Additional charges laid against police officers in George Floyd’s death
Keep COVID-19 in mind when protesting, Freeland says Thousands in Europe decry racial injustice
LONDON—Thousands of people demonstrated in London on Wednesday against police violence and racial injustice following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which has set off days of unrest in the United States.
In Athens, police fired tear gas to disperse youths who threw firebombs and stones at them outside the U.S. Embassy toward the end of an otherwise peaceful protest by about 4,000 people. No injuries or arrests were reported.
The London demonstration began in Hyde Park, with protesters chanting “Black lives matter,” before many of them later marched through the streets, blocking traffic.
Some of them converged on Parliament and the nearby Downing Street office of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. A few scuffles erupted between protesters and police outside the street’s heavy metal gates.
Inside, Johnson told a news conference that he was “appalled and sickened” by Floyd’s death on May 25 when a white Minneapolis officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee on the handcuffed Black man’s neck for nearly nine minutes.
Earlier, “Star Wars” actor John Boyega, who was born in Britain to Nigerian parents and grew up in south London’s Peckham neighbourhood, pleaded tearfully for demonstrators to stay peaceful.
“Because they want us to mess up, they want us to be disorganized, but not today,” he said.
Boyega recalled the case of Stephen Lawrence, an 18-yearold Black man from southeast London who was stabbed to death in 1993 as he waited for a bus. The case against his attackers collapsed in 1996, and a government report cited institutional racism by the London police force as a key factor in its failure to thoroughly investigate the killing.
“Black lives have always mattered,” Boyega said. “We have always been important. We have always meant something. We have always succeeded regardless and now is the time. I ain’t waiting.”
Police appeared to keep a low profile during the demonstration and the ensuing marches.
Earlier, the U.K.’s most senior police officer said she was “appalled” by Floyd’s death and “horrified” by the subsequent violence in U.S. cities.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said the London force would “continue with our tradition of policing using minimum force necessary.”