Black Lives Matter’s DeRay Mckesson: Curfews in Riot-Plagued Cities ‘a Setup’

Saturday during MSNBC’s breaking news coverage of protests and riots around the country underway in the name of the death of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson suggested there was something afoot with the institution of curfews in riot-torn cities.

Mckesson said it seemed as if those cities were engaged in a setup against protesters.

“You know, there were a lot of people out,” he said. “There’s a lot of frustration about how the police have interacted in communities both here and across the country. But I’ll tell you — it was nothing like what I’m seeing in cities all across the country. I think about L.A., I think about D.C. I think about Chicago. I think about Atlanta. You know, I am troubled to think about these curfews being put in place with like an hour’s notice. How do you lock down a city like L.A. in an hour’s notice?”

“How do you move a city like Chicago when people don’t have enough time to travel?” Mckesson continued. “I must say it feels like a setup, trying to get people to do things that we know are going to get them in trouble. So I’m worried about that, and I’m still in conversations with activists in those cities to try and plan how we do that.”

MSNBC’s Chris Jansing, who was anchoring the coverage, asked Mckesson to elaborate on his claim.

“I mean, this is actually poor leadership by the city officials,” Mckesson added. “There’s no way you could have a city as big as L.A. And with an hour’s notice tell people there’s a curfew. You just can’t do that. There’s no way you can have a city the size of Chicago and suddenly say that people have a few hours to go home in the whole city. That’s not — that’s not good leadership.”

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