The protests in front of the White house, which continued until late into Sunday evening. It came again to clashes with the police. Protesters chanted “No peace without justice”. Already in the days before hundreds of protesters were dragged in front of the White house, to protest against police violence and racism. According to the defense Ministry, in the meantime, a total of 5000 members of the national guard were mobilized to bring the situation under control. In addition to the capital city of Washington, the soldiers are used in more than a dozen States.
The protests in Washington were part of nationwide unrest that erupted after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The 46-year-old African-American died on the 25. In may, after a police officer knelt over eight minutes long on his neck, and his Cries of “I can’t breathe!” ignored had. The reason for the stake: Floyd wanted to pay in a supermarket with an allegedly counterfeit $ 20 bill.
The death of Floyd’s is reminiscent of the case of Eric Garner. The African-Americans died in December 2014 after a police officer had taken him at the time of arrest from back in the chokehold. Before he died, lying on the floor, called Garner desperately also several times “I can’t breathe!” The cases are just two examples in a long list of unarmed black Americans killed by white police officers.
“If we are silent, we are complicit”
“The driving force behind the protests is the Frustration of the people,” says Dr. Bryant Marks, a psychology Professor at the traditionally African-American University, Morehouse College, attended Martin Luther King. “You feel hopeless and helpless. And many police officers and other members of our society don’t understand.”
Marks said the DW that US President Donald Trump contributions just to more understanding between African Americans and police officers. Trump described the participants of the riots as “thugs”, a derogatory term for a Gangster who is practically used exclusively for black men. The President expressed Floyd’s family, although his sympathy, but Marks thinks it’s not very convincing. Compassionate words you hear from the President only if he is reading it, the Professor of psychology. “When he speaks freely, or in his Tweets, it looks to be the real me.”
Trump is criticized from many sides. With his behavior he’ll give the fanaticism of oxygen, wrote the democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Twitter. “If we are silent, we are complicit in these cycles of violence continue,” said Biden in a further Tweet.
not prejudice, only in the case of police officers
Blacks are compared to Whites in the US, only worse off when it comes to statistics on police brutality. You have, on average, more health problems and less access to good medical care. A consequence is that, In the Corona pandemic in the United States so far, significantly more African Americans than White the Virus have died – about 23 percent of all victims are black, yet African-Americans make up only about 13 percent of the U.S. population.
“We in the USA are worrying inequalities in terms of health,” said Dr. Ashwin Vasan the DW. Vasan a Professor of medicine at Columbia University and a physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital. “The Virus has exacerbated these inequalities, which has been around for centuries, now,” said Vasan. The killing of George Floyd, the population group that lost in the past few months, more friends and family by the Coronavirus met, to the Mark.
you Can change the protesters, which is now against racism on the street, to the centuries-old injustices in their country? Marks considers it possible, when the protests still remains a little persistence and the topic in the media, that law behaviour of the proposals on Police and controls of officials could be in some Federal States in the election in November to vote.
He said, however, that it is enough if police officers hold to stricter rules and training must go through. The prejudice especially against young African-American men were spread throughout the country. “If we want to get this Situation really under control,” says Marks, “you must change the whole of society.”
author: Carla Bleiker
*The post “George Floyd protests: “people feel hopeless and helpless”” is published by Deutsche Welle. Contact with the executives here.
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