Live George Floyd Protest Updates and Video

The forces in Minnesota and Georgia are armed, while the Colorado troops have only nonlethal weaponry. The generals did not describe under what conditions they would use force, only that they would be proportional and used in self-defense.

General Jensen said he had requested additional military police battalions from the National Guard forces of neighboring states, but said he would not recommend the Minnesota governor request regular Army forces for that job, as Mr. Trump has offered.

Army Maj. Gen. Thomas Carden Jr., the adjutant general of the Georgia National Guard, expressed dismay that his forces had to be called out for a domestic civil unrest mission.

“We in America should not get used to or accept uniformed service members of any variety having to be put in a position where they are having to secure people inside the United States of America,” General Carden said. “While we are honored to do it, this is a sign of the times that we have to do better as a country.”

At a religious event on Sunday, the Houston police chief delivered an emotional, sermon-style speech after days of at-times violent protests in the city where George Floyd grew up, denouncing police brutality, evoking Houston’s recovery from Hurricane Harvey and saying those turning demonstrations destructive were doing “Satan’s work.”

The chief, Art Acevedo, who has marched with demonstrators and has called for charges to be filed against the four officers in Minneapolis, took off his mask at one point and pumped his arm as those assembled in their vehicles during the event honked their horns in support.

“We have a man, a son, a brother, an uncle, a cousin, a Houstonian, a child of God that was killed by servants that are supposed to be servants of God, and they showed no mercy when they put their knee on his neck,” he said of Mr. Floyd.