• United States, commemoration for Floyd in Fayetteville
  • From the United States to the rest of the world, protests for Floyd's death cross borders

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June 06, 2020 Protests in Washington over the death of George Floyd - the African American killed in Minneapolis by a policeman who choked him on the ground with his neck squeezed with one knee - and against racism they begin to attract more and more people. Demonstrations began on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, outside the White House and throughout the city center. The capital of the United States has closed some roads to traffic in anticipation of the huge crowds that will pass through this sultry Saturday which is an early summer.

Washington DC was the location where police forcefully cracked down on demonstrations outside the White House on an almost daily basis. Mayor Muriel Bowser asked President Donald Trump to remove troops and federal forces from the city, claiming that the protests were largely peaceful and that further police presence could cause alarm, in addition to the mega demonstration in Washington, today there are plans in almost every city in the country.

Tens of thousands of people continue to demonstrate in the US against systemic racism and police brutality, after days of protests that have resulted in riots and violence. And the instances of the Black Lives Matter movement are gaining strength even overseas, with demonstrations in Asia, Europe and Australia.

At the origin of the new wave is the killing of the unarmed African American George Floyd in Minneapolis, who died during an arrest in which a policeman for eight minutes crushed his neck on the ground with one knee. The video went around the world and rekindled anger over inequality and racism against African Americans, after the black population was also hit proportionately more severely than in the white in the Covid-19 pandemic.

A few hours before a new public funeral ceremony took place in North Carolina to remember the 46-year-old Floyd, and before new protests parade in American cities, Europe called for an end to institutional racism. In the square afrodiscendenti and white, together. In Berlin , at least 15 thousand people were counted by the police at Alexander Platz, who scanned Floyd's name and raised signs such as 'Stop police brutality' and 'I can't breathe'. In Paris, thousands of people challenged the ban on demonstrations linked to the pandemic, gathering near the US embassy under riot police control. In London , tens of thousands of demonstrators in Parliament Square remembered Floyd and other people who died during arrests in the country. Many knelt raising their fists, chanting "Silence is violence". Most of the participants wore protective masks and many attempted to adhere to social distancing by forming small groups. Fifteen thousand demonstrators in Manchester , 2 thousand in Cardiff.

In Australia , violence against Floyd, and before him others like Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin and many others, sparked protests over the discrimination suffered by the local indigenous population. In Sydney, the crowd protested peacefully against the deaths of the natives in police custody, while in Brisbane agents closed some streets after 30,000 people poured into the center. Indigenous people are the most disadvantaged ethnic minority in Australia, with a higher than average infant mortality and disease rate, as well as lower life expectancy, education and employment.

Floyd's name has also resonated in Italy, in Seoul, Monaco, Frankfurt, Cologne, Rio del Janeiro.

Meanwhile, new protests are planned in the US, Washington and New York City. In the Big Apple the tension is particularly high due to the curfew, which the demonstrators did not respect on Friday: but the mayor Bill de Blasio promised that it will remain in force at the weekend. And there is a fear that anger will explode violently even for a new video, which shows yet another abuse of an African American. On the night of March 3, the Tacoma police in Washington state may have caused the death of Manuel Ellis, who in the video says he cannot breathe, just as happened to Floyd.

Four New York City police officers were removed from office and assigned other duties following their handling of demonstrations in Brooklyn in the early days of protests over the death of George Floyd. A source from the New York Police Department reported on CNN.