“When you see something like this, it's amazing. When we hear this sound - this rumble - we imagine how dangerous it is. From Florida on Saturday, Donald Trump marveled at the launch of the Space X rocket with two Americans on board. He could have used the same words to describe the growing slingshot in several American cities.
Since the death of George Floyd, the African-American who was suffocated under the knee of a policeman on May 25, demonstrations against police violence and racism have spread to the cities of a dozen American states. Minneapolis, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Memphis, Detroit, Ferguson: violence escalates every night.
Part of the protests, initially peaceful, degenerated. Police vehicles and buildings were set on fire, shops looted and monuments vandalized. Opposite, the repression of the police, overwhelmed, is more intense. Particularly in Minneapolis, the city of drama from which the spark started. During the night of Saturday to Sunday, the National Guard used non-lethal ammunition to enforce the curfew. Even journalists were targeted. A TF1 team was briefly arrested.
Unity is gone
The inhabitants wake up every morning to see the damage of the previous day. Saturday, when the successful launch of the SpaceX rocket should have been a day of national celebration, it is clear that the American space epic was relegated to the background. Even the president's words sounded hollow. "A moment ago, watching the propulsion of two great Americans into space, we were filled with a sense of pride and unity that unites us as Americans," he said since Florida.
However, unity has long since disappeared in the United States. And, in recent months, the American dream has turned into a nightmare. The coronavirus has caused more than 100,000 deaths and 40 million unemployed. He created partisan divisions on a priori non-political themes, such as the wearing of the mask. He also revealed how the weakest, the poor and racial minorities, suffer the most. The filmed death of George Floyd, one more episode in an endless series of police brutality against African-Americans, created the spark for everything to ignite. "It's time for the revolution!" Yelled a protester near the White House on Saturday.
In the Republican camp, more and more voices are rising for Donald Trump to formally address the nation. Far from adopting a rallying posture and faithful to his attacking profile, the billionaire has so far blown on the embers of partisan divisions. He has repeatedly called for a response to violence with violence, for example threatening to drop "the nastiest dogs" on anyone who violates the entrance to the White House. Words that recall the practices of the American police towards black demonstrators during the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
"Totem of polarization"
On Saturday, he also unsuccessfully called on his supporters to organize a counter-demonstration in Washington: "Tonight, if I understood correctly, it is EVENING MAGA AT THE WHITE HOUSE ??? ", He tweeted in reference to his slogan, Make America Great Again. The American president, brought to power in 2016 by a majority white electorate, is campaigning for his re-election. It is therefore not surprising that it does not offer its consoling shoulder to black citizens bruised by centuries of racism. Nor that it arises as a defender of the return to order.
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VIDEO. Death of George Floyd: acts of vandalism multiply in the United States
"We can reasonably say that 2020 has turned out to be a year that cracked the fabric of American society, with an accumulation of anguish that upset the country and its people, analyzes White House correspondent Peter Baker in the New York Times. But in a way, Mr. Trump has become the totem of the polarization of the nation rather than the one who mends it. "
