The death of George Floyd awoke deep anger in the United States and elsewhere. This 46-year-old African American, asphyxiated by a white police officer in Minneapolis during his filmed arrest, has become the international symbol of victims of police violence. "I can't breathe" (in French: "I can't breathe"), his last words, are chanted in demonstrations in Europe, Canada, Japan… His face is brandished on placards, or painted, as in Syria, on fragments of concrete.
Sending a message of solidarity to all human rights causes from Syria. pic.twitter.com/TvWJSrJETb
- Amnesty International (@amnesty) June 4, 2020Beside George Floyd sometimes other names resonate: in France, it is that of Adama Traore who resurfaced in rallies against police brutality and racism. In Mexico, that of Giovanni Lopez. In other countries, protesters also use the movement to denounce the oppression of local minorities. Like Australia, where thousands of people parade for the Aboriginal cause. Overview, not exhaustive, of the various claims in the world and of the names and faces that have become symbols.
In Canada, "Justice for Regis"
I am heartbroken by the lack of media attn on the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet who died on May 27 while Toronto police were in her home. Is the only way the death of Black people will be taken seriously is when there are videos and pictures? #JusticeForRegis pic.twitter.com/0aC7dgPsrg
- Emelyana Titarenko (@yanatitarenko) June 2, 2020"Justice for Regis," asked Canadians at the rallies. Regis Korchinski-Paquet, 29, died on May 27 in Toronto, two days after the deadly arrest of George Floyd. The young black woman, who suffered from mental disorders, had quarreled with her family and began to have an epilepsy attack when her mother decided to call for help. During the police intervention, Regis Korchinski-Paquet fell from the 24th floor of his building.
According to the family's lawyer, the young Torontoise asked to use the bathroom. The police then allegedly followed her inside the apartment, but did not allow her mother or brother to enter. Regis Korchinski-Paquet then fell from the balcony.
“It was not an appeal for a criminal offense. There was no weapon. She did not pose a danger to the police, said the lawyer. We must therefore explain why Regis died. It's very suspicious. The Special Investigations Unit has been seized of the case, reports Radio Canada. Since then, protests have followed one another in Toronto, Ottawa and even Vancouver.
In France, the Adama Traoré affair
In France, the American drama has revived the memory of Adama Traoré, a young black man who died in 2016 after an arrest by gendarmes in Beaumont-sur-Oise (Val-d'Oise). "Today, when we fight for George Floyd, we fight for Adama Traoré," chanted his sister Assa Traoré, during the unprecedented mobilization that gathered more than 20,000 people in Paris, Tuesday, June 2.
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On the day of his death, the young man celebrated his 24th birthday. He had tried to escape from the police force engaged in an operation which targeted his brother, before being caught by the gendarmes. "We were on three to control it," later said one of the soldiers to the investigators, accrediting the thesis of a ventral tackle.
VIDEO. 20,000 demonstrators gathered for Adama Traoré
When they arrived at the Persan gendarmerie (Val-d'Oise), the firefighters had discovered the victim lying on his stomach, handcuffed behind his back, in respiratory arrest. The young man died two hours after his arrest.
The Adama Traoré affair has turned into a long battle of expertise, between that ordered by the justice system which puts the police force out of the question and those commissioned by the family who dispute these conclusions. During the numerous demonstrations organized in France since the death of George Floyd, the flocked “Justice for Adama” t-shirts often appear in the crowd.
Belly tackle denounced in Switzerland
During the demonstrations against racism and police brutality in Switzerland, many internet users drew a parallel between the death of George Floyd and that of Mike Ben Peter, again denouncing the ventral tackling technique.
Like the 46-year-old African American, Mike Ben Peter was arrested in February 2018 in Lausanne, face down, hands behind his back, the weight of the police immobilizing him on the ground. Transported unconscious to the hospital, this 40-year-old Nigerien died the next day. An expert asserted at the end of May that the causes of death were multifactorial and not solely linked to the technique of arrest. Conclusions rejected by the lawyer for the family of the deceased.
Der Fall von Mike Ben Peter zeigt exemplarisch: #Polizeigewalt gegen Schwarze betrifft die Schweiz genauso wie die USA.https: //t.co/R9v1z9DkUH
- Berner Zeitung (@BernerZeitung) June 4, 2020"The deaths of Mike Ben Peter as well as that of George Floyd provoke cases of conscience in the ranks of the Swiss police, said Frédéric Maillard, trainer and governance advisor to several Swiss police, in the newspaper Le Temps. We know that disproportionate and discriminatory practices exist within generalist patrols. Many police officers told me that they had come close to the incident, resulting in serious trauma. "
In Mexico, "justicia para Giovanni"
In Mexico, protesters demanded “justice for Giovanni,” a young man whose death in police custody sparked outrage on social media and on the streets.
Giovanni Lopez, a construction worker, was arrested in Guadalajara (west) because he was not wearing a mask to protect himself from the coronavirus, according to several sources. The prosecution, for its part, mentioned an arrest on "administrative" grounds. Detained overnight, his family found him dead, his body swollen, a bullet stuck in his foot. The case dates back to early May, but relatives of the victim released it last week.
As protests became violent in the country, Enrique Alfaro, governor of the state of Jalisco, where Guadalajara is located, promised on June 5 that the culprits would be punished. “These three people belonged to the municipal police of Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos, of which we took control. Today, they are being detained for their alleged participation in the death of Giovanni López, ”he tweeted two days later.
Giovanni Lopez was a man from Guadalajara, Mexico who was murdered by the police for not wearing a mask. He had a mask in his hand. # JusticiaParaGiovanni
Say his name. pic.twitter.com/ng2bxQIT6Z
In Japan too, "racism exists"
The Black Lives Matter movement also found an echo in Japan. Last weekend, several hundred people marched through the streets of Tokyo and Osaka in support of the American protesters, but also to denounce the treatment of a man who claims to have been brutalized and tackled to the ground by the police during his arrest.
The latter, a 33-year-old Turkish man of Kurdish origin, whose name has not been released, said he was arrested by Tokyo police on May 22. An officer then reportedly knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, he told Reuters.
"I couldn't breathe. If my friend hadn't filmed ( Editor's note: the video was seen by Reuters ), I don't know what would have happened, "he added, adding that the meeting had left him with bruises on his neck and back. The young man filed a complaint.
"Palestinian Lives Matter"
In Israel and the Palestinian Territories, the hashtag #PalestinianLivesMatter has spread in recent days on social networks, along the lines of the Black Lives Matter. The wave of indignation was born from the death of Iyad Hallak (sometimes written Eyad Al-Hallaq), an autistic Palestinian.
The 32-year-old was shot dead on May 30 in Jerusalem by Israeli police who believed he was wrongly armed. He was heading towards the old town in order to go, as every morning, to his specialized center. Rarely, Israelis came to show their support for the family of the deceased on the day of his funeral, reports the correspondent for Le Figaro in Israel.
Thousands of protesters marched in Tel Aviv on Saturday against the government's plan to annex sections of the occupied West Bank on Saturday. They knelt in memory of "George Floyd, Iyad Hallak and all the victims of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict".
In Australia, justice for Floyd and the Aborigines
In Australia, the organizers of the Black Lives Matter events linked to the death of George Floyd find several echoes in their country: they wanted to denounce the very high imprisonment rate among the Aborigines, and the deaths - more than 400 in the last thirty years - members of this community while detained by the police.
While acknowledging that more needs to be done on the Aboriginal issue, the Prime Minister on Friday rejected any parallel to racial inequality in the United States. "Let's treat this as Australians and not take ownership of what's going on in other countries," he said.
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