As of now 1.8 million people in the United States of America might have lost their lives by Coronavirus as of 1st June of 2020 but the United States of America is now in the midst of another man-made crisis. It seems that the police force in the United States has been empowered beyond imagination which has been reflected in the action of a police officer in Minnesota on 25 May. A black man named George Floyd was arrested by a police officer on a charge of buying” cigarettes with a counterfeit of $ 20 dollars”. It was shown on TV that a police officer caught a black man. At one stage George Floyd is reported to have expressed that” I would not breath” while three more police officers are stand-by as on-lookers. George Floyd was not released by the officer concerned until he expired.
We have witnessed a similar situation in New York in July of 2014 while a black man Eric Garner as a New York city police officer sat on his head and pinned him to the ground on a sidewalk when he is reported to have expressed: I cannot breathe. Exactly the same situation was repeated on May 25 in Minneapolis as a police officer knelt on his neck and pinned him to the ground until he expired.
It is a fact that between 2013 and 2019 Police in the United states killed 7,666 people. In fact, their action disproportionately affects African-American who make up 13 percent of the United states of America.
As of 3rd June Minnesota, Attorney General Keith Ellison has been charged police officer Derek Chauvin to second degree in George Fl0yd’s murder while three other police officers who remained as on-looker during accident have been charged for negligence. This action by the Attorney General at Minnesota appears to be too late since protests demonstrators rocked the United States of America from District of Columbia to Minnesota. President Donald Trump who got scared and called the National guard while he decided to bring an army to protect white House and stop protest demonstrations, apart from stopping vandalism around the country. Apart from peaceful demonstrations demanding justice for killing black people by Police officers, many shops were looted and broken as well.
At one stage it was reported that President Donald Trump took shelter in a bunker in the White House as a result of protest demonstrations all over the United States, including District of Columbia where the White House is located. On 2nd June curfew was declared at District of Columbia but peaceful protesters violated curfew. As a result, many protesters were arrested.
President Donald Trump possibly got scared. As a result, President Donald Trump declared himself the President of law and order and threatened to send thousands of heavy armed soldiers into streets to quell protests. Kristen Clarke, President of the Lawyer committee of civil rights is reported to have said, this threat seems to be a declaration of war against Americans. However, armed soldiers are in the cities patrolling streets.
It may be recalled that police forces opened fire on a crowd of students who gathered on the campus of South Carolina state University in 1968 to protest segregation at Orangeburg’s bowling alley while three black students were killed while 28 students were injured. Therefore, segregation between black and white is a continuing process in the United States of America. There have been calls from around the world against police brutality in the United States of America. People from Germany, China, New Zealand and Iran have called on people of the USA to show their solidarity with them.
(Mohammad Amjad Hossain, retired diplomat and former President of Nova Toastmaster International club of USA)
