It's Protest Day Around the World

Tens of thousands of protesters streamed into the nation’s capital and other major cities Saturday in another huge mobilization against police brutality while George Floyd was remembered in his North Carolina hometown by mourners who waited hours for a glimpse of his golden coffin, the AP reports. Military vehicles and officers in fatigues closed off much of downtown Washington to traffic ahead of the planned march, which authorities estimated would attract up to 200,000 people. Large protests also took place across the US and overseas, including in London, Paris, Berlin, and Sydney, collectively producing perhaps the largest one-day mobilization since Floyd's death 12 days ago at the hands of police in Minneapolis. Among the scenes:

• Raeford, NC: A long line of people waited to see Floyd's coffin outside a church near his birthplace of Fayetteville. A hearse bearing Floyd’s coffin arrived, inspiring chants of "Black Power," "George Floyd," and "No justice, no peace." At a private memorial service later in the day, mourners sang along with a choir.
• New York City: Several thousand assembled near Central Park in a gathering called "The March for Stolen Dreams and Looted Lives," the New York Times reports. Constance Malcolm, whose son was killed by an NYPD officer, said she's "tired of crying" and urged people to do one thing: "Vote."
• Philadelphia and Chicago: Marchers chanted, carried signs, and occasionally knelt silently. Both protests unfolded peacefully.
• London: Thousands of demonstrators endured cold rain to gather in Parliament Square, a traditional venue for protests. They knelt in silence and chanted Floyd’s name before applauding his memory and then starting a march. Some clashes between protesters and police broke out near the offices of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
• Paris: Hundreds of people gathered at the Place de la Concorde in defiance of a police ban on large protests. Members of the multiracial crowd chanted the name of Adama Traore, a black man whose death while in police custody a few years ago has been likened by critics of French police to Floyd’s death in Minnesota.

(More George Floyd stories.)