Photo: Toni Ervianto (Writer)
Stramed, Floyd, 46, died on May 25 after a now-fired Minneapolis officer pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes, 46 seconds. His final words included “Mama” and “I can’t breathe.” A video of the incident shows two other officers helping to hold down Floyd, who was on his stomach and was handcuffed. Floyd died from “asphyxiation from sustained pressure” — a finding in the family-commissioned autopsy that is at odds with the medical examiner.
The former officer who pinned Floyd to the ground, Derek Chauvin, was initially expected in court Monday. But that appearance has been rescheduled for June 8. Chauvin is charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison on the murder charge and up to 10 years on the manslaughter charge.
Protesters to abstain from violence, demonstrations continued in the wake of the Floyd’s death last week. Responding that, curfews have been announced again in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles. Amid the tension and faceoffs were scenes of police officers kneeling with protesters.
In New York, where there is an 11 p.m. ET curfew, protests have largely remained peaceful, but there have been pockets of looters in Manhattan. Across the street from the White House, demonstrators gathered again in Lafayette Square. Video showed heavy smoke from tear gas in the crowd of hundreds of people. Officers, some on horseback, moved protesters off one street ahead of President Trump’s walk to a historic church where there was a fire in the basement overnight.
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Before posing for photos in front of St. John’s Church, Trump spoke in the Rose Garden, calling himself “your president of law and order” and an ally of all peaceful protesters. A large crowd packed the street in front of the Minnesota governor’s residence in St. Paul. The group then moved to the state Capitol, about three miles away. In Long Beach, California, some crowds defied the nightly curfew and began raiding and vandalizing stores Sunday night.
Anticipating brutality mass rallies, the US government has ordered National Guard troops and Atlanta police officers swept through downtown, pushing out the protesters Monday when a 9 p.m. curfew went into effect. Several eye witness saw protesters hurling projectiles after the curfew came; police responded with tear gas. At least 52 people had been arrested as of 8 p.m. ET, police said.
More than 17,000 National Guard members across the country are responding to civil disturbances in support of local authorities, a National Guard official said Monday. At least 23 states and the District of Columbia have activated guard members.
In several countries such as Israel, England, France, Argentina and Nederland, Floyd’s death has been used as global issue against racism and bigotry. Indeed, mass rallies have been using Floyd’s case to remember same case which had previously happened in several countries.
Foreign intervention, anarchist group or injustice?
Brute mass rallies in several countries in the United States to responds George Floyd death has raised several analysed and prediction related to the basic factor which have pushed uncertainty in the US.
Many American pundits and pontificators are telling their followers, readers, listeners, and viewers that the Russian press is lapping up – and exploiting – the current violent disorder in the US.
For the past few days, as uproar rages across America, various prominent folk have reached for the usual ‘blame Russia’ deflection technique. Some of it has been quite demented.
Ranging from people claiming that Russian news reporters covering the events are actually orchestrating them, to others alleging the whole thing is a dastardly Kremlin plot. Or a “Russian intelligence” operation, to be precise.
Others say the Russian president “hoped” for events such as these when he “backed” Donald Trump’s Presidential bid in 2016. Just like what happened in Ferguson (Michael Brown) in 2014 was Putin’s wish when he was friendly to Barack Obama. Indeed, by this kind of logic, the 1992 Los Angeles riots (Rodney King) were inspired by Putin’s high regard for Bill Clinton.
Seva Gunitsky, a Canada-based academic probably put it best when he tweeted that “Russia is not really a place anymore but a psychological coping mechanism.”
The other weird weekend trope has been the idea that Putin is “smiling,”“laughing” or “happy” over the breakdown of order in the US. Added to the chorus claiming Russian media is going to town on coverage. It’s true that RT has covered it widely. But RT is an International broadcaster, so it would be far stranger if this network ignored it.
Federal TV channel Russia-1, on Sunday night, didn’t pull its punches. “If something like this had happened in Russia, new sanctions would have been slapped on us and the Americans would have called an emergency session of United Nations Security Council to discuss the human rights situation in Russia,” host Dmitry Kiselyov said in his introduction. “But since this is America, and this kind of treatment of blacks is standard practice, nobody in the world batted an eyelid.”
Following that sensationalist introduction – which is a trademark of the show Vesti nedeli (News of the Week) – the subsequent, on the ground, report was very balanced.
On Monday, Kommersant, an independent daily, didn’t even mention the US crisis in its main headlines. Instead, coverage was buried down in the World News section, with the focus on how ‘America is beginning to get tired of riots.’
Russia’s best-selling newspaper, Moskovskij Komsomolets, again ignored the US story at the top of its homepage. Further down it carried an interview with Valery Garbuzov, a Russian scholar focused on North America. At RIA Novosti, one of the main state-backed news organizations, the events were given more prominence.
But the angle was about how many in the US are blaming Russia. Pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda had two foreign-news stories in its main headlines.
While American cities burn, its politicians are desperately looking to assign responsibility for the chaos and anarchy that is unfolding. Among those casting an accusatory finger is Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from the State of Florida and the acting Chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee.
“Seeing VERY heavy social media activity of #protest & counter reactions from social media accounts linked to at least three foreign adversaries,” Rubio tweeted. “They didn’t create these divisions,” Rubio noted, “but they are actively stoking & promoting violence & confrontation from multiple angles.”
Evelyn Farkas, a former Obama-era defense official and current candidate for Congress, tweeted“I hope the @FBI is investigating potential direct or indirect foreign interference in looting. Definitely not out of the question.” While neither Rubio nor Farkas named Russia in their tweets, they are both well-known for their Russia-baiting postings on social media, and there could be little doubt as to whom they were pointing an accusatory finger at.
President Obama’s former National Security Advisor, Susan Rice, however, left no doubt about where the source of this “foreign influence” came from. In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Rice, discussing the violent protests sweeping America today, declared “I would bet, based on my experience, I’m not reading the intelligence these days, but based on my experience this is right out of the Russian playbook as well.”
Rice, Rubio and Farkas are not alone. Typical of the anti-Russian hyperventilation taking place in US media regarding Russia’s alleged hidden hand in the ongoing riots is an article published by CNN, written by Donie O’Sullivan, a reporter who works closely with CNN’s investigative unit “tracking and identifying online disinformation campaigns targeting the American electorate.” While concluding that “the protests are real, and so are the protesters’ concerns,” and cautioning the reader to step back and take a breath “before getting too caught up” in any discussion about Russian involvement.
Nor did Russia direct and implement decades of policing culture in the United States underpinned by racism, backed by a system of justice that sustained and magnified the same. The social and legal inequities of American law enforcement have been a problem hiding in plain sight for decades, only to be ignored by generations of American leaders who exploited the fear-based culture that fed on this system for their own political gain.
In the US, several domestic extremist groups include anarchists, anti-government groups often associated with far-right extremists and white supremacy causes, and far-left extremists who identify with anti-fascist ideology.
In the past, some of the groups have been known to organize and travel specifically to confront police and destroy property, federal law enforcement officials said.
Minnesota officials said white supremacists and others were mixing in with legitimate protestors. Authorities there are looking at connections between those arrested and white supremacist organizers who have posted online about coming to Minnesota. President Trump tweeted that the US will designate Antifa as a terrorist organization — though experts say that might not be constitutional.
Antifa, short for anti-fascists, describes a broad group of people whose political beliefs lean toward the left — often the far left — but do not conform with the Democratic Party platform. Acting Senate Intelligence Chairman Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, said outsiders included “a rogues gallery of terrorists from Antifa to ‘Boogaloo’ groups encouraging and committing violence.” Boogaloo is a group often associated with far-right extremist ideology that wants to initiate a civil war.
“Many of these professional agitators don’t fit a simple left vs right identity,” Rubio said. “They are part of a growing anti-government extremist movement. They hate law enforcement & want to tear the whole system down even if it requires a new civil war.”
According to Gerald Horne, professor of African American Studies at the University of Houston said the “unprecedented” challenge to government power erupting across the US over police violence is driven by a homegrown movement, not foreign intervention.
Though the wave of protests somewhat mirrors the aftermath of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination in 1968 – when demonstrations broke out “from the east coast to the west coast” – the “direct confrontation with state power” seen over the last week is without precedent in American history. (Toni Ervianto/many sources)