The George Floyd case, a symbol of police violence around the world

Since the death of George Floyd, an African American killed at the age of 46 during a police arrest in Minneapolis, a wave of protest has swept across the United States. Thousands of people marched across the country, from New York to Washington, via Seattle and Los Angeles, to demand an end to racial discrimination and police violence.

All united under the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter, peaceful American protesters were emulated. The indignation has crossed borders and George Floyd has become an international symbol of victims of police violence. Expressions of support have emerged in Canada, Brazil, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Switzerland and Austria.

#BlackLivesMatter: the memory of black victims

The death of George Floyd has aroused the memory of those who, like him, have been victims of police violence. Starting with France where more than 20,000 people gathered on June 3 before the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris, as well as in several provincial towns, to seek justice for Adama Traoré, the young man who died of suffocation during the '' a police arrest in Beaumont-sur-Oise (Val-d'Oise) in July 2016.

DEMONSTRATION THIS WEDNESDAY JUNE 3 MONTPELLIER PLACE DE LA COMEDIE AT 6 PM !!!! Adama Traore, George Floyd, JUSTICE NOW #BlackLivesMatter take care of yourself pic.twitter.com/iRU10Qk70r

In Canada, it is the name of Regis Korchinski-Paquet which emerged alongside that of George Floyd. The 29-year-old black woman died on May 27 after falling out of the 24th floor window of her apartment in Toronto during a police response. Thousands of people demonstrated in Toronto on Saturday to protest the death of unarmed blacks at the hands of the police.

I am heartbroken by the lack of media attn on the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet who died on May 27 while Toronto police were in her home. Is the only way the death of Black people will be taken seriously is when there are videos and pictures? #JusticeForRegis pic.twitter.com/0aC7dgPsrg

In Switzerland, demonstrations denounced the police technique of ventral plating. Internet users have in particular recalled the memory of Mike Ben Peter, a 40-year-old Nigerian, arrested by the police for drug control in February 2018 in Lausanne. Transported unconscious to the hospital, the man, married and father of two children, died the day after the police plating.

#Police Violence and #discrimination in #Switzerland. @LeTemps returns to the Mike Ben Peter case. @sylviarevello @aliciagiraudel https://t.co/SBVgaF5Lj5

The figure of George Floyd is not only brandished to denounce violence against the black community, but has been recovered by different communities to make it the symbol of oppressed minorities, in Israel, Turkey or Australia. 

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” - Martin Luther King Jr. # BarisCakan Kurdish. # GeorgeFloyd Black. # IyadHalak Palestinian.

Look up their names. pic.twitter.com/WcmG8ZPRw3

The hashtag #PalestinianLivesMatter emerged on social media after the death of Iyad Hallak. The Palestinian autistic boy was killed on May 29 by Israeli police while trying to travel to the Old City of Jerusalem, as every day, to join his school. 

#PalestinianLivesMatter he was called Eyad al-Halaq, he was 32 years old. Eyad was autistic. He had lived under occupation since his birth.
The brutality of the occupying army had been his daily life since his childhood. The savagery of this racist army will have claimed its life pic.twitter.com/2LGYnkxY4n

The death of Floyd also awakens the anger of the Kurdish community which for its part evokes the fate of Baris Cakan in Turkey. The 20-year-old Kurdish boy was killed on May 30 in Ankara after an argument with three men over a dark story of music and sound volume. The Kurdish community immediately denounced the ill-treatment of the minority in Turkey.

We stand with You .. # GeorgeFloyd #BarisCakan #TwitterKurds pic.twitter.com/VLFdIAHFxf

Several demonstrations also took place in Australia, in the capital Canberra, and in the rest of the country, to denounce discrimination against the Aboriginal native minority. Their rallying cry: #AboriginalLivesMatter. 

One death is too many. Aboriginal deaths in custody, Australia. Say their names. (some names aren't in full due to cultural reasons). #BlackLivesMatter #AboriginalLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/g2J8iAPdHr

#AllLivesMatter: Human rights abuses around the world

Finally, George Floyd has become a symbol of human rights abuses in general. In Syria, two artists seized the figure of Floyd to evoke the memory of the victims of the war, and more particularly that of the men, women and children of eastern Ghouta, killed by chemical attacks attributed to the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Aziz Asmar and Anis Hamdoun painted the portrait of Floyd on a ruined wall in Idleb, a town partially destroyed by air strikes by the Damascus regime and its Russian ally. Next to his face, they inscribed the slogan "I can't breathe" shouted by George Floyd when he was arrested. "George Floyd could not breathe like our children who died from suffocation," they told Amnesty International. 

Sending a message of solidarity to all human rights causes from Syria. pic.twitter.com/TvWJSrJETb

The two men explain that they wanted to send a message of solidarity to all "human rights causes". Like them, many insist on the importance of not "communitarising" the victims, recalling that every human life counts, whatever the skin colors, ethnic or religious origins. Another hashtag was born: #AllLivesMatter.

Faced with the communitarianism of #BlackLivesMatter and #WhiteLivesMatter, the only slogan to which we should all adhere is #AllLivesMatter 🕊 pic.twitter.com/w4d33ZdNDy

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