New York lifts curfew a day early after peaceful night of protests

New York will lift the citywide curfew it imposed to calm civil unrest in the wake of George Floyd’s death, after a night of largely peaceful protests, the mayor said on Sunday.

“New York City: We are lifting the curfew, effective immediately. Yesterday and last night we saw the very best of our city,” Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted.

A wave of curfews was instituted around the U.S. about one week ago, after a viral video of Floyd, an unarmed black man, dying while detained by police in Minnesota catalysed into massive daily protests.

Los Angeles and Washington, two cities where demonstrations turned violent early last week, have already cancelled their curfews. Most cities have followed suit.

New York implemented an 8 p.m curfew that had been set to last through Sunday.

While many protesters defied the curfew on Saturday night, local media reported that New York police allowed the demonstrations to continue and that there were no incidents of violent confrontations or mass arrests.

Previous evenings had seen police move aggressively against the protesters to enforce the curfew.

The curfew was imposed by de Blasio on the city’s 8.6 million people following acts vandalism, looting and arson for several nights running.