ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Across the country, anger, frustration, sorrow.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) When black lives are under attack, what do we do?
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Fight back.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) When black lives are under attack, what do we do?
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Fight back.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Those protesters in Atlanta chanting, when black lives are under attack, what do we do? Fight back. Well, these demonstrations all across the country against police violence and systemic racism show no sign of abating a week after George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis.
(SOUNDBITE OF WINDOWS BREAKING)
SHAPIRO: Overnight here in Washington, D.C., peaceful protests turned destructive for a third night in a row. Store windows were smashed. Fires were set, including at a historic church near the White House. Nearby, one protester who was violating curfew and gave us only his first name, Avery, called for calm.
AVERY: We don't need a fire. We need protection. We don't need people throwing water bottles at rioters. We need peace. I wish people would just sit down instead of yelling and screaming. If you won't stand for this, then don't stand for it.
CHANG: In West Philadelphia this morning, members of the black fraternity Phi Beta Sigma got together to clean up a ShopRite that had been looted overnight. Chapter President Rashon Howard said he's worried too much attention is being paid to the destruction of property.
RASHON HOWARD: This is all we're talking about now. We're not talking about what the real issue is, and that's the institutional racism and the injustice that's been going on in America against black people and minority people forever. Now we're talking about blacks versus blacks versus what we should be talking about, which is equality. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.