Washington tense as America awaits Derek Chauvin verdict – US politics live

The Guardian’s Amudalat Ajasa and Lois Beckett report from Minnesota:

“National guard, go home!” hundreds of teenagers chanted in a heavily fortified Minneapolis on Monday, as part of statewide high school walkouts over the police killings of Daunte Wright and George Floyd.

In neighboring Saint Paul, more than a hundred students took their grievances over police brutality to the capitol, where lawmakers inside the fenced-in statehouse could be seen peeking out through the curtains to look at protesters outside.

The high school walkouts against racial injustice and police brutality took place as a Minneapolis court was hearing closing arguments in the Derek Chauvin murder trial. The city was bracing for the verdict, with hundreds of national guard soldiers deployed.

The student protests were organized on Instagram by Minnesota Teen Activists, a local group founded after the George Floyd protests last summer. Students from at least 110 schools across Minnesota had planned protests to honor Daunte Wright on Monday, the group said.

At 1.47 pm, the time Daunte Wright was shot eight days before, hundreds of Minneapolis teenagers sat together on the ground to mark three minutes of silence. A light snow had been falling, and their faces were grim.

Here’s what the president has on his schedule today: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will meet with leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in the Oval Office. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto, Ben Ray Luján and Bob Menendez will be among the attendees.

Biden will later participate in a virtual tour of the Proterra electric battery facility in South Carolina and deliver remarks on his infrastructure plan at the White House.

The White House said yesterday that the virtual tour is meant to highlight the need for zero-emission transit buses and school buses.

“There are over 475,000 school buses and 65,000 transit buses on our streets today, serving millions of students and transit riders. Most of these buses currently run on diesel, which has a negative impact on human health, especially for children,” the White House said in its statement yesterday.

“The President made a commitment that all American-made buses would be zero-emission by 2030. To advance this goal, the American Jobs Plan includes a total of $45 billion to accelerate the adoption of zero-emission transit buses and school buses. This investment will create good jobs, support domestic manufacturing, tackle a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, and improve health for some of our most vulnerable populations.”

Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.

Tensions are high in the nation’s capital as the country awaits a verdict in the Derek Chauvin murder trial.

The jury in Minneapolis began its deliberations yesterday to determine whether Chauvin is guilty of murdering George Floyd, who died after Chauvin kept his knee on the Black man’s neck for more than nine minutes.

The killing of Floyd set off widespread protests last May, and Washington is bracing for another round of demonstrations if the jury does not find Chauvin guilty.

The DC National Guard announced yesterday it is activating 250 troops to assist the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington as it prepares for the potential protests. Parking restrictions and street closures go into effect today in downtown DC as well.

In a statement announcing the activation of the guard troops, Brigadier General Aaron R Dean II, the adjutant general of the DC National Guard, said the city is dedicated to providing a “safe environment for our fellow citizens to exercise their first amendment right”.

“This is our home, and we are dedicated to the safety and security of our fellow citizens of the District and their right to safely and peacefully protest,” Dean said.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.