Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has announced a Fulton County emergency regime, centered on half a million Atlanta. In the near future, the US National Guard troops will be introduced into the city. The reason for this decision was the riots that began in the region after the death of 46-year-old African American George Floyd during a police detention.
"At the request of Mayor (Atlanta. - RT ) Keisha Bottoms, and after consulting with law enforcement and emergency services, I declared an emergency in Fulton County to engage up to 500 National Guard fighters in Georgia to protect people and property in Atlanta," Kemp posted on his Twitter.
At the request of Mayor @ Keisha Bottoms & in consultation with public safety & emergency preparedness officials, I have issued a State of Emergency for Fulton County to activate as many as 500 @GeorgiaGuard troops to protect people & property in Atlanta. (1/2)
- Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) May 30, 2020The state governor said that the National Guard will provide assistance to local law enforcement agencies, "which are tirelessly working to suppress illegal activities and restore peace." Kemp emphasized that Georgia’s leadership will provide Fulton County with “all available resources.”
Manslaughter
Fulton is not the first region of the United States where an emergency mode has been introduced in recent days. On May 29, an emergency was declared in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was in this city on May 25 that a tragic incident occurred with an African American George Floyd - a man died after ill-treatment by law enforcement officers.
According to eyewitnesses, during the arrest, one of the police officers pressed the black American with his knee to the ground, pressing hard on his neck. Floyd said he could not breathe, but law enforcement officers ignored his words and the calls of others to ease the pressure. As a result, the man lost consciousness and later died in intensive care.
The investigation into the death of Floyd involved the prosecutor of Minnesota and the FBI. Police officer Derek Chaven, who crushed Floyd's neck, is charged with murder.
After the death of an African American in Minneapolis, Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, San Jose, Houston and other cities of the United States, demonstrations of black people began, escalating into clashes with police and pogroms.
According to media reports, during the riots fired from firearms. On May 29, the Santa Clara County Deputy Sheriff opened fire on a sports utility vehicle that shot down several demonstrators. On the same day, one man was killed in a protest center in Detroit. The police have not yet detained the shooter, but denied any involvement in the incident.
In an interview with RT, HSE professor Alexander Domrin said that, judging by the information available, Minneapolis police officers committed an unintentional murder and must be punished for this.
“For starters, it’s important to understand why Floyd was detained, how great was the danger that emanated from him. In general, in the USA it is customary to firmly detain suspicious persons. And the technique that law enforcement officers kept the African American in use is constantly used. But in the situation with the unfortunate Floyd, we have a clear excess of permissible force, ”says Domrin.
Racial Riots
According to experts, incidents with harsh detentions of black Americans regularly occur in the United States, which periodically result in their death and lead to mass protests of the population.
The situation did not change even during the presidency of Barack Obama (2009—2017). Although the 44th head of the White House recognized the systemic nature of the problems in the law enforcement system and did not hide the fact that policemen kill African-Americans twice as often as whites.
So, shortly before Obama's inauguration in Auckland, California, police officer Johannes Meserle shot a 22-year-old Oscar Grant in the back. This death triggered a series of riots. Then the law enforcement officer received two years in prison for unintentional murder.
February 26, 2012 in Sandford (Florida) patrol George Zimmerman shot dead 17-year-old Traivon Martin, who was returning from the store. Zimmerman was eventually acquitted, but the death of a teenager received a huge public outcry.
- Police car riots in Baltimore after the murder of Freddy Gray
- Reuters
- © Shannon Stapleton
Speaking at a meeting of the House of Representatives in March 2012, dark-skinned Democrat Bobby Rush associated Martin’s murder with racial segregation and stereotypes about the appearance of black citizens who are perceived by the police as potential law-breakers.
It is noteworthy that, before the assassination of Martin, Zimmerman himself had problems with the law. In particular, he was faced with allegations of domestic violence. Nevertheless, after the murder of a black teenager, the patrolman was found not guilty, which provoked a riot in several major US cities.
The most widespread protests and riots involving black people against police brutality occurred in the second term of the Obama presidency. They were caused by the killings of 43-year-old Eric Garner in July 2014, 18-year-old Michael Brown in August 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice in November 2014, 23-year-old black Thaddeus McCarroll and 25-year-old Freddie Gray in April 2015 .
In 2016, 23-year-old Silville Smith and 43-year-old Kate Lamont Scott died at the hands of the police. These tragic incidents occurred in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) and Charlotte (North Carolina).
Since the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States, the situation with the excessive use of force against African Americans has not changed significantly. In particular, according to official statistics previously analyzed by The Washington Post, 19 unarmed blacks became victims of police in 2017.
In March 2018, 23-year-old African-American Stefon Clarke was killed in Sacramento, California. Law enforcement officers took the young man’s mobile phone for a gun and shot a black American 20 times. No law enforcement officer was charged.
In October 2019, in Fort Worth, Texas, a policeman who arrived on a call shot dead African-American Atatiana Jefferson in her own house. In March 2020, police killed the 26-year-old black ambulance officer Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.
“The change of presidents does not affect the situation with the death of black and periodically protests. Racial unrest has always occurred. The difference, probably, is only that under Obama the press did not warm up the tragic incidents as it did under Trump, and behaved more restrained, ”said Eduard Lozansky, president of the American University in Moscow, in an interview with RT.
"Stop such killings"
The brutality that the American police showed during the detention of Floyd and the suppression of protests was condemned in the UN and Moscow.
Michelle Bachelet, High Commissioner of the World Human Rights Organization, called on US authorities to "take serious measures to stop such killings." She expressed concern that, as in many previous cases, police might be acquitted.
In turn, the Russian Foreign Ministry recommended that Washington "bring national legislation into line with the basic UN principles on the use of force and firearms by law enforcement agencies." The department believes that the United States has accumulated problems related to discrimination, police arbitrariness and a bias of justice.
Interviewed by RT experts emphasize that US authorities are acting on the model of suppression of protests, tested in previous years. It consists in the refusal of negotiations with the black population, the introduction of troops of the National Guard and the harsh use of special means to disperse the crowd.
- Minneapolis riot fire
- Reuters
- © Lucas Jackson
“The policy of the United States is strikingly duplicitous. They very hard suppress speeches at home, but at the same time they often react negatively to any even the most insignificant incidents in China, Venezuela, Russia and other hostile states, from their point of view, ”the head of the Department of Political Science and Sociology of REU said in an interview with RT them. G.V. Plekhanova Andrey Koshkin.
According to the expert, the US is accustomed to unceremoniously interfering in the affairs of foreign states, in fact controlling opposition movements, but at the same time they do not tolerate the slightest censure from the outside. Koshkin considers impossible a situation in which Washington could enter into a dialogue with other countries and the UN on the issue of murders and severe suppression of protests of the black population.
A similar point of view is shared by Pavel Feldman, Deputy Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts at RUDN University. In an RT commentary, the expert said that Washington is guided by a “double morality,” which implies different approaches to resolving internal conflicts. For themselves, the United States invariably chooses a power scenario.
“There is a feeling that the police aggression that we are observing is a consequence of the fact that the American government is afraid of its people. The USA teaches the whole world how to solve internal problems peacefully, but when conflicts arise on their territory, human rights rhetoric ceases immediately and the armed forces are used, ”Feldman stated.
According to the expert, the current protests of the black US population are reaping the fruits of the aggression that American intelligence agencies and diplomats are sowing abroad. As an example, Feldman cited a coup in Ukraine. The analyst believes that the United States itself faced with the "Maidan", only the present, without outside interference.
However, unlike Ukraine, where law enforcement officers were killed and the West justified such actions, the United States acts completely differently on its territory, the expert explained. On the Maidan, in the understanding of the United States, the people had the right to confront the police, throwing them with Molotov cocktails and shooting them. But in the United States itself, police are “proactive,” killing people for no good reason.
“With the Maidan, the unrest in the United States is similar in its turbulent destructive energy, where violence is very easy and massive. For this reason, forceful methods on the part of US law enforcement agencies are met with such a serious rebuff by the protesters, ”Feldman concluded.