In Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC, New York and other US cities, protesters have been attacked by police forces amid demonstrations over the murder of George Floyd.
Protests over the murder of the African-American man, George Floyd, continued in at least 30 cities in the United States on Saturday, with Minneapolis as the epicentre, where thousands of people demonstrated against police violence against African-Americans, despite the current curfew in the city.
On Saturday, a contingent from the National Guard was deployed in Minneapolis with the aim of containing the protests.
U.S. President President Donald Trump applauded the military action and lambasted the mayor of the city for not taking a hard stance to appease social unrest.
From the city of Los Angeles to Chicago, through Cleveland, Washington D.C. and New York, there were scenes of wide-spread protests that have forced local authorities to announce curfews.
Several cities have enacted a curfew, such as Atlanta, where protests on Friday turned violent. Similar measures have been taken in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Louisville, Denver, and Milwaukee.
The scenes of destroyed police cars and blocked roads were repeated at different parts in the U.S., where the police used tear gas and rubber bullets against the protesters.
In Washington D.C. the National Guard was activated to help the local police handle the intense protests.
“The District of Columbia’s National Guard is always ready to help district and federal agencies protect life and human property,” said Major General William J. Walker in a statement, expressing the institution’s commitment to safeguard the presidential residence.
Thousands of people protested for the third day in a row in New York, as authorities announced the arrest of two sisters accused of attacking police officers. During protests in New York, policemen drove a van against the protesters.
This is not the first time that protests have been recorded for the murder of African Americans in the United States.
In 2016, during the government of the then President Barack Obama, protests were registered in several cities in the United States after the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
YCLGeneral Secretary Johnnie Hunter said, “the appalling, widespread and targeted police violence we are seeing across the USA is a damning indictment of capitalism and the leader of the so called “Free World”.”
“If we were seeing these kinds of blatant attacks by a militarised police force on civilians exercising their democratic rights in China, Cuba, Vietnam or Venezuela you can be assured the USA would be calling for sanctions and military intervention”, he said.
The YCL’s General Secretary noted that, “The death of yet another unarmed black man at the hands of US police is yet another reminder of the systemic racism on which that system was founded and continues to rely.”
“However it would be a mistake to think this an exclusively US problem. Britain continues to be a deeply racist society where racist police commit crimes against ethnic minorities with impunity and make widespread use of racial profiling.”
He concluded, “Britain’s communists express their full solidarity with those facing down the US police state. The best way we can do that is by building the struggle against racism and for an independent foreign policy here.”
Challenge News Desk
