Rally in Europe against racism, police brutality Confederate statue toppled, urinated on

Berlin, June 7: Thousands of people took to the streets of Barcelona, Madrid and Rome on Sunday in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, which has drawn protests against racism and police brutality around the world.

The rally in Rome’s sprawling People’s Square was noisy but peaceful, with the majority of protesters wearing masks to protect against Covid-19. Participants listened to speeches and held up handmade placards saying “Black Lives Matter” and “It’s a White Problem.”

The rally came a day after largely peaceful antiracism protests took place in cities from Australia to Europe to the US in response to the May 25 death of American George Floyd.

Demonstrations were being held Sunday across the UK, including one outside the US Embassy in London south of the River Thames. In Hong Kong, about 20 people staged a rally in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement on Sunday outside the US consulate in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.

Floyd’s body in Houston ahead of funeral Houston, June 7:

Richmond, June 7: A small group of demonstrators toppled a statue of a Confederate general in the the former capital of the Confederacy late Saturday, following a day of largely peaceful protests in the Virginia city.

The statue of General Williams Carter Wickham was pulled from its pedestal in Monroe Park, a Richmond police spokeswoman said. She said she did not know if there were any arrests or damage done to the statue. A rope had been tied around the Confederate statue, which has stood since 1891, The

Richmond Times-Dispatch reported, adding that someone urinated on the statue after it was pulled down. Photos and video showed the what appeared to be red paint splashed or sprayed on the statue.

In 2017, some of Wickham’s descendants urged the city to remove the statue. Confederate memorials began coming down after a white supremacist killed nine black people at a Bible study in a church in South Carolina in 2015 and then again after the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.