The United States is expecting massive rallies against racial inequality and police brutality on Saturday June 6, a day that will also be marked by a new ceremony in memory of George Floyd in Raeford, his native state from North Carolina. The marches now go beyond this one case, to denounce systemic racism and demand real change.
Large rallies are expected in many US cities, including New York, Miami and Washington, where tens of thousands of people are expected according to American media.
Police suspended and sacked
The controversy increases in the face of the repression of the demonstrations by the police. Several videos showing muscular police interventions against peaceful protesters have emerged in recent days.
The latest, broadcast Thursday evening, shows a protester firmly pushed back by two police officers and violently hitting the ground, while he is alone facing dozens of them in the city of Buffalo, in New York State . A first official statement said that the 75-year-old protester, who was bleeding profusely and seemed to have lost consciousness, had "Stumbled and fallen".
Before the outrage, the two police officers involved were suspended. New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has called for their dismissal and the local prosecutor has opened an investigation. In New York itself, Mayor Bill de Blasio, booed Thursday at a tribute ceremony for George Floyd in Brooklyn for failing to condemn police brutality against non-violent demonstrators, has promised to investigate the reported facts and indicated that disciplinary action would follow. Two officers have been suspended, city police chief Dermot Shea said on Friday "Disturbing incidents". One is seen in a video pushing a woman to the ground, the other removing a mask from a protester and using pepper spray against him.
On the other side of the country, in Washington State, the mayor of Tacoma asked for the dismissal of police officers implicated in the death of a black man on March 3, after the broadcasting of a new video seeming to show them in trying to go after the man, flattened on the ground by the road.
In Indianapolis, Midwest, police were investigating after another video showing police officers removing batons and pepper spray when a protester was arrested on Sunday.
Supervised police repression
In anticipation of the new protests, the Seattle police chief has announced a 30-day ban on the use of tear gas.
Minneapolis police also announced that they will now ban "Choke plugs", a dangerous technique used in particular in 2014 in New York on Eric Garner, another black man who died at the hands of the police, whose cries " I can not breathe " were also spoken by George Floyd when he died.
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