Global anti-racism protests expand
Sylvia Hui and Ed White
Far-right activists scuffled with police and other protesters Saturday in London and Paris as more demonstrations in support of Black Lives Matter unfolded across Europe. In the U.S., people gathered after a police shooting left a man dead outside an Atlanta fastfood restaurant.
Tensions were high in cities around the globe, nearly three weeks after George Floyd, a Black man, died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck. European protesters sought to express solidarity against police brutality and racism in the U.S. and to confront bias in their own countries.
In Paris, police stopped protesters from confronting far-right activists who unfurled a huge banner from a building denouncing “anti-white racism.” The banner was partly torn down by residents, with one raising a fist in victory.
A Black Lives Matter group in London called off a demonstration, saying the presence of counter-protesters would make it unsafe. Right-wing activists and soccer fans descended on the U.K. capital, saying they wanted to guard historical monuments that have been targeted by anti-racism protesters.
Many gathered around the statue of wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the Cenotaph war memorial, which were boarded up Friday to protect them from vandalism. Officials feared far-right activists would seek confrontations with anti-racism protesters under the guise of protecting statues.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson called Churchill a hero but acknowledged that he “sometimes expressed opinions that were and are unacceptable to us today.”
Some activists threw bottles and cans at officers, while others tried to push through police barriers. The mostly white crowd chanted “England” and sang “God Save the Queen” while riot police on horses pushed them back.
Police fired tear gas and blocked people from marching through Paris to protest racial injustice. The march was led by supporters of Adama Traore, a French Black man who died in police custody in 2016. No one has been charged in his death.
In the U.S., police said a 27-year-old man whose car was blocking a Wendy’s restaurant drive-thru was fatally shot late Friday after resisting Atlanta officers. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Rayshard Brooks failed a sobriety test and struggled with officers who tried to arrest him. A small crowd gathered to protest.
Hundreds rallied in Prague for the second straight weekend in support of protests in the U.S. Under occasional rain, they chanted “Black lives matter,” “no justice, no peace” and “no Trump, No KKK, no fascist U.S.A.” The event was organized by an informal group of Americans living in Prague, along with several Czech groups.
The threat of rain and lack of a permit cut the size of crowds in Perth, the capital of Western Australia, but an estimated 5,000 people still turned out to honor Floyd and remember indigenous Australians who died in custody.
Hannah Mcglade, a human rights lawyer and activist, called for an independent investigation into indigenous deaths.
“They told us not to come. They told us to be silent. We will not be silent,” Mcglade said.