According to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, at least 100 journalists have been arrested while covering the protests, while 114 have been physically attacked by police officers. Although some journalists have been attacked by protesters, over 80% of incidents involving violence against the news media were committed by law enforcement officers. The Committee to Protect Journalists has accused police officers of intentionally targeting news crews in an attempt to intimidate them from covering the protests. Some journalists covering the protests in Minneapolis had their tires slashed by Minnesota State Patrol troopers and Anoka County sheriff's deputies.

During the week of May 30, 2020, 12 people, including protesters, journalists and bystanders, were partially blinded after being struck with police projectiles. By June 21, at least 20 people had suffered serious eye injuries. The American Academy of Ophthalmology has called on police departments to stop using rubber bullets for crowd control, writing in a statement that "Americans have the right to speak and congregate publicly and should be able to exercise that right without the fear of blindness."

As unrest grew in the days after Floyd's murder, there was speculation by federal, state, and local officials that various extremist groups using the cover of the protests to foment general unrest in the United States. Officials initially provided few details to the public about the claims.

Donald Trump, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, United States Attorney General William Barr, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Seattle Police Guild President Mike Solan, and Huntsville Police Chief Mark McMurray blamed anarchists and "far-left extremist" groups, including antifa, for inciting and organizing violent riots. According to a Justice Department spokesperson, Barr came to this conclusion after being provided with information from state and local law enforcement agencies.

Contrastingly, several mid-June investigations by news agencies including The Washington Post and the Associated Press concluded there was no solid evidence of antifa involvement in causing violence during the protests, contradicting prior claims by law enforcement officials, and the Trump administration provided no further evidence for its claims. This is in part because "antifa is a moniker, not a single group", making it difficult to attribute any violence directly to the movement.

The majority of protests in the aftermath of Floyd's murder were peaceful; among the 14,000 arrests made, most were for minor offenses such as alleged curfew violations or blocking a roadway. An analysis of state and federal criminal charges of demonstrators in the Minneapolis area found that disorganized crowds had no single goal or affiliation, many opportunist crowds amassed spontaneously during periods of lawlessness, and that people causing destruction had contradictory motives for their actions. Other analysis found that persons involved in visible crimes such as arson or property damage were not ideologically organized, although some were motivated by anger towards police. Episodes of looting were committed by "regular criminal groups" and street gangs and were motivated by personal gain rather than ideology. A large number of white nationalists did not appear in response to the protests, although "a handful of apparent lone actors" were arrested for attempting to harm protesters. However, there was a scattered number of armed paramilitary-style militia movement groups and there were "several cases where members of these groups discharged firearms, causing chaos or injuring protesters".

According to the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights (IREHR), which mapped the appearance of various right-wing or far-right actors or extremist groups at rallies throughout the United States, there were 136 confirmed cases of right-wing participation at the protests by June 19, 2020, with many more unconfirmed. Boogaloo, Three Percenters, Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, neo-Confederates, white nationalists, and an assortment of militias and vigilante groups reportedly had a presence at some protests, mostly in small towns and rural areas.

Boogaloo groups, who are generally pro-gun, anti-government, and far-right accelerationists, have reportedly been present at least 40 George Floyd protests, several reportedly linked with violence. Their continued presence online has caused Facebook and TikTok to take action against their violent and anti-government posts. On July 25, 2020, 28-year old armed Black Lives Matter protester Garrett Foster was shot and killed in an altercation with a motorist in Downtown Austin. Foster identified with the boogaloo movement and had expressed anti-racist, libertarian, and anti-police views in his Facebook posts. Police said initial reports indicate that Foster was carrying an AK-47 style rifle, and was pushing his fiancée's wheelchair moments before he was killed.

By late 2020, the United States Attorney's office had charged three alleged adherents of Boogaloo Bois movement who attempted to capitalize on the unrest in Minneapolis in late May. Two had pled guilty by May 2021. According to the federal charging documents, the 30-year-old Michael Robert Solomon of New Brighton, Minnesota, who pled guilty to federal charges, recruited Boogaloo adherent participation via Facebook and at least five others traveled to Minneapolis to participate in the unrest. One of the persons, Benjamin Ryan Teeter, a 22-year old from Hampstead, North Carolina, also pled guilty to several federal criminal charges. Officials believed Teeter traveled to Minneapolis in the days after Floyd's murder to participate in rioting and looting and that he also had plans to destroy a courthouse with Solomon. A 26-year-old man from Boerne, Texas, who self-identified as a local leader of the Boogaloo movement, also faced federal riot charges for allegedly shooting 13 rounds from an AK-47-style machine gun into the Minneapolis third police precinct building while people were inside, looting it, and helping to set it on fire the night of May 28, 2020.

A December 2020 poll found 47% of Americans believed that the majority of the protests were violent, and 16% were unsure. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, an estimated 93%–96.3% of demonstrations were peaceful and nondestructive, involving no injuries or no property damage. Police made arrests in about 5% of protest events (deploying chemical irritants in 2.5% of events); 3.7% of protest events were associated with property damage or vandalism (including damages by persons not involved in the actual demonstration); and protesters or bystanders were injured or killed in 1.6% of events.

The protests were the subject of extensive media coverage, documentaries, and television specials. The documentary Say His Name: Five Days of George Floyd, released in February 2021, contained footage of protests and unrest in a neighborhood of Minneapolis in the five days that elapsed between Floyd's murder and the criminal charges being filed against Derek Chauvin. In August 2020, the occupied protests at 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis was the subject of a multi-part PBS News Hour series, "George Floyd Square: The epicenter of a protest movement that's swept the world" and in December 2020, it was the subject of a monthlong series by Minnesota Public Radio, "Making George Floyd's Square: Meet the people transforming 38th and Chicago".

Several documentaries and news specials were broadcast to coincide with first anniversary of Floyd's murder. The ABC-produced After Floyd: The Year that Shook America examined the "generation-defining movement" of Floyd's murder and Our America: A Year of Activism reflected on the year-long period of activism on social justice issues that followed. PBS-produced Race Matters: America After George Floyd reported on ongoing protests in communities over issues of police brutality a year after Floyd's murder.

The Minneapolis-based Star Tribune newspaper received the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for the breaking news it reported of Floyd's murder and the resulting aftermath. Danielle Frazier, the then 17-year old who filmed Floyd's arrest and murder on her cellphone, received a Pulitzer special citation recognition in 2021 for her video.

The video recorded of Floyd's arrest and murder by Darneil Frazier on her mobile phone quickly went viral after she posted to Facebook a few hours later in the early morning hours of May 26. Public outrage over the contents of the video became an inflection point that sparked the largest civil-rights protests in U.S. history as Americans confronted topics of structural racism and police reform. Protests had continued for over a year after Floyd's murder.

Numerous individuals and celebrities used social media to document the protests, spread information, promote donation sites, and post memorials to George Floyd. Following Floyd's murder, a 15-year-old started a Change.org petition titled "Justice for George Floyd", demanding that all four police officers involved be charged. The petition was both the largest and fastest-growing in the site's history, reaching over 13 million signatures. During this time, multiple videos of the protests, looting, and riots were shared by journalists and protesters with many videos circulating widely on social media websites.

A remix of Childish Gambino's song "This is America" and Post Malone's "Congratulations" was used heavily by protesters sharing footage of protests and police action on TikTok. Others used personal Twitter pages to post video documentation of the protests to highlight police and protesters actions, as well as points of the protests they felt would not be reported. One example was a viral photo that appears to show white women protesters standing with their arms locked between Louisville Metro Police Officers and protesters, with the caption describing the image and "This is love. This is what you do with your privilege."

Viral images of officers "taking a knee" with protesters and engaging in joint displays against police brutality, highlighted by hashtags such as #WalkWithUs, have circulated widely on social media. These acts have been identified by some cultural critics as copaganda, or "feel-good images" to boost public relations. Official social media accounts of police departments boosted positive images of collaboration. In some cases, these displays of solidarity, such as police kneeling, have been recognized as occurring moments before police teargassed crowds or inflicted violence on them. An article in The Fader characterized these acts as public relations tactics which were being undermined by police violence, "It feels like we go past the point of no return several times each day."

American K-pop fan accounts hijacked right wing and pro-Trump hashtags on social media, flooding trending hashtags with images and videos of their favorite artists. Users attempting to look up the hashtags #WhiteLivesMatter, #WhiteoutWednesday and #BlueLivesMatter were met with messages and video clips of dancing idols. After the Dallas Police Department asked Twitter users to submit videos of protesters' illegal activity to its iWatch Dallas app, submissions of K-pop videos led to the temporary removal of the app due to "technical difficulties".

On May 28, hacktivist group Anonymous released a video to Facebook and the Minneapolis Police Department entitled "Anonymous Message To The Minneapolis Police Department", in which they state that they are going to seek revenge on the Minneapolis Police Department, and "expose their crimes to the world". According to Bloomberg, the video was initially posted on an unconfirmed Anonymous Facebook page. 269 gigabytes of leaked internal law enforcement data spanning 10 years obtained by Anonymous were later published by the activist group Distributed Denial of Secrets on June 19 to coincide with Juneteenth. The leak consisted of over a million documents, in what investigative journalist and founder of the group—Emma Best—called "the largest published hack of American law enforcement agencies". The leaked documents revealed that law enforcement agencies had been covertly monitoring protesters' private communication over social media, and that both federal and local law enforcement had been stoking fear among police officers, likely setting the stage for the escalation of violence against protesters by police.

Facebook's decision not to remove or label President Trump's tweet of "When the looting starts, the shooting starts" prompted complaints from Facebook employees that political figures were getting a special exemption from the site's content policies. Actions included internal petition, questioning the CEO at an employee town hall, some resignations, and an employee walkout.

On June 3, as U.S. protests gained momentum, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted a recommendation for users to download end-to-end encryption (E2EE) messaging app Signal. On June 6, an estimated half million people joined protests in 550 places in the United States. By June 11, The New York Times reported that protest organizers relied on the E2EE app "to devise action plans and develop strategies for handling possible arrests for several years" and that downloads had "skyrocketed" with increased awareness of police monitoring leading protesters to use the app to communicate among themselves. During the first week of June, the encrypted messaging app was downloaded over five times more than it had been during the week prior to Floyd's murder. Citizen, a community safety app, also experienced a high spike in downloads.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speculated that there was "an organized attempt to destabilize civil society", initially saying as many as 80% of the individuals had possibly come from outside the state, and the mayor of St. Paul, Melvin Carter, said everyone arrested in St. Paul on May 29 was from out of state. However, jail records showed that the majority of those arrested were in-state. At a press conference later the same day, Carter explained that he had "shared... arrest data received in [his] morning police briefing which [he] later learned to be inaccurate".

Numerous eyewitness accounts and news reporters indicated that tear gas was used to disperse protesters in Lafayette Square. Despite this evidence, U.S. Park Police officials said, "USPP officers and other assisting law enforcement partners did not use tear gas or OC Skat Shells to close the area at Lafayette Park", adding that they only used "pepper balls" and "smoke canisters". Donald Trump's presidential campaign demanded news outlets retract reports of "tear gas" use. President Trump called the reports "fake" and said "they didn't use tear gas."

On the night of May 31, exterior lights on the north side of the White House went dark as usual at 11:00 pm, while protesters were demonstrating outside. The Guardian mistakenly reported that "in normal times, they are only ever turned off when a president dies." A 2015 stock photograph of the White House, edited to show the lights turned off, was shared tens of thousands of times online, including by Hillary Clinton. While the photograph did not depict the building at the time of the protests, Deputy White House Press Secretary Hogan Gidley confirmed that the lights "go out at about 11 p.m. almost every night".

On June 6, the New York Post reported that a NYPD source said $2.4 million of Rolex watches had been looted during protests from a Soho Rolex store. However, the store in question was actually a Watches of Switzerland outlet that denied anything was stolen. Rolex confirmed that "no watches of any kind were stolen, as there weren't any on display in the store."

A June 12 article by The Seattle Times found that Fox News published a photograph of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone that had been digitally altered to include a man armed with an assault rifle. The Fox News website also used a photograph of a burning scene from the Minnesota protests to illustrate their articles on Seattle's protests. Fox removed the images and issued an apology, stating the digitally altered image was a collage that "did not clearly delineate" splicing.

False claims of impending antifa activity as part of the protests circulated through social media platforms, causing alarm in at least 41 towns and cities. As a result of the rumors, several people were harassed. Hundreds of members of armed self-proclaimed militias and far right groups gathered in Gettysburg National Military Park on Independence Day in response to a fake online claim that antifa protesters were planning on burning the U.S. flag.

Some social media users spread images of damage from other protests or incidents, falsely attributing the damage to the George Floyd protests.

Twitter suspended hundreds of accounts associated with spreading a false claim about a communications blackout during protests in Washington, D.C., or a claim that authorities had blocked protesters from communicating on their smartphones. Also, some accounts shared a photo of a major fire burning near the Washington Monument, which was actually an image from a television show.

A study by Zignal Labs identified three dominant themes in misinformation and conspiracy theories around the protests: unsubstantiated claims of antifa involvement, claims that Floyd's murder had been faked, and claims of involvement by the billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros.

A week into the protests, The Washington Post stated that the current situation suggests that the status quo was undergoing a shock, with the article stating "the past days have suggested that something is changing. The protests reached into every corner of the United States and touched nearly every strand of society." Joe Biden told Politico that he had experienced an awakening and thought other White Americans had as well, saying: "Ordinary folks who don't think of themselves as having a prejudiced bone in their body, don't think of themselves as racists, have kind of had the mask pulled off." A number of journalistic and academic sources described the protests as forcing Americans to face racial inequality, police brutality and other racial and economic issues. Many stated that the unrest was due to the prevailing political and cultural habits of overlooking or ignoring forms of oppression of Black Americans. Politico said the murder of George Floyd, captured on video, had "prompted a reckoning with racism [...] for a wide swath of white America." Deva Woodly, Associate Professor of Politics at The New School for Social Research, wrote: "We are living in a world-historical moment." NPR said that "a change of attitude seems to have swept through the national culture like a sudden wind." CNN's Brianna Keilar said that "[y]ou are watching America's reckoning" as she outlined the "profound change" the country had experienced, including that in mid-June 15 of the 20 bestselling books were about race.

In late June, The Christian Science Monitor's editorial board wrote: "It may still be too soon to say the U.S. has reached a true inflection point in its treatment of its citizens of African descent. But it has certainly reached a reflection point." Reuters reported that Black candidates in June's primaries had benefited from "a national reckoning on racism." By early July, The Washington Post was running a regularly updated section titled "America's Racial Reckoning: What you need to know." On July 3, The Washington Post said that "the Black Lives Matter protests following the police killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks focused the world's attention on racial inequities, structural racism and implicit bias."

The New York Times described the events in the wake of Floyd's murder and video that circulated of it as "the largest protests in the United States since the Civil Rights era."

According to the American Political Science Review, the George Floyd protests led to a reduction in favorability toward the police among politically liberal Americans, and further exacerbated racial and political tensions and attitudes regarding the "race and law enforcement" debate in the U.S.

The Property Claim Services (PCS) of the U.S. Insurance industry states that in the "unrest that took place from May 26 to June 8" 2020 in 140 U.S. cities in 20 states was "the costliest civil unrest in U.S. history", and that insured losses are "estimated at over $2 billion". According to Fortune, the economic impact of the protests exacerbated the COVID-19 recession by sharply curtailing consumer confidence, straining local businesses, and overwhelming public infrastructure with large-scale property damage. A number of small businesses, already suffering from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, were harmed by vandalism, property destruction, and looting. Curfews instated by local governments – in response to both the pandemic and protests – have also "restricted access to the downtown [areas]" to essential workers, lowering economic output. President Donald Trump, after announcing a drop in overall unemployment from 14.7% to 13.3% on June 5, stated that strong economic growth was "the greatest thing [for race relations]" and "George Floyd would have been proud [of the unemployment rate]". That same day reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated the unemployment rate among African Americans (covering the first two weeks of protests) was up 0.1%, rising to 16.8%.

The U.S. stock market remained unaffected or otherwise increased from the start of the protests on May 26 to June 2. The protest's first two weeks coincided with a 38% rise in the stock market. A resurgence of COVID-19 (facilitated by mass protests) could have exacerbated the 2020 stock market crash according to economists at RBC. The protests disrupted national supply chains over uncertainty regarding public safety, a resurgence of COVID-19, and consumer confidence. Several Fortune 500 retail companies, with large distribution networks, scaled back deliveries and shuttered stores in high-impact areas. Mass demonstrations – of both peaceful and violent varieties – were linked to diminished consumer confidence and demand stemming from the public health risks of group gatherings amid COVID-19.

Large-scale property damage stemming from the protests has led to increased insurance claims, bankruptcies, and curbed economic activity among small businesses and state governments. Insurance claims arising from property damage suffered in rioting is still being assessed, but is thought to be significant, perhaps record-breaking. Estimates of property damages from fires and looting in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area were $550 million to 1,500 property locations. Private insurance covered less than half of the estimated damages, which had a disproportionate effect on small business owners, many of who were immigrants and people of color. Among the losses in Minneapolis was Minnehaha Commons, an under-construction, $30 million redevelopment project for 189 units of affordable housing, which was destroyed by fire after being torched on May 27, 2020. A community organization in Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood said that between $10 million and $15 million in property damage (excluding losses from looting) was incurred over the weekend of May 29–31, mostly along storefronts along Peachtree Street and Phipps Plaza. The damage to downtown Chicago's central business district (near the Magnificent Mile) was reported to have sustained "millions of dollars in damage" according to Fortune.

Public financing and funding, particularly on the state level, has also been impacted by the protests. The COVID-19 recession eroded large parts of state budgets which subsequently struggled to finance the police overtime pay, security costs, and infrastructure repairs related to the demonstrations. State governments have, since June, announced budget cuts to police departments as well as increased funding to other public safety measures. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced on June 5 he will seek up to $150 million in cuts to the Los Angeles Police Department budget.

On May 31, Walmart temporarily closed several hundred of its stores as a precaution. Amazon announced it would redirect some delivery routes and scale back others as a result of the widespread unrest.

A makeshift memorial emerged at the East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue intersection in Minneapolis where Floyd was murdered. Minneapolis officials renamed a stretch two block stretch of Chicago Avenue as George Floyd Perry Jr Place and designated it as one of seven cultural districts in city.

Scrutiny of, discussion of removal, and removal of civic symbols or names relating to the Confederate States of America (frequently associated with segregation and the Jim Crow era in the United States) has regained steam as protests have continued. On June 4, 2020, Virginia governor Ralph Northam announced the Robert E. Lee Monument in Richmond would be removed.

On June 5, making specific reference to events in Charlottesville in 2017, the United States Marine Corps banned the display of the Confederate Battle Flag at their installations. The United States Navy followed suit on June 9 at the direction of Michael M. Gilday, the Chief of Naval Operations.

Birmingham, Alabama, Mayor Randall Woodfin ordered the removal of the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Linn Park. The Alabama Attorney General has filed suit against the city of Birmingham for violating the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act.

A statue of America's first president, George Washington, has been torn down and American flag was burned by rioters in Portland, Oregon. Portland Public Schools was responding after protesters pulled down the Thomas Jefferson statue in front of Jefferson High School. Several protesters tore down the statue of the third President of the United States and wrote: "slave owner" and "George Floyd" in spray paint at its white marble base. PPS officials said they recognize that the act is part of a larger and very important national conversation. The statues targeted included a bust of Ulysses S. Grant and statue of Theodore Roosevelt. BLM activist Shaun King tweeted that statues, murals, and stained glass windows depicting a white Jesus should be removed. Protesters defaced a statue of Philadelphia abolitionist Matthias Baldwin with the words "murderer" and "colonizer". Protesters in San Francisco vandalized a statue of Miguel de Cervantes, a Spanish writer who spent five years as a slave in Algiers.

Vandals defaced the statue of Winston Churchill in London's Parliament Square and Queen Victoria's statue in Leeds. The Lincoln Memorial, the World War II Memorial and the statue of General Casimir Pulaski were vandalized during the George Floyd protests in Washington, D.C. On June 7, the statue of Edward Colston was toppled and thrown into Bristol Harbour by demonstrators during the George Floyd protests in the United Kingdom. BLM activists in London are calling for the removal of 60 statues of historical figures like Prime Ministers Charles Grey and William Gladstone, Horatio Nelson, Sir Francis Drake, King Charles II of England, Oliver Cromwell and Christopher Columbus. Protesters in Belgium have vandalized statues of King Leopold II of Belgium.

In Washington, D.C., a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in front of the Indian Embassy was vandalized on the intervening night of June 2 and 3. The incident prompted the embassy to register a complaint with law enforcement agencies. Taranjit Singh Sandhu, the Indian Ambassador to the United States, called the vandalism "a crime against humanity". In London, another statue of Gandhi was vandalized by Black Lives Matter protesters along with the statue of Winston Churchill.

On June 12, the city council in Hamilton, New Zealand removed the statue of Captain John Hamilton, a British officer who was killed during the New Zealand Wars in 1864. A local Māori elder Taitimu Maipi, who had vandalized the statue in 2018, has also called for the city to be renamed Kirikiriroa. New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters called the scrutiny of colonial-era memorials a "wave of idiocy".

On June 22, a crowd of rioters unsuccessfully attempted to topple Clark Mills' 1852 bronze equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square in President's Park, directly north of the White House in Washington, D.C. Several days later, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) charged four men with destruction of federal property for allegedly trying to bring down the statue. The Justice Department alleged that a video showed one of the men breaking off and destroying the wheels of the cannons located at the base of the statue as well as pulling on ropes when trying to bring down the statue.

Soon afterwards, the DOJ announced the arrest and charging of a man who was not only allegedly seen on video climbing up onto the Jackson statue and affixing a rope that was then used to try to pull the statue down, but had on June 20 helped destroy Gaetano Trentanove's 1901 Albert Pike Memorial statue near Washington's Judiciary Square by pulling it from its base and setting it on fire. The DOJ's complaint alleged that the man had been captured on video dousing the federally-owned Pike statue with a flammable liquid, igniting it as it lay on the ground and using the fire to light a cigarette.

On June 30, after the Mississippi Legislature obtained a two-thirds majority in both houses to suspend rules in order to pass a bill addressing the Confederate Battle Flag on the Mississippi state flag, Governor Tate Reeves signed a bill that relinquished the state flag, mandated its removal from public premises within 15 days, and established a commission to propose a new flag design that excluded the Confederate Battle Flag and included the motto "In God We Trust". The flag contained the infamous Confederate symbol in the canton (upper left corner) of the flag, and was the last U.S. state flag to do so.

During a speech on July 3 at Mount Rushmore, U.S. president Donald Trump denounced the monument removals as part of a "left wing cultural revolution" to "overthrow the American Revolution".

On July 13, the Washington Redskins announced that their name and logo would be retired upon completion of "a thorough review of the name" that was first announced on July 3.

A week-long tour began July 28 in which a hologram of Floyd was projected on a monument to be removed, thereby "replacing" the monument with Floyd. Richmond, Virginia, was the first stop.

In the response to the protests, Congress mandated the creation of a Commission on the Naming of Items of the Department of Defense that Commemorate the Confederate States of America or Any Person Who Served Voluntarily with the Confederate States of America in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. President Trump cited this provision in his veto of the NDAA, resulting in the only veto override of his presidency.

According to Lt. Bob Kroll, the head of the Minneapolis police union, officers began retiring "en masse" alongside morale being at an "all-time low".

Around 170 Atlanta police officers walked off of the job in mid-June following unresolved grievances in the Rayshard Brooks case.

The New York City Police Department reported a 411% increase in police retirement application in the first week of July. As a result, the department has limited new retirement applications to 40 a day.

On July 11, at least 150 Minneapolis police officers reported nondescript injuries as well as symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, leading over half of them to leave their jobs with more likely to follow. The Minneapolis police have denied there being any serious injuries inflicted on officers.

In the wake of Floyd's killing, state and local governments evaluated their police department policies, and the response to protests, for themselves. For example, California Governor Gavin Newsom called for new police crowd control procedures for the state, and the banning of the police use of carotid chokeholds, which starve the brain of oxygen. The Minneapolis police department banned police from using chokeholds; Denver's police department also banned the use of chokeholds without exception, and also established new reporting requirements whenever a police officer holds a person at gunpoint.

In June 2020, Democrats in Congress introduced the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020, a police reform and accountability bill that contains measures to combat police misconduct, excessive force, and racial bias in policing. The impetus for the bill were the killings of Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other African Americans at the hands of police. It passed the House of Representatives one month after Floyd's killing, 236 to 181, with support from Democrats and three Republicans. A Republican reform bill was blocked in the U.S. Senate by all but two Democrats; neither party negotiated the contents of the bill with the other. Speaker Nancy Pelosi summarized Democratic opposition to the Senate bill: "it's not a question that it didn't go far enough; it didn't go anywhere".

On June 16, President Trump signed an executive order on police reform that incentivized departments to recruit from communities they patrol, encourage more limited use of deadly force, and prioritize using social workers and mental health professionals for nonviolent calls. The order also created a national database of police officers with a history of using excessive force.

On September 10, Ted Wheeler, the mayor and police commissioner of Portland, Oregon, banned city police from using tear gas for riot control purposes, but reiterated that police would respond to violent protests forcefully. Portland had seen over one hundred consecutive days of protests since they began on May 28.

Nine members of the Minneapolis City Council — a veto-proof majority — pledged on June 7 to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department, despite opposition from Mayor Jacob Frey. U.S. representative Ilhan Omar stated, "the Minneapolis Police Department has proven themselves beyond reform. It's time to disband them and reimagine public safety in Minneapolis." Despite pledges by city council members to the end the Minneapolis Police Department, a proposed amendment to the Minneapolis city charter which was approved by the Minneapolis City Council on June 26 would only rename the police department and change its structure if approved by voters. In August, the review of another proposal to dismantle the department was delayed by 90 days, meaning it wouldn't be voted on in the November ballot because it passed the statutory deadline of August 21. The budget for the department was passed in December and the funding was reduced by $7.7 million.

In the media industry, the protests have spurred scrutiny for cop shows and led to the cancellation of popular television shows referred to by critics as copaganda. With long-standing criticism that it presented an unbalanced view of law enforcement in favor of police, encouraged police to engage in more dramatic behavior for the camera, and degraded suspects who had not yet been convicted of any crime, the Paramount Network canceled the 33rd season of the TV show Cops and pulled it from broadcast. The television network A&E canceled a similar show, Live PD, which was also found to have destroyed footage documenting the police killing of Javier Ambler in Austin, Texas, in 2019. The streaming service HBO Max temporarily pulled the film Gone with the Wind until video that explains and condemns the film's racist depictions could be produced to accompany it. In the United Kingdom, the BBC pulled the famed "The Germans" episode of Fawlty Towers from its UKTV streaming service, but later reinstated it after criticism from series star and co-writer John Cleese. He later criticized their use of the word "fury" to describe his comments. This was later removed by the BBC. The episode, which included racial slurs about the West Indies cricket team, now features a disclaimer at the beginning warning of "offensive content and language". The BBC also removed the Little Britain series and its spinoff Come Fly with Me from the iPlayer and BritBox services as well as Netflix for its use of blackface.

The week of June 24, 2020, several animated series that had black, mixed or non-white characters voiced by white actors, including Big Mouth, Central Park, Family Guy and The Simpsons, announced those characters would be recast with people of color. That same week, episodes of 30 Rock, The Office, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Community, The Golden Girls, and Peep Show that involved characters using blackface were either removed or edited from syndication and streaming services.

In light of the protests, Brooklyn Nine-Nine co-star Terry Crews said that the first four episodes of the show's eighth season had to be rewritten.

The Penny Dreadful: City of Angels episode "Sing, Sing, Sing", opens with an additional viewer discretion warning about its content, specifically the lynching of a character by members of the Los Angeles Police Department. The episode originally aired less than one month after Floyd's murder, and was the only episode to feature this additional warning.

In reaction to the higher sensitivity by customers for racial issues in the aftermath of Floyd's murder, multiple companies decided to rebrand some products. The brands Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben's, and Fair & Lovely made adaptations to eliminate racial stereotypes. In sports, the NFL football team in Washington, D.C., dropped the "Redskins" nickname and the MLB baseball team in Cleveland said it would discontinue the "Indians" nickname after the 2021 season and adopt the "Guardians" nickname. In June 2020, Disney announced that their theme park attraction Splash Mountain, which had been themed to the 1946 film Song of the South, controversial for its depiction of African Americans, would be re-themed based on the 2009 film The Princess and the Frog, which had Disney's first depiction of a black princess.

Artistic impressions of George Floyd's likeness became an icon of the protest movement that unfolded following his murder. Paintings of Floyd appeared on exterior walls in many cities in the United States and around the world. A mapping project of protest art after Floyd's murder had by May 19, 2021, documented 2,100 entries of George Floyd-related and anti-racism art around the world, though much of it was from the Minneapolis and Saint Paul area. Many works appeared on plywood that covered up boarded-up windows and doors as result of unrest.

The protests occurred during the early, pre-vaccination phase of the global COVID-19 pandemic, which led officials and experts to express concerns that the demonstrations could lead to further spread of SARS-CoV-2. The demonstrations thus sparked debate among commentators, political leaders, and health experts over coronavirus restrictions on gatherings. In June 2020 the CDC released the "Considerations for Events and Gatherings" which assesses large gatherings where it is difficult for people to stay at least six feet apart, and where attendees travel from outside the local area as "highest risk". Public health experts and mayors urged demonstrators to wear face coverings, follow physical separation (social distancing) practices, engage in proper hand hygiene, and seek out COVID-19 testing.

Subsequent studies and public health reports showed that the protests in 2020 did not drive an increase in COVID-19 transmission. Epidemiologists and other researchers attributed this to the location of the demonstrations outdoors (where the virus is less likely to spread as compared to indoors); because many protesters wore masks; and because persons who demonstrated made up a small portion of the overall U.S. population (about 6% of adults). Outdoor events were analyzed to have a substantially lower risk of spreading the virus than indoor ones, and transient contact was considered less risky than extended close contact.

Some protesters that were arrested were detained in crowded, indoor environments and did not have protective masks, which prompted concern over potential jail-spread of SARS-CoV-2. Some law enforcement personnel in New York City who responded to protests were criticized for failing to wear face masks. An outbreak was detected among Houston, Texas, police department officers, but it was not clear if the officers were exposed on or off of their police duty.

While many U.S. states experienced growth in new cases during the initial wave of protests, these upticks are thought to be attributed to reopenings of workplaces, bars, restaurants, and other businesses.

• 
  A protest march in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020
• 
  "Black Lives Fucking Matter", "A.C.A.B.", and "Fuck 12" graffiti on a looted Target store on Lake Street, Minneapolis the morning of May 28, 2020
• 
  Protesters in Oakland, California, on May 29, 2020
• Police confront protesters near Trump Tower in Chicago on May 30, 2020
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  Protesters in Washington, D.C., in front of the White House on May 30, 2020
• 
  Georgia National Guard medics treat a protester injured by tear gas on June 2, 2020
• 
  Protesters in Seattle on June 3, 2020
• 
  Protesters in Philadelphia on June 6, 2020
• 
  Protesters in Denver on June 6, 2020

• Long, hot summer of 1967 – Protests and riots in which the statement "When the looting starts, the shooting starts" was first coined by Miami police chief Walter E. Headley.
• 1968 Democratic National Convention protests – Protests against the Vietnam War that were later described as a "police riot".
• 1980 Miami riots – Protests after an unarmed black salesman was beaten to death by police officers in 1979 and the officers involved were acquitted in May 1980.
• 2014 Ferguson unrest – The large-scale unrest after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by police.
• 2020 Kenosha protests – Protests after the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin
• 2021 Daunte Wright protests – Protests after the killing of Daunte Wright

Arrangement is chronological.

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• Kaske, Erika A.; Cramer, Samuel W.; Pena Pino, Isabela; Do, Truong H.; Ladd, Bryan M.; Sturtevant, Dylan T.; Ahmadi, Aliya; Taha, Birra; Freeman, David; Wu, Joel T.; Cunningham, Brooke A. (January 13, 2021). "Injuries from Less-Lethal Weapons during the George Floyd Protests in Minneapolis". The New England Journal of Medicine. 384 (8): 774–775. doi:10.1056/NEJMc2032052. ISSN 0028-4793. PMID 33440082.