We put together examples of Police behaving badly during the George Floyd protests so the media doesn’t have to.
The world is talking about the murder of George Floyd and rightfully so. The latest victim of centuries of brutality and oppression, the video of an American Policeman literally kneeling on the neck of the unarmed man has been seen by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.
We’re not going to share that video here. Partly because you’ve probably already seen it, partly because you don’t need to see it to know it’s not ok and partly because we don’t want to buy into the same narrative going around – one that centres on the idea that a few bad cops make a few bad decisions in an otherwise decent police force.
Over the past few days, videos have circulated of officers kneeling in solidarity with protesters, an uplifting sight in a moment that feels so full of division, so wrapped up in the “us and them”. You might have shared some of those videos or liked some of the tweets, but again, we’re not going to share those. Because what happened after that five minutes of togetherness?
Well…
First-off, it’s not entirely fair on the media to imply that they haven’t been showing Police brutality and/or the blatant disregard for human rights on air. It just so happens that on multiple occasions, live coverage caught instances of Police malpractice by simply being at the protests.
In other cases, the media themselves became victims of bad Police work.
In case you didn’t know, the video above was taken by the White House, while Donald Trump was about to address the nation. The Police used force to remove the peaceful protesters so Donald Trump could walk to a nearby church for a photo opportunity.
But that’s when the world’s lens is on the protests. What happens when the journalists go home (or in many cases – to prison themselves)?
Twitter is awash with instances of Police
We’ve chosen not to include the full footage of this next one of a 75 year-old pushed so hard he is now in hospital in a serious condition. The original video goes on to show a stream of blood immediately start leaking from the man’s right ear.
Not even state Senators are truly safe. That’s a form of equality we guess..?
It doesn’t seem like you even need to be a protester to be subject to police brutality.
And what if you just dared to stand in the porch of your own home?
There has already been a concerted attempt to shift the narrative from peaceful protest to selfish looting; from police brutality to “necessary force”. This is not an accident.
To everyone whose immediate response to these events is to ask questions of the protesters rather than ask why in 2020 police are still able to brutalise and even murder people of colour with little to no justice ever being served, stop.
To readers in the UK and abroad who think America is alone in its treatment of non-white people at the hands of the Police force. Stop and read a book. This one is brilliant.
Those in power are trying to deflect the blame from them to those they oppress. It’s the oldest trick in the book and until now it’s worked perfectly. They’re going to keep going and they’re going to do everything they can to maintain the status quo.
Don’t let them get away with it.
#BlackLivesMatter
UPDATE: We are updating this list with videos as we see them. This is by no means an exhaustive list.
Project Q 