Americans on Sunday marked five years since George Floyd was killed by a police officer, as US President Donald Trump backtracks on reforms designed to tackle racism.
Floyd’s deadly arrest on May 25, 2020, helped launch the Black Lives Matter movement into a powerful force that sought to resolve deeply rooted racial issues in the US, from police violence to systemic inequality, but since Trump’s return to power in January — he was serving his first term when Floyd died — his administration has axed civil rights investigations and cracked down on diversity hiring initiatives.
Black Lives Matter finds itself lacking the support it enjoyed when protesters sprawled across US cities and abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic — with many now agreeing the movement achieved little of substance.
Photo: AFP
Some Democratic politicians, as well as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, commemorated the anniversary on Sunday.
“As anti-racism, inclusion efforts & law enforcement reforms face serious setbacks, we must continue advocating for racial justice & equality globally — with greater determination & strength,” Turk wrote on social media.
A memorial event was held this weekend at what has been named George Floyd Square, the area of Minneapolis where the 46-year-old took his final breath as police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck during an arrest.
Dozens of people on Sunday visited the small junction set in a residential part of the northern US city, which is covered with protest art, including a purple mural that reads: “You Changed the World, George.”
That optimistic message painted in 2020 is now at odds with a president whose more extreme allies have suggested he pardon Chauvin, who was convicted of murdering Floyd and sentenced to more than 22 years in prison.
Some experts believe Trump’s re-election was partly a backlash to Black Lives Matter activism, which included protests that turned to riots in some cities and calls to defund the police.
Floyd’s family members on Friday last week said that they wanted people to continue pushing for reform despite the hostile political climate.
“We don’t need an executive order to tell us that Black lives matter,” Floyd’s aunt, Angela Harrelson, said wearing a dark T-shirt depicting Floyd’s face.
“We cannot let a setback be a holdback for the great comeback. Donald Trump just didn’t get the memo,” she said to nods from other relatives standing beside her.
Protests marking Floyd’s death have also been planned in a handful of other US cities, including Chicago and Dallas, but no major rallies were expected. In Minneapolis, some people cried and others laid flowers or stuffed animals by the roadside spot where Floyd’s fatal arrest was filmed and shared around the world.
“George Floyd may be resting in peace and power, but he’s alive through everyone that shows up here,” said W.D. Foster-Graham, an author who grew up in the same neighborhood.
“It can be very easy to forget, but as one person to another, make sure we never forget and let those powers that be know we haven’t forgotten, and we’re not going away,” the 73-year-old said.
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
A team of doctors and vets in Pakistan has developed a novel treatment for a pair of elephants with tuberculosis (TB) that involves feeding them at least 400 pills a day. The jumbo effort at the Karachi Safari Park involves administering the tablets — the same as those used to treat TB in humans — hidden inside food ranging from apples and bananas, to Pakistani sweets. The amount of medication is adjusted to account for the weight of the 4,000kg elephants. However, it has taken Madhubala and Malika several weeks to settle into the treatment after spitting out the first few doses they
RSS