Capital braces for protests
People across the world embrace ‘Black Lives Matter’ and call for reforms
WASHINGTON prepared for large protests yesterday, as demonstrations in the US against police brutality continued, following the death of George Floyd in police custody and crackdowns on rallies.
Multiple events were planned in different locations, including at Congress, the iconic Lincoln Memorial and the sustained protest outside the White House.
The city capped nearly a week of demonstrations against police brutality on Friday by painting the words “Black Lives Matter” in enormous bright yellow letters on the street leading to the White House, a highly visible display of the local government’s embrace of protests that has put it further at odds with President Donald Trump.
Mayor Muriel Bowser has openly supported the protests, renaming the area of the crackdown “Black Lives Matter Plaza”. She said the painting by city workers and local artists that spans two blocks is intended to send a message of support and solidarity to Americans outraged over the killing of Floyd by police in Minneapolis.
It comes as Bowser has sparred with Trump over the response to the protests.
Videos continue to emerge from numerous cities of police beating protesters at rallies, highlighting the problem of heavy-handed tactics employed by local departments around the country.
New York, like other US states, has been convulsed by unrest in the wake of Floyd’s death.
On Friday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a police reform agenda to “stop the abuse”, including banning chokeholds, with the state gripped by protests against police brutality and racism.
He said Floyd is the latest name “in a very long list”.
The bill is called Say Their Name, after the “long list of names of people we have seen who have been abused by police officers, by the justice system”, Cuomo told a daily news conference.
The governor said he wanted the New York state government to pass the bill next week. It includes transparency regarding police misconduct records, a ban on chokeholds, the criminalisation of false race-based 911 calls and the appointment of the attorney general as an independent prosecutor for police murders.
The announcement came a day after a viral video showed heavily armoured officers in the western New York city of Buffalo shoving a 75-yearold protester, who then lay on the ground with blood coming from his head as police walked past. The man was hospitalised with a head injury.
Cuomo condemned the incident, calling it “fundamentally offensive and frightening”. He also praised the subsequent suspension of two Buffalo police officers.
The Washington Times reported yesterday that Philadelphia, already struggling with Covid-19 and civil unrest, faced new challenges if police officers failed to show up for work. Some officers began talks on Friday about organising a “blue flu” protest of calling in sick in solidarity with Joseph Bologna, a police official. Bologna, who has served for more than 30 years, is expected to be charged with assault for his use of a baton against a Temple University student at a protest on Monday.
Seattle’s mayor and police chief announced they had agreed to ban the use of tear gas to disperse protesters for 30 days amid the continuing demonstrations after the death of George Floyd, Fox News reported.
“After hearing concerns about the use of CS gas for crowd control purposes earlier this week… we decided we were going to suspend its use for 30 days,” Police Chief Carmen Best said. The leaders suspended the gas until watchdog groups and oversight officials can fully review and recommend changes to policies and training for use of the chemical agent. Local health officials expressed concerns over use of tear gas and other respiratory irritants in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
In Kansas, Wichita State cancelled Ivanka Trump’s speech to technical school graduates because of criticism of President Trump’s response to protests over Floyd’s death.
Administrators at Wichita State University and WSU Tech said yesterday’s graduation would be “refocused” on the students.
Jennifer Ray, associate professor of photo media at Wichita State, wrote that President Trump has said he might use federal military troops to quell the US demonstrations and has made his “callous disregard” for minorities well known, while refusing to criticise police tactics during the demonstrations.
“We owe it to our students to stand up for the right thing when and where we can,” Ray wrote. “To our students of colour, and to me, inviting Ivanka Trump to speak right now sends the message that WSU Tech does not take diversity seriously.”
US civil rights activist the Reverend Al Sharpton told mourners that Floyd’s death and the nationwide protests it ignited marked a reckoning for America over race and justice, demanding, “Get your knee off our necks”.
Memorial tributes to Floyd in Minneapolis, where he was killed on May25, were held on Friday.
Sharpton said a Washington rally was being planned for August 28, the anniversary of the day Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech.
He said the August event would be a way of maintaining momentum as the legal process against the men charged in Floyd’s death is under way.
“It’s going to be months, if not a year, before you even go to trial. So you can’t let this peter out... otherwise you’ll end up in a year and people will go on to another story and you will not have the public notice and pressure that you need.”
And from August, he said, “It gives you a push into November, not in a partisan way, in a protecting the vote, because we’ve got to educate people on mail-in voting. We’ve got to educate people in terms of turnout.”
He said: “One of the things King’s dream was about was voting rights and gives us like 90 days before the election and a great emphasis on that, which you’re going to, in order to change laws, you’ve got to impact lawmakers and they get elected in November . ... Otherwise it’s for nothing.”
Floyd’s funeral is set for Tuesday in Houston, Texas. |