Washington | More than 10,000 people poured into the nation's capital on the ninth day of protests over police brutality, but what awaited this sprawling crowd - the largest yet in Washington - was a city that no longer felt as if it was being occupied by its own country's military.

Gone were the 10-ton, sand-coloured tankers in front of Lafayette Square and the legions of officers braced behind riot shields, insisting that citizens stay away. In fact, few police were visible anywhere. And when protesters did see law enforcement - authorities in camouflage, grouped in twos or threes and seldom armed - they did not scream abuse, as many of them had in previous days.

Washington Post