But while she said the sight of riots in the street and buildings burning was upsetting, Michele added that it wasn't surprising.

She has lived in the New England region for about a decade, where her and her husband have a property near Inverell.

But she has been keeping in touch with friends and family back in the states, as riots continue following the death of African American man George Floyd in police custody last week.

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"It's been hit pretty hard," she said of Chicago.

"Downtown there was a lot of looting, and riots. I was upset because my favourite camera store was burned down.

"There were a lot of attacks on businesses, and some of those are family-owned African American businesses."

Michele said it also hit Chicago hard because she said it had a history of police violence against African American residents.

"It's not something of any surprise to people who live in the city, but watching it is hard," she said.

"It's hard seeing your city get destroyed, especially because so many of these people coming in are not from Chicago.

"But I'm not surprised any of this has. Black men are killed every day by the police."

Michele said she has had a running conversation with friends, including a woman who lives on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, which has seen daily violence near the White House.

"She could hear the bullets last night, the rubber bullets. (We've had) an ongoing discussion, she was up 'til 4am. It's really upsetting," she said. "Her sister lives in Philadelphia and they're watching the helicopters going over. A niece-in-law of mine has been taking photos of cars burning."

Michele said one friend, who is a journalist in Chicago, has been documenting what's going on there for the Washington Post. "He's been taking photos of all the destruction in the city."

She said people were really unsettled.

"Because there's been so much shoulder-to-shoulder protests and the virus is still raging in America."

The large number of COVID-19 deaths was also mentioned as a contributing factor to the current situation by Armidale academic John Malouff.

"The USA is filled with fear, hate, and dying," Professor Malouff said. "The police murders and brutalising of African-Americans, virus-produced deaths and illnesses, the economic depression and high unemployment, all combine to make the country an ongoing tragedy."

A professor of pyschology at the University of New England, Professor Malouff grew up in Colorado, which he said had not seen the violence other areas had.

"It has protests but with little or no violence," he said.

"There are legislative proposals there now to strip police officers of immunity for unnecessary violence and to prevent abusive officers from moving from one police department to another."