Headlines: United States, "Houston in mourning"

Text by: Achim Lippold Follow

The city of Houston, Texas is hosting this Tuesday, June 9, 2020 the funeral of George Floyd. A last public tribute was paid yesterday Monday in the Texas metropolis to this man who has lived there for a long time and whose death has sparked a wave of anger and demonstrations in the United States and in the world. An emotion that is also reflected in the headlines and comments of the press this morning.

Publicity

" Mourning in Houston " , "  Houston in mourning  ", headlines the Houston Chronicle . The Texas newspaper publishes a series of photos which show the inhabitants of the city meditating in front of the coffin of George Floyd . Some wore T-shirts bearing the effigy of the deceased, others wearing " I can't breathe " signs , the last words of George Floyd. Among those who paid tribute to him were also the chief of police of Houston, Art Acevedo, who had harshly criticized President Donald Trump for his management of the demonstrations and in particular for his call for an intervention of the army.

Reforming the police, an impossible mission ?

Since the violent death of George Floyd, calls for a reform of police practices have multiplied. The Washington Post examines the bill that the Democratic opposition released yesterday. A project which provides in particular for the prohibition of facies checks, the widespread use of on-board cameras for the federal police, and the possibility of lifting the immunity of the police which would facilitate legal proceedings. According to the newspaper, this bill will pass without difficulty in the House of Representatives controlled by the Democrats but will meet with the refusal of the Senate. It is therefore not certain that the legislator's response to the protesters' demands will meet their expectations, writes the Washington Post .

Changing police and judicial practices to save democracy

It is necessary to seize this moment to change the country, estimates the New York Times . " It is a question of our democracy, " writes the newspaper, for which the person responsible for this crisis is not President Donald Trump, even if its management was a "  disaster  ", according to the daily. We face the same problems as more than 100 years ago when a civil war tore the nation apart: too many citizens prefer to cling to an old system rather than give up their political powers, the advantages they derive of their white supremacy and of an economic system which exploits part of the population. And the newspaper quoted the Russian writer Dostoevsky according to which one can measure the degree of civilization of a country when one enters its prisons. “ Today it is the justice system - deeply unjust - that reflects the degree of our civilization. It is a mirror that shows us what we really are, as opposed to what we tell ourselves , ” writes the New York Times .

Controversy in Brazil over Covid-19 statistics

For the past few days, the Brazilian government has published a bulletin which no longer shows the total number of confirmed cases and deaths, but only the figures for the past 24 hours. This report is now updated very late in the evening, around 10 p.m., to prevent the big television news from talking about it. The daily Folha de Sao Paulo denounces a " statistical coup " , accusing far-right president Jair Bolsonaro of wanting to "  stifle  " the data from Covid-19, " as if he could censor it " . Two opposition parties turned to the Supreme Court, which ruled: the country's highest judicial body asked the government to revert to the old system of publishing statistics, including the total number of deaths and contamination. You can read it on the O Globo chain news site . According to the Folha de Sao Paulo , the decision not to publish the data as a whole was originally taken by soldiers close to the president.

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• Newspaper
• United States
• Human rights
• Racism

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