[92] Video footage of Officer Derek Chauvin applying 8 minutes 15 seconds of sustained pressure to Floyd's neck generated global attention and raised questions about the use of force by law enforcement.

[100] Some initial acts of property destruction on May 27 by a 32-year-old man with ties to white supremacist organizations, who local police investigators said was deliberately inciting racial tension, led to a chain reaction of fires and looting.

[99] However, the violence by early June 2020 had resulted in two deaths,[106][107] 604 arrests,[108][109] an estimated $550 million[5] in property damage to 1,500 locations, making the Minneapolis–Saint Paul events alone the second-most destructive period of local unrest in United States history, after the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

[120] In early 2021, Minneapolis and Hennepin County officials spent $1 million on fencing and other barricades for police stations and other government buildings to prepare for potential civil unrest during the trial of Derek Chauvin in March.

[129] Following Chauvin's verdict, many activists in Minneapolis did not perceive that "Justice for Floyd" was final as J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao still awaited trial, and issues of systemic racism and police reform had not been addressed satisfactorily.

[139][140][141] Though the City of Minneapolis began the process of reopening the street intersection at George Floyd Square to vehicular traffic in June 2021, organizers of the protest movement rooted there still considered their presence an "occupation" and "resistance".

[144][145][146] In early 2022, local officials prepared counter-protest measures and for potential unrest ahead of the January 20 schedule start of the federal civil rights trial of Kueng, Lane, and Thao.

[157][158] On June 10, thousands of academics, universities, scientific institutions, professional bodies and publishing houses around the world shut down to give researchers time to reflect and act upon anti-Black racism in academia.

On June 14, an estimated 15,000 people gathered outside the Brooklyn Museum at Grand Army Plaza for the Liberation March, a silent protest in response to police brutality and violence against black transgender women.

An educator from the University of Washington said that the union has a history of protest and leftist politics since its founding: "[The ILWU] understood that division along the lines of race only benefited employers, because it weakened the efforts of workers to act together and to organize together.

[171] On July 20, the Strike for Black Lives, a mass walkout intended to raise awareness of systemic racism, featured thousands of workers across the United States walking off their jobs for approximately 8 minutes, in honor of Floyd.

[196][197][198] At a rally in New York City outside Brooklyn Borough Hall on May 23, 2021, Terrance Floyd, George's brother, called on the crowd to continue advocating for police reform and for communities to “stay woke”.

[209][210] By the conclusion of the criminal trial of Derek Chauvin on April 20, 2021, millions of people worldwide had viewed video footage of Floyd's murder and protests were ongoing internationally over issues of police brutality and systemic racism.

[37]United States President Donald Trump demanded governors and city governments crackdown on protesters and controversially threatened to deploy the 82nd Airborne and 3rd Infantry Regiment in response to the unrest.

[240] In response, Representatives Jerry Nadler and Karen Bass of the House Judiciary Committee denounced the move and requested a formal briefing from DEA Acting Administrator Timothy Shea.

[248] In The Nation, Jeet Heer also called the actions unconstitutional and wrote that "The deployment of unidentified federal officers is particularly dangerous in... Portland and elsewhere in America, because it could easily lead to right-wing militias' impersonating legal authorities and kidnapping citizens.

[261] On May 29, 2020, civil rights leader Andrew Young stated that riots, violence, and looting "hurt the cause instead of helping it"[262] while George Floyd's family also denounced the violent protests.

[40] There have been numerous reports and videos of aggressive police actions using physical force including "batons, tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets on protesters, bystanders and journalists, often without warning or seemingly unprovoked".

[293] Donald Trump, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray,[294] New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio,[295] United States Attorney General William Barr, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms,[296] Seattle Police Guild President Mike Solan,[297] and Huntsville Police Chief Mark McMurray[298] blamed anarchists and "far-left extremist" groups, including antifa, for inciting and organizing violent riots.

Boogaloo, Three Percenters, Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, neo-Confederates, white nationalists, and an assortment of militias and vigilante groups reportedly had a presence at some protests, mostly in small towns and rural areas.

[324] A 26-year-old man from Boerne, Texas, who self-identified as a local leader of the Boogaloo movement, also faced federal riot charges for allegedly shooting 13 rounds from an AK-47-style machine gun into the Minneapolis third police precinct building while people were inside, looting it, and helping to set it on fire the night of May 28, 2020.

[353] 269 gigabytes of leaked internal law enforcement data spanning 10 years obtained by Anonymous were later published by the activist group Distributed Denial of Secrets on June 19 to coincide with Juneteenth.

"[375] A June 12 article by The Seattle Times found that Fox News published a photograph of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone that had been digitally altered to include a man armed with an assault rifle.

[378] Hundreds of members of armed self-proclaimed militias and far right groups gathered in Gettysburg National Military Park on Independence Day in response to a fake online claim that antifa protesters were planning on burning the U.S.

"[393] On July 3, The Washington Post said that "the Black Lives Matter protests following the police killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks focused the world's attention on racial inequities, structural racism and implicit bias.

[397][398] According to Fortune, the economic impact of the protests exacerbated the COVID-19 recession by sharply curtailing consumer confidence, straining local businesses, and overwhelming public infrastructure with large-scale property damage.

[469] On June 16, President Trump signed an executive order on police reform that incentivized departments to recruit from communities they patrol, encourage more limited use of deadly force, and prioritize using social workers and mental health professionals for nonviolent calls.

[483] In the United Kingdom, the BBC pulled the famed "The Germans" episode of Fawlty Towers from its UKTV streaming service, but later reinstated it after criticism from series star and co-writer John Cleese.

[490][491][492][493] That same week, episodes of 30 Rock, The Office, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Community, The Golden Girls, and Peep Show that involved characters using blackface were either removed or edited from syndication and streaming services.

[510] Public health experts and mayors urged demonstrators to wear face coverings, follow physical separation (social distancing) practices, engage in proper hand hygiene, and seek out COVID-19 testing.