Category Archives: George Floyd

Beyoncé demands justice for Breonna Taylor in letter to Kentucky attorney general – live

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Donald Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has been defaced yet again during Sunday afternoon’s Black Lives Matter protest in Los Angeles, although these days it might qualify as bigger news if the former reality TV host’s terrazzo-and-brass totem went longer than a week unmolested.

Trump’s star was defaced during today’s Hollywood protest march. #blm #hollywoodprotest #JusticeForGeorgeFlyod #hollywoodboulevard #hollywoodblvd #protests pic.twitter.com/UI3SOIZSiV

Hundreds of demonstrators have gathered at the Montana State Capitol building in Helena in protest of the killing of George Floyd and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Helena Independent Record reports Sunday’s protest is the largest of a number of demonstrations that have been held in Montana’s capital city in recent weeks amid the nationwide backlash to police-related violence against black and brown people.

The protest for George Floyd in Helena, MT is... huge. pic.twitter.com/LLwdiHMwxZ

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Rayshard Brooks: protesters set fire to Wendy’s after black man shot dead by police – video report

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Demonstrators set fire to a fast food restaurant in Atlanta on Saturday where Rayshard Brooks, 27, was shot dead by a police officer the previous night. Police were called to the restaurant over reports that he had fallen asleep in the drive-through line.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the shooting, said Brooks failed a field sobriety test and then resisted officers' attempts to arrest him.

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Why Trump loves the US military – but it doesn’t love him back

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The president’s West Point speech went smoothly but protests have focused a harsh light on his use of the military

Donald Trump attempted to solidify his bond with the US army on Saturday, delivering the graduation speech to cadets at the United States Military Academy and boasting of a “colossal” $2tn rebuilding of American martial might.

Related: Top US military general Mark Milley apologizes for Trump church photo-op

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How the killing of George Floyd exposed Hong Kong activists’ uneasy relationship with Donald Trump

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The US president may be the pro-democracy movement’s biggest backer, but some protesters feel they are being used

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement has struggled to reconcile the support it has received from Donald Trump with his administration’s brutal crackdown on protests over the police killing of George Floyd.

In the past few weeks, unprecedented Black Lives Matter protests, renewed by the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer, have spread to every US state and to countries across the world, regardless of pandemic restrictions.

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Riot police fire teargas on anti-racism protesters in Paris

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Peaceful protest erupts into skirmishes as anger at death of George Floyd resonates in France

Riot police fired teargas to prevent thousands of anti-racism protesters marching through central Paris on Saturday, as a wave of anger continued to sweep the world following the death of African-American George Floyd.

The protesters gathered in Place de la Republique, where the crowd chanted “No justice, no peace” and some climbed the statue of Marianne, who personifies the French Republic. Police refused organisers permission to proceed to the Opera House.

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ABC News executive placed on leave after allegations of racist remarks – live

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The Fulton county district attorney’s office has opened an investigation into an incident in which Atlanta police shot and killed a man on Friday night. Police responded to reports that a man had fallen asleep in his car at a Wendy’s drive-thru and was blocking traffic. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) says the man was shot and killed after police tried to take him into custody. One report says the man tried to grab a police taser. The GBI is conducting its own investigation. Unverified reports on social media say the man who died was black.

JUST IN: The #FultonCounty DA’s statement about the @Atlanta_Police involved shooting Friday night. pic.twitter.com/Z3mwwvOnNz

Athletes at the University of Texas have asked the school song to be changed along with the names of buildings on campus.

“The recent events across the country regarding racial injustice have brought to light the systemic racism that has always been prevalent in our country as well as the racism that has historically plagued our campus,” the athletes said in a statement.

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‘He just doesn’t get it’: has Trump been left behind by America’s awakening on racism?

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The killing of George Floyd has been a turning point for for everyone but the president – who has seldom been so isolated from his own party and the public

Longtime observers of Donald Trump have often compared him to an old man sitting at the end of a bar, holding forth with crazed opinions, overwhelming self-assurance and taboo-busting shock value guaranteed to draw a crowd.

Now, perhaps for the first time, it seems the US president may have lost the room.

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Trump says ‘concept of chokeholds sounds innocent’ as states move to ban practice – live

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That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Lois Beckett, will be taking over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

The Trump administration has finalized a rule rolling back Obama-era protections for transgender Americans under the Affordable Care Act’s non-discrimination policy.

According to the new version of the policy, the department of health and human services will be “returning to the government’s interpretation of sex discrimination according to the plain meaning of the word ‘sex’ as male or female and as determined by biology.”

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Boris Johnson ‘stoking fear and division’ ahead of BLM protests

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Critics say PM’s claim that George Floyd protests ‘hijacked by extremists’ is dangerous

Boris Johnson was accused of “stoking fear and division” ahead of a weekend of Black Lives Matter demonstrations after he unequivocally condemned the removal of historic statues and claimed the protests had been “hijacked by extremists intent on violence”.

As statues – including of Winston Churchill – were boarded up to protect them ahead of planned marches, the prime minister tweeted his opposition to those calling for memorials with links to slavery and racism to be torn down.

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Racism is at the heart of fast fashion – it’s time for change | Kalkidan Legesse

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The fashion industry makes huge profits from the exploitation of black and brown women. Now is the time to call it out

Of all the shocks that the past few weeks and months have brought to all our lives, one of the biggest for me as a black woman working in the fashion industry is that finally people are realising that racism is more than calling someone a derogatory name.

The killing of George Floyd while in police custody and the global outrage and protest that followed is bringing a dawning collective understanding that white supremacy relies on the exploitation of black and brown people. 

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George Floyd protests: officer bailed as protesters topple Confederate statue in Virginia – live

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Officer involved in George Floyd killing freed on bail, as statue of Confederate president toppled in Richmond, Virginia

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.

Trump’s most recent tweet that the National Guard troops who patrolled Washington amid the George Floyd protests “could hardly believe how easy it was” is at odds with recent reports about the troops.

The first days of June, a calamitous period for the Trump presidency, have been a debacle for the National Guard.

There has been a torrent of criticism from Congress, senior retired military officers and Guard members themselves since more than 5,000 Guard troops — from the District of Columbia and a dozen states — were rushed to the streets of the capital to help in the crackdown on mostly peaceful protesters and occasional looters after the killing of George Floyd in police custody. The D.C. Guard has halted recruiting efforts, and at least four National Guard troops have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Donald Trump is up and tweeting, and is straight on the attack against “Antifa”.

Our great National Guard Troops who took care of the area around the White House could hardly believe how easy it was. “A walk in the park”, one said. The protesters, agitators, anarchists (ANTIFA), and others, were handled VERY easily by the Guard, D.C. Police, & S.S. GREAT JOB!

Domestic Terrorists have taken over Seattle, run by Radical Left Democrats, of course. LAW & ORDER!

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Global protests throw spotlight on alleged police abuses in West Papua

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The Black Lives Matter actions have given renewed impetus to the campaign against injustices in the Indonesian province

Student Eden Armando Bebari, 19, was allegedly shot and killed by Indonesian security forces while fishing in his home town in West Papua in April.

Indonesian media described Bebari as a member of an armed criminal group, a claim denied by his parents. Many residents in Papua, the eastern-most province of Indonesia, now fish and tend crops to ease food shortages brought about by coronavirus lockdowns.

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What black America means to Europe

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Many have attempted to claim that ‘things are better here’ for black people than in the US. This ignores both Europe’s colonial past and its own racist present. By Gary Younge

In September 1963, in Llansteffan, Wales, a stained-glass artist named John Petts was listening to the radio when he heard the news that four black girls had been murdered in a bombing while at Sunday school at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

The news moved Petts, who was white and British, deeply. “Naturally, as a father, I was horrified by the death of the children,” said Petts, in a recording archived by London’s Imperial War Museum. “As a craftsman in a meticulous craft, I was horrified by the smashing of all those [stained-glass] windows. And I thought to myself, my word, what can we do about this?”

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Trump to hold first rally in months in Tulsa, a city with history of deadly racial violence – live

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Hallie Golden reports for The Guardian:

Governor Jay Inslee of Washington has ordered a new investigation into the death of Manuel Ellis, an African American man who died more than three months ago in police custody, following questions over the independence of the investigation.

Related: Washington governor orders new investigation into police custody death

Lane was released after posting bond. His bail was set for $1m.

Lane was one of the officers — including Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng — who stopped George Floyd while responding to a call about the alleged use of a counterfeit $20 bill.

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‘Stop the pain’: Philonise Floyd testifies at House hearing on police brutality – video

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Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, described the pain of watching the video of his brother's murder - which showed a police officer kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes - during his opening remarks at a House judiciary committee hearing on police brutality. 'I can’t tell you the kind of pain you feel when you watch something like that,' he said: 'When you watch your big brother, who you’ve looked up to your whole life, die. Die begging for your mom'

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‘Ten years of watching people die online has left me so angry’: young protesters on why they are marching

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The UK’s Black Lives Matter protests have been spearheaded by a new generation of activists. Six demonstrators from a recent London march reveal what brought them to the streets

The killing of George Floyd by a white police officer took place thousands of miles from the UK. But the 46-year-old’s cry in Minnesota that he could not breathe has sparked widespread protest in Britain. In the past two weeks, there have been demonstrations across UK cities. The protesters, the vast majority of whom were under 25, chanted: “No justice, no peace, no racist police” and “the UK is not innocent”. The demonstrations were largely organised through word of mouth and social media rather than established anti-racism groups.

Protesters carried handmade placards with the names of Mark Duggan, Sean Rigg, Julian Cole and others killed or left disabled by British police. They chanted for the Windrush generation, the victims of the Grenfell tower fire, and decried the high Covid-19 death rate among members of the BAME community.

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After 15 stunning days of anti-racist protests … what happens next?

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Can the phenomenal response to the police killing of George Floyd be channeled to secure lasting political change?

The New Yorker writer Jelani Cobb captured best the sense of wonder at what is happening on the streets of America. He posted a tweet from Mitt Romney, the Republican senator from Utah, which showed the former presidential candidate marching alongside demonstrators under the banner Black Lives Matter.

“Ladies and gentleman,” Cobb remarked. “This is what you call uncharted territory.”

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No masks, no water: New York protesters held in ‘abysmal’ conditions, experts say

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More than 2,000 people have been arrested in the city and the police treatment of those detained is emboldening people

Protesters in New York have been unnecessarily arrested and detained for as long as 48 hours in “abysmal” conditions without access to masks, food and water, according to legal experts.

Since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis just over two weeks ago, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of New York City in protest over police brutality.

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CrossFit CEO Greg Glassman resigns after offensive George Floyd and coronavirus tweets

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Fitness program lost key partnerships, endorsements and the business of hundreds of affiliated gyms around the world after Glassman tweets

The founder of the US fitness brand CrossFit will step down from his position as CEO following a disastrous few days that have seen the fitness program lose key partnerships, endorsements and the business of hundreds of affiliated gyms around the world.

The move comes after a pair of offensive tweets by Greg Glassman. On Saturday, in response to a tweet from the research centre Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which stated “Racism is a public health issue”, Glassman tweeted “It’s FLOYD-19”, in reference to the police killing of George Floyd, whose death has sparked a global protest movement.

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Calls for justice as George Floyd’s life celebrated at funeral in Houston – video

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George Floyd, the African-American man whose death in police custody roused worldwide protests against racism, was extolled on Tuesday as a symbol of the oppressed's struggle for justice at his funeral in his hometown of Houston, Texas. Family members and friends, most dressed all in white, stepped up to a microphone to describe Floyd as a loving, larger-than-life personality who deserved justice after his death while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers on 25 May

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