June 9 George Floyd protest news

Keith Giles, a friend of Martin Gugino -- the 75-year-old Buffalo man who was pushed down by police -- said he was "horrified" by President Donald Trump's tweet claiming that Gugino could be an "ANTIFA provocateur."

Gugino fell backwards and was hospitalized following the incident.

Giles described Gugino, who he said he's known for the past 13 years, as a very kind and funny person -- and one not technically savvy enough to use his phone to "scan police communications in order to black out the equipment," as Trump said in his tweet.

"I promise you, he does not know how to turn his cell phone into some sort of high tech James Bond device," Giles said.

Trump's tweet cited a segment from a television report on a network that is openly pro-Trump and whose journalists don't exactly live up to credo of being neutral and independent.

The person who did this segment on Gugino is named Kristian Brunovich Rouz, a man who, according to the Daily Beast, has worked both for OAN and Sputnik, a Russian government-controlled news wire service. (The intelligence community concluded that Sputnik played a role in the Russian meddling in the 2016 election.)

Read more from CNN's Chris Cillizza about Trump's tweet here:

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Donald Trump's deeply irresponsible conspiracy theory on the Buffalo man injured by police

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Attorney General William Barr jabbed back at the mayor of Washington, DC, in a letter Tuesday saying that the use of federal law enforcement and national guard troops in the nation's capital was necessary because the unrest there had hit unprecedented and dangerous levels. 

“The television footage of these events — viewed by people across the Nation and around the world — conveyed the impression that the United States was on the brink of losing control of its capital city,” Barr wrote of the weekend of protests in DC that followed the death of George Floyd late last month. 

The missive was a response to a letter from Mayor Muriel Bowser sent on Friday to President Trump and other administration officials requesting the withdrawal of federal law enforcement and military personnel from the city. 

On Sunday, Trump said that he had ordered the National Guard to begin withdrawing from Washington after days of peaceful protests.

In the letter, Barr said that certain federal law enforcement agencies — including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Prisons and some officials from the Department of Homeland Security — had been granted additional policing powers amid the protests, and defended the move to deploy the federal and military forces in DC as a “temporary response to an escalating security crisis.”

“Surely you understand that the President could not stand idly by when unrest at the seat of the federal government threatened the safety of federal law enforcement officers and the operations of the United States government,” Barr wrote.

“Let me assure you that the President shares your interest in returning to a situation where such additional forces are unnecessary to maintain law and order in the District,” he added. 

The DC Council today unanimously passed an emergency bill to reform policing in the district, including measures that ban the use of tear gas and rubber bullets, and prohibit the hiring of officers who were fired from another police department.  

The legislation prohibits DC police from using chemicals such as tear gas and pepper spray on protesters, as well as “less-lethal projectiles” like rubber bullets and stun grenades. 

The bill also prevents the Metropolitan Police Department from hiring law enforcement officers who were fired from a policing job in another jurisdiction, or resigned ahead of pending disciplinary action or termination. 

Tuesday’s vote enacts the changes for 90 days, the Washington Post reported, which can be extended to 225 days with a second vote. The council must hold public hearings and vote again in order to make the measures permanent.

Council member David Grosso wanted an additional amendment capping the city’s police force at 3,500 members. However, Grosso’s fellow members voted that down. The district currently has 3,863 sworn officers. 

Martin Gugino — the 75-year-old protester who was pushed by two Buffalo, New York police officers — is in fair condition, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said Tuesday.

A video that has since gone viral revealed how two officers pushed Gugino to the ground causing him to hit his head while he was protesting in Buffalo, New York.

Poloncarz told CNN's Erin Burnett that while Gugino is still hospitalized, it was confirmed to him that his condition has improved from serious to fair.

“Mr. Gugino is still at the Erie County Medical Center. He did announce earlier today through local media that he has moved out of the intensive care unit and I can confirm that," Poloncarz said. "And he also, has been confirmed to me through the Erie County Medical Center, that he has been upgraded from serious to fair condition. So, he is doing better. I think we're all very pleased to hear that."

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NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley today urged professional athletes to be careful not to allow the issue of kneeling, which he supports, to distract from the real issues of police brutality and reform. 

"You can kneel all you want to," said Barkley, speaking to CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "I support any guy who wants to kneel but we got to stop kneeling and being worried about kneeling because kneeling has become the big story instead of police brutality."

Barkley said players should not take cues from President Trump, who has seized the issue of whether or not athletes should take a knee during the national anthem to galvanize his base.  

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Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey ordered investigators to stop using carotid restraints immediately, the district attorney’s office announced in a statement on Tuesday.

According to the statement, the policy change is effective immediately.

Peaceful protests continued today around the US and the world following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis two weeks ago.

Thousands of mourners gathered at The Fountain of Praise church in Houston today to pay their respects to Floyd, who will be buried next to his mother.

His death sparked protests in the US and around the world, which have called for changes in policing and law enforcement's relationship with black and brown communities

Floyd was an "ordinary brother" from Houston's housing projects who "nobody thought much about," which makes his central role in a generational movement that much more powerful, the Rev. Al Sharpton said at his funeral today.

"God took the rejected stone and made him the cornerstone of a movement that's going to change the whole wide world," Sharpton said.

Here are what the protests look like across the US and the world:

Washington, DC

New York City

Dakar

Paris

Shouts of “George Floyd” were heard along the burial procession, as supporters gather to bid farewell to Floyd.

“Say his name” a man yelled as people yelled back “...George Floyd.” At one point people shouted “George” with others yelling back “…Floyd.” “I can’t” with others saying back “…breathe,” and finally some saying “get your knee” with the group yelling back “…off my neck.”

As the procession approached, cheers could be heard.

Floyd’s horse-drawn carriage, along with a carriage in front and one behind him, is on its way Houston Memorial Gardens in Pearland, Texas, where he will be buried.

Colorado Senate Democrats said in a statement they passed police reform legislation. 

Now that the state Senate passed the bill, it will go to the House. 

The bill ends the use of qualified immunity, which Colorado Democrats said "has been shielding bad actors from civil responsibility for years."

Officers also have a duty to intervene when excessive force is being used, according to the statement.  

"In so many cases of unacceptable police violence, other officers were present and did nothing to halt the incident — supporting a bystander's culture that allows abuse to continue," the statement read. 

The bill outlined protections for protesters and limits when and how police can use projectiles and chemical agents against crowds, according to the statement.

It also required compiling data and publicly reporting incidents "surrounding use of force, stops and searches of civilians, and forced entries into homes."