Global Protests for George Floyd Staged in Berlin, London and Toronto

As I monitor the protest concerning the inequality so-called Black people have felt at the hands of white police and the white power structure in the USA I am also keeping my eye on the the rest of the world.

The following is an article  by Manori Ravindran

Global Protests for George Floyd Staged in Berlin, London and Toronto

The untimely death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis law enforcement officers has prompted global protests in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

In Berlin, thousands of protestors gathered on Saturday outside the U.S. embassy — located on Pariser Platz, next to the iconic Brandenberg Gate — to protest Floyd’s death. Attendees held up signs that read “Black Lives Matter,” “Justice for George Floyd” and “I Can’t Breathe.”

Floyd died on May 25 after he was pinned to the ground by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was seen on video kneeling on the neck of a handcuffed and unarmed Floyd, who repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe.” Chauvin has since been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

The incident has sparked nationwide protests in the U.S., and demonstrations are now spreading across the globe.

Hundreds of protestors took to the streets in Peckham, south London, on Saturday to protest Floyd’s death, at one point stopping all traffic on the main road. The U.K. has had its own turbulent history between police and the black community, which came to a head in the 2011 Tottenham Riots, a series of riots in response to the police killing of 29-year-old Mark Duggan.

A number of events are planned in the coming week in London, although none originate directly from the official Black Lives Matter U.K. group, which has said it is still “discussing the implications of calling a mass march in the middle of a pandemic that is killing us the most.”

The U.K. has felt the brunt of coronavirus in Europe, with a staggering death toll of 38,376. The Office of National Statistics reported in early May that black men and women are almost twice as likely to die from COVID-19 than white people in England and Wales.

However, a number of social media posts have begun circulating, indicating a mass protest planned in Trafalgar Square on Sunday afternoon, where attendees are being called upon to “Knee for Floyd.”

“If you can’t attend, please kneel in your area in solidarity and share. We are doing this to place pressure on the American government and show that this is a a world-wide issue,” reads the post, which is being shared under the hashtag #LDNBLM.

Peaceful protests are also scheduled to take place in Hyde Park, Parliament Square and the U.S. Embassy on June 3, 6 and 7, respectively.

In Canada, thousands turned out at Toronto’s Christie Pitts Park on Saturday and marched throughout the city to police headquarters downtown to protest the deaths of both Floyd and Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a woman who died last week after falling from her 24th-floor balcony after police officers were called to her home. Toronto Police are currently investigating the incident.