A Summary on BLM Protests
Written on June 29th, 2020 by {"login"=>"jcbitshyd", "email"=>"journal@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in", "display_name"=>"Journal Club, BPHC", "first_name"=>"", "last_name"=>""}A) A brief history of brutality:
Americans of various races, ethnicities, ages and classes have been subjected to police brutality over the course of history, yet the major victims of these incidents by far are the African Americans. One of the primary reasons for this is, unsurprisingly, anti-black racism, but there are other important factors to be taken into account, like the unique urban police department culture, which stresses on group solidarity, loyalty, and an aggressive attitude against any challenge to an officer's authority. For rookie officers to be accepted and promoted, they often need to adopt the various practices and attitudes of the department, which have historically been infused with racism towards minority groups in general and African Americans in particular.
Incidents of police brutality against black people first surged during the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban areas of the North and the West in the early twenties. Being unaccustomed to the sudden increase in the black population, coupled with ingrained racist stereotypes, the northern police departments, reflecting the thoughts of the majority white population of those areas, acted upon the assumption that African Americans, especially African American men, had a tendency towards criminal behaviour, thus justifying their use of unnecessary force and extralegal measures while dealing with the members of the black community.
These incidents intensified in the aftermath of World War II, when the victory of the forces of democracy instilled hopes in the hearts of black people who had served the Allied troops (albeit in segregated regiments) that the time for greater freedom and democracy for the African Americans had finally come. As the black population started raising its voice and demanding their human rights, the white police officers became more prone towards seeing themselves as guardians of the white communities. And thus the brutality against black people increased. The civil rights movement of the ‘60s and escalation in urban crimes in the ‘70s and ‘80s only enforced this perception, and extralegal measures to restrain African Americans continue to be an issue in law enforcement in the 21st century.
This all came to a head in 2014, when the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, the latter having died after being under a prolonged chokehold by a police officer, in a case with eerie similarities to that of George Floyd, resulted in antibrutality activist starting an important social movement, Black Lives Matter, to protest against these acts of discrimination against black people.
B) The George Floyd Case - A Sequence of Events
On May 25, George Floyd, 46, bought a pack of cigarettes from Cup Foods, a grocery store in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The employee at Cup Foods felt that the $20 bill handed to him by Floyd was a counterfeit , so he confronted him, but Floyd refused to give back the cigarettes. So the employee, following shop protocols, called 911, telling the cops that Floyd seemed “drunk, not in control of himself”, according to the prosecutor’s report.
Soon a police car arrived on the scene, and two police officers, Thomas Lane and J Alexander Kueng, walk towards Floyd’s car, and Mr. Lane pulled out his gun at Floyd (No reason has been given yet as to why he felt it necessary to do that). They pull him out of the car and handcuff him. The report states that Floyd initially “resisted being handcuffed” but became compliant afterwards. However, as the cops tried to put him inside the squad car, he “stiffened up”, saying he was claustrophobic.
This was the time when another car showed up, and two more officers, Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao, following which a struggle ensued between the cops and Geroge Floyd. During the struggle, Chauvin pulled Floyd out of the passenger seat of the squad car, causing him to fall face first on the side of the road. He then proceeded to kneel on Floyd’s neck, while two of the other officers restrained his hands and torso. For 8 minutes and 46 seconds Chauvin continued to kneel on Floyd’s neck, while Floyd kept on pleading “I can’t breathe”. This was also the time around which passers by started filming the incident and repeatedly asking the cops to let go of Floyd. Meanwhile, George Floyd went unresponsive, but Chauvin still wouldn’t let go, and by the time the cops relented and sent Floyd in an ambulance to the Hennepin County Medical Center, it was too late. George Floyd was dead. The county attributed the cause of death to “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression”
C) Aftermath and Protests -
The day after George's death, May 26 was the 1st night of protest in Minneapolis where a crowd of thousands of people marched to the 3rd Precinct of the Minneapolis PD. Participants used posters and slogans with phrases such as "Justice for George", "I Can't Breathe", and "Black Lives Matter". A makeshift memorial was built at the place of his death. The FBI decided to review the case at the request of Minneapolis PD while Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan demanded justice and called the video "disturbing".On the day after, all 4 cops involved in the incident were fired. This decision was supported by Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and former Vice President Joe Biden. Meanwhile, the protests spread throughout America and it seemed as if everyone forgot the pandemic. Due to looting and excessive violence, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was forced to sign an executive order activating the Minnesota National Guard and further a curfew for the entire Twin Cities region on the following day. On May 29, Derek Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and third-degree manslaughter in Floyd's death.
During a live broadcast at the site of protests in Minneapolis, a black CNN journalist, Omar Jimenez was taken into custody for failing to move back from the position where they were reporting after being ordered to, despite their media credentials being visible and valid, and their agreeing to move where directed. A vigil was held outside the Arizona Dept. of Public Safety in honour of Dion Johnson, who was shot and killed by a DPS trooper. Trump was criticised for his tweet where he called the Minneapolis protestors thugs and warned that when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Shortly after, protesters gathered around the White House which went under lockdown. President Trump was escorted to hide in an underground bunker, where he stayed for almost an hour. US Attorney General Bill Barr claimed that far-left extremists and anarchists are behind the violent protests against police brutality in more than a dozen cities. Trump described the death of George Floyd as a grave tragedy and added that Floyd’s memory had been dishonoured by rioters, looters and anarchists. In Genesee County, Michigan, Sheriff Chris Swanson laid down his baton, riot gear and marched with the protesters as he wanted it to be a “peaceful march, not a riot".
By May 31, the National Guard had been sent to over 20 states to quell violence. Anonymous, the decentralized hacker collective, had successfully disabled the Minneapolis Police Department website in an effort to get justice for Floyd. On June 1, an independent autopsy determined that Floyd's death was a homicide caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression that led to a lack of blood flow to the brain which confirmed the cops' guilt. On Jun 2, Minnesota's Department of Human Rights files a civil rights the charge related to Floyd's death and launches an investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department leading to charging the other three officers involved with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter while Chauvin receiving an additional second-degree murder charge.
All living former United States Presidents have released statements in reaction to the killing of George Floyd. Barack Obama called for a new normal that ends the legacy of "bigotry and unequal treatment'', through the Clinton foundation, Bill stated that it is impossible not to feel grief and anger for what happened, Jimmy Carter asked people with power to stand up against racially discriminatory police and justice system and George W. Bush issued a 500-word statement which read in part that they are “anguished by the brutal suffocation of George Floyd and disturbed by the injustice and fear that suffocate our country" . People from several other countries like Canada, UK, France and Netherlands joined in on the protests to bring justice to what happened to George Floys as well as for several other incidents in their own country. Several world leaders like Justin Trudeu(Canada PM), Borris Johnson(UK PM), Pedro Sánchez(Spain PM), Jacinda Ardern(New Zealand PM), Mark Rutte(Netherlands PM) have also publicly criticized the police brutality in the US and stood in solidarity against racial descrimination. Religious leaders Dalai Lama and Pope Francis too condemned the killing of George Floyd.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/timeline-impact-george-floyds-death-minneapolis/story?id=70999322
https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2020/06/02/photos-thousands-march-in-wake-of-george-floyds-death-from-amsterdam-to-tokyo/#6b38d8d6843c
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/31/us/flint-michigan-protest-police-trnd/index.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52861726
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Police-Brutality-in-the-United-States-2064580
D) Protest demands -
With these protests so widespread, a question pertains as to what do these people want, what are they protesting for? These protestors have some demands that are specific to the region they live in while others are country-wide and even worldwide. There have been demands all over America to defund the police. This radical idea is a product of how increased policing has eaten up so much state and national resources at the expense of investment in black and brown communities. Other demands include a national prohibition on chokeholds, the creation of a national public database of abusive police officers and an end to qualified immunity, a doctrine that prevents police from being held liable in certain cases for breaking the law. In Minneapolis, where the demonstrations began on May 26 after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police, protesters are demanding a total overhaul—perhaps even a dismantling—of the police department. In Louisville, Kentucky, demonstrators are pushing for the arrest and conviction of the officers involved in the death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman who was shot and killed by police in a botched no-knock raid. In Philadelphia, organizers want a recent $23 million budget increase for law enforcement to be converted into more funding for public schools and community programs.
These demands are most definitely the need of the hour for ensuring the welfare of the black population of USA. Yet, as easy as it may seem on paper, implementing these reforms will be a pretty uphill task. Defanging an institution as deeply rooted as the American police force will take a lot of perseverance and guts as well as standing up to a significant percentage of the population that still turns a blind eye towards the many atrocities committed by police officers against African Americans and other minorities.
E) An Indian Perspective
And while on the subject of police brutality, let us take a look at a case closer home. On June 19, P Jayaraj, a trader from Sathankulam, Thoothukudi district, was arrested by the police for allegedly keeping his mobile phone showroom open in the evening, violating lockdown restrictions. While verbally abusing and physically assaulting him with batons, the police also roughed up his son Fenix, who had arrived on the spot to try and rescue his father. After thrashing the duo, the officers took them to the police station, where, according to their relatives, Fenix and Jayaraj were thrashed again even as the relatives looked on from the entrance of the police station. While the details of what happened to them in custody remains a bit unclear, it is alleged that they suffered third-degree torture at the hands of the police. While in custody, Fenix suffered an internal haemorrhage and became unconscious on Monday, June 22. Though he was rushed to the Kovilpatti Government Hospital, he died around 9 p.m.
Jayaraj too developed “chest pain” even as he was in the prison, and was admitted to the Kovilpatti Government Hospital where he died around 8 a.m. on Tuesday, June 23.
The deaths have triggered unrest among the residents of Sathankulam, and various politicians and celebrities have also raised their voices against the brutality meted out towards the father-son duo. However, no FIRs have been filed against the officers responsible as of now.
Police brutality is a serious issue even in India, but unfortunately it gets far less attention over here than in the US and other countries. Hopefully, the protests being conducted in the rest of the world will also force the people of India to take notice of the misdeeds committed by their own police.