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Death of George Floyd: story of a week of anger

2020-06-03T12:45:31.164Z


The death of George Floyd, an African-American man who died as a result of a violent arrest, has revived the wounds of a country already marked pa


A spark arises in Minneapolis, and within a week, a whole country is ablaze. Since the death of George Floyd, an African-American man who died in a violent arrest in the city on May 25, thousands of Americans brave the curfews and confinement rules linked to Covid-19 every day to defend the rights of black Americans.

These demonstrations are not the first in the country, which suffers from a painful history of violence hitting, in an exacerbated way, the minorities of the country. Back on the week when the country turned into violence.

It all starts on Monday 25 May. Minneapolis, capital of the state of Minnesota north of the Midwest of the United States, is recovering slowly from the end of the containment. George Floyd, who has just lost his job as a security guard in a restaurant due to the health crisis, is violently arrested near a cigarette store. His fault ? Having bought a package with a fake 20 dollar bill.

To control it, Derek Chauvin, a white policeman who has already been the subject of 18 mostly classified complaints, sits on his neck, putting pressure on his knee. Nearby, passers-by film the scene, which is more than eight minutes long. "I can't breathe," repeats the 46-year-old man on the ground several times. At the end, his body is motionless. His death will be announced an hour after the incident, at a local hospital. George Floyd was 46 years old.

Accumulating racist incidents

The scene evokes the death of Eric Garner, which occurred six years earlier, also tackled to the ground by a police officer. In a video, we heard him shouting the same complaint: "I can't breathe". It had then become one of the slogans of the movement "Black Lives Matter" ("The Lives of Blacks count", in French) propelled to the fore, and at the origin of multiple demonstrations throughout the country. It will be again in 2020.

As with Eric Garner, George Floyd's video goes around the world. And coincides with another viral extract, showing him a New Yorker threatening to call the police against an African American asking him to put his dog on a leash in a bird park. The racist connotation of the call shocked thousands of Internet users around the world. The American public had already been shocked by the deaths, which had taken place in recent months, of Ahmaud Arbery and Sean Reed, two young African-Americans who had also died during police interventions.

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In the aftermath of George Floyd's death, several hundred people gathered spontaneously at the place of his death in Minneapolis, but also in front of the headquarters of the local police station, and in front of Derek Chauvin's house. The police officer, as well as the three others who accompanied him during his intervention, were dismissed from their duties. It is not enough to calm the anger, which is gaining more and more spirits. At the end of the afternoon, the first clashes broke out between the police and demonstrators after a first march, however calm, told the local press.

Twenty-four hours later, the demonstrations became more violent. In the night from Wednesday to Thursday, city buildings are vandalized. Several fires were started. The tension was such that two shootings broke out. One of them made a death: the mortal shootings came according to the Star Tribune of the owner of a pawn shop, and aimed at a "plunderer".

Escalation of violence

At the White House, Donald Trump finally deigns to react. After several vengeful tweets against Barack Obama and China, he mentions the drama and claims to have requested an investigation by the FBI into the death of George Floyd. He took the opportunity to salute the work of the police, before promising that "justice will be served" for the victim.

But in Minneapolis, anger is still raging. The state of emergency was declared Thursday by the city's mayor, who deployed 500 soldiers of the National Guard to subdue the demonstrators. At this stage, the demonstrators also occupy areas of Saint-Louis, the big neighboring city.

CNN reporter arrested by police in full live in Minneapolis

Friday morning, after another night of escalation in violence, the police then reported 170 vandalized stores, and several dozen fires. Among the burned places, the police station where Derek Chauvin worked.

At the same time, a new video of the demonstrations begins to accumulate hundreds of thousands of views on social networks. Extracted from a direct from the CNN channel, we see the reporter Omar Jimenez, African-American and of Colombian origin, being arrested, facing the camera, for no apparent reason. For detractors of the police, the image constitutes new proof of the racist biases of the American police forces.

The Detained Policeman

It was also Friday that the prosecution announced the indictment of Derek Chauvin for murder in the third degree and manslaughter in the second degree. He faces a maximum of 35 years in prison. He will be judged

At the same time, Democratic Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz announces a curfew in the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul for the nights of Friday and Saturday, and calls for calm. "Ashes (from recent fires, note) are the symbol of decades of suffering," he comments. Regrets also shared by former President Barack Obama: this violence against minorities should "not be normal in America in 2020", he reacts for the first time.

But in Washington, the tone is quite different. Donald Trump lashes out at protesters who he says "don't do George Floyd credit." "The looting will be immediately greeted by bullets," he threatens on Twitter, who ends up censoring the statement, which is reported as an "apology for violence." A censorship that annoys the president, and will launch him into a fury of tweets against social networks.

Under its windows, demonstrators gather for a new evening of protest. The secret services fear for the safety of the president, and decide to isolate him, in the evening, in a bunker, tell the New York Times and the Associated Press agency.

Protests spread across the country

Anger seems to have spread across the country on Saturday. While in Minneapolis, 2,500 soldiers are on the ground, a few thousand demonstrators, with #BlackLivesMatter signs on their arms, anti-Covid masks on their faces, march in the streets of big cities. New York, Dallas, Houston (city of origin of the victim), Las Vegas, Des Moines, Memphis, Portland… There are countless cities where hundreds of demonstrators gather, while restrictions related to Covid-19 are sometimes still in place.

In the street, the tension between police and demonstrators is mounting. In Minneapolis, police, equipped with riot gear, have charged protesters for the first time to keep them away from the police station where they have been meeting since the start of the week. In New York, a woman tosses a molotov cocktail in a busy police car, but leaves no one injured. In the same district, and on the same day, a police car was advancing on demonstrators who had gathered behind a barrier, again without causing any injuries. The incident further aggravates the already high anger against the police. A curfew is announced in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Chicago.

At the same time, mobilization is mounting on social networks. Michael Jordan, Lewis Hamilton, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift ... Celebrities and influencers unite to demand justice in favor of George Floyd. Some create prize pools in support of arrested protesters. Others share guides to raising awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement. Twitter, already in virtual war with Donald Trump, displays the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter in biography. Online, the debates on police violence and racial inequality are intensifying, and are even being exported to the United Kingdom and France. Donald Trump, on the other hand, sticks his finger at the radical left and the “antifa” (anti-fascist) movement, which he says are responsible for the violence.

On Sunday, as protests continue, Joe Biden, the only proclaimed Democratic candidate and Trump's main rival in November, surprises by visiting protesters in Wilmington, Delaware. “The only way to endure this pain is to turn all that suffering into resolution. As president, I will help move this conversation forward, and most importantly, I will listen, ”he said on Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us. We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us. We are a nation exhausted, but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us. The only way to bear this pain is to turn all that anguish to purpose. And as President, I will help lead this conversation - and more importantly, I will listen, just as I did today visiting the site of last night's protests in Wilmington.

A post shared by Joe Biden (@joebiden) on May 31, 2020 at 2:58 pm PDT

Philidelphia, Los Angeles, New York… Meanwhile, the clashes continue. A total of 5,000 soldiers are deployed to 15 states and to Washington. And the fears of a new Charlottesville are on many minds. In Minneapolis, a tank truck containing a "flammable or toxic substance" tries to force the passage among the demonstrators, without causing injuries. The driver's intentions remain unknown to this day.

"Law and order"

The demonstrations were even exported abroad, as in London this Sunday, or in Paris, and Bordeaux, this Monday. Internationally, many enemies of the United States are taking advantage of the crisis to criticize the "racism" which, according to them, is poisoning the country, like Iran and China.

Critics who don't seem to offend Donald Trump. After announcing the next classification of the unorganized group of "antifa" as a terrorist organization, the president again lambasted the "radical left" on Monday, working, according to him, to get the "anarchists" out of prison.

Monday evening, he went even further, qualifying the riots as "internal terrorism" and invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807. A text which allows him to resort to the army on American territory in the event of civil unrest. He promises in particular the deployment of "thousands and thousands of soldiers" in Washington, where the demonstrations were held close to the White House.

The President's strategy can be summed up in two words: “law and order”. Words which aim, according to certain analysts, to satisfy its conservative basis. Donald Trump does not forget: even in times of crisis, he remains on the electoral campaign.

Source: leparis

All news articles on 2020-06-03

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