translated from Spanish: Video: U.S. Social Outburst After George Floyd Murder

An unprecedented health crisis, an unresolved historical conflict, and a political front led by Donald Trump would seem too much to be true. But this is indeed happening and the consequences surprise the world. Unarmed, handcuffed and suffocated against the floor by Minneapolis police, George Floyd, a 46-year-old man was brutally murdered on Monday, May 25. The case, a symptom of the racial violence sustained by the American security forces, he said in a wave of protests that even in the middle of the pandemic and from the epicenter of it, could not contain the claims of a country that from the streets warns that “without justice, there will be no peace.”

Responding to a complaint by a man who was trying to use an alleged $20 false bill, on Monday, May 25, four Minneapolis police officers arrested George Floyd. The fact was recorded in a video that was soon viralized on social media. Images of the moment of detention show Derek Chauvin, one of the four officers involved, nailing his knee around Floyd’s neck while he is heard begging, “Please, I can’t breathe,” a phrase reminiscent of the case of Eric Garner in 2014, also killed by the police. Floyd remains silent and motionless while his head remains against the cement. Hours later, he was pronounced dead. In response to this case, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Minneapolis on Tuesday, but in what began as a peaceful mobilization, they soon experienced an escalation of violence as repression and looting were on the rise. 

Police cracked down on demonstrators, firing tear gas, stopping journalists and showing a stark contrast to the “anti-quarantine” protests that a month ago called for Minnesota’s reopening, a claim prop up by President Trump via Twitter. Within hours, these protests grew in size and intensity leading officials from at least 39 cities to declare a curfew and in several states to convene the National Guard to “help provide and restore security”With aftershocks elsewhere in the world such as Berlin, London or Toronto, it is estimated that this is the first time so many governors have come to these tools since the assassination of Martin Luther King. And while the scenario back then seemed even worse than today, The presence of Donald Trump and his hate and division rhetoric, accelerated in a year in which he will seek to be re-elected president, is not a minor issue in this reality. Last Friday, Chauvin was arrested and is arrested on charges of third-degree murder and second-degree involuntary manslaughter, leaving his bail at $500,000. 

For their part, the other three officers who starred in the arrest were fired from the force, but so far they have not been charged with any crime. That is, immediately, one of the main claims present in the mobilizations that even in the middle of the pandemic and from the epicentre of it, do not seem close to completion.  Violence on the streets has been climbing to unthinkable levels, leaving images of its own to a horror movie. Even in Washington, the protests were strong enough for the President to leave Twitter for a few hours and the White House to turn off its lights. The claim results in an immensity of indicators containing The Floyd case as part of a cold, harsh statistic. That police killings between 2014 and 2019 did not result in conviction, that African Americans are more likely to be unarmed in fatal interactions with police than whites, than in cities like Oklahoma or Reno the rate of murders of African-Americans by the police is higher than the murder rate in the United States and the list goes on. 
In a way, there’s nothing new because nothing seems to change. Not even in the midst of a pandemic that paralyzes the world and with an executive who seems more determined to confront his own citizens than a disease. As Minnesota’s own mayor Jacob Frey argued, the outrage is not for five minutes of video but for 400 years of accumulated racism
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Original source in Spanish

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