out Tuesday night as crowds took on with police, who met them with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Multiple businesses were destroyed and an unmanned police station and an airport were set on fire.

The governor has called in the National Guard.

Arrested on a forgery charge, the murder by police of Floyd, 46, has caught on nationwide as Black people and others are obviously fed-up with excessive force by police against America's Black community.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.