Outrage flares over racial discrimination in US as police kill another black man
The killing of another black man raises questions over the ongoing systemic injustice and racial discrimination by U.S. police against black people in the country
THE killing of a black man by U.S. police in Minneapolis has raised tensions and anger in the United States at the increase in black people suffering from racist treatment, police brutality and arbitrary killings. Four police officers were sacked Tuesday as a video showing one of them kneeling on the neck of a handcuffed black man who later died sparked street protests in the midwestern U.S. city. Protesters, many wearing face masks because of the coronavirus outbreak, held signs saying “Justice for George Floyd” and “Black Lives Matter” during a rally near the scene of Monday’s death in custody.
IN THE video filmed by a bystander, a shirtless Floyd, thought to be in his 40s, is pinned on the ground by a white officer who kneels on his neck for more than five minutes.
“Your knee in my neck. I can’t breathe ... Mama. Mama,” Floyd pleaded. Floyd slowly grew silent and motionless, unable to move even as the officers taunted him to “get up and get in the car.” He was taken to hospital where he was later declared dead.
Floyd’s death recalled the 2014 choking death of New Yorker Eric Garner by police, who was being detained for illegally selling cigarettes. His death helped spark the nationwide Black Lives Matter movement.
The U.S. witnessed nationwide protests against police brutality in previous years, which first took place in Ferguson, Missouri over the death of Michael Brown, 18, who was fatally shot by a police officer in August 2014 and later in Baltimore in the wake of peaceful demonstrations over the death of Freddie Gray on April 19, 2015. In Baltimore, violent clashes took place between police and angry crowds on Baltimore’s streets after the funeral of Gray, a 25-year-old black man who was fatally injured while in police custody.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the Minneapolis case showed that police in the
U.S. continue to use harsh treatment against African-Americans accused of minor charges. “This tragic video shows how little meaningful change has emerged to prevent police from taking the lives of black people,” said ACLU policing specialist Paige Fernandez. “Even in places like Minneapolis, where chokeholds are technically banned, black people are targeted by the police for low-level offenses and are subjected to unreasonable, unnecessary violence.”
Black men in the U.S. are 2 1/2 times more likely to be killed by the police than their white counterparts, according to a new study published in August 2019 that quantified racial disparities in law enforcement violence. Black men had the highest fatality risk, with the researchers estimating one fatality from police use of force for every 1,000 male births. The group was also 2 1/2 times more likely to be killed than white men, while black women were 1.4 times more likely to be killed than white women.
The risks were even more pronounced for young men: More than 1.5% of all deaths of black men between the ages of 20 and 24 were caused by police, dropping slightly to 1.3% between 25 and 29. Police violence is therefore one of the leading causes of death for these demographics, just behind cancer.