A rallying call for justice
Why has the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis, triggered such massive outrage in the US, compelling citizens to take to the streets, despite the ongoing pandemic?
Because, it isn't just about Floyd.
The rallying point of the Black Lives Matter movement has been about stopping the extrajudicial killings of black people in the US — at the hands of police and civilians, with no accountability.
In fact, the current large-scale demonstrations echo the nationwide protests of 2014 — the year when this social justice movement was born — over the death of another black man, Eric Garner, by a white New York City police officer.
Like George Floyd, his last words were — I can’t breathe.
Mapping Police Violence, a research database of killings by police, reveals that in 2019, more than 1,000 people were killed by the police. And Black people accounted for 24 percent of those killed, despite making up only about 13 percent of the population.
And there's no accountability either. Between 2013 and 2019, the report says 99 percent of killings resulted in no charges.
As a democratic state like the US is raising its voice against racial bias in police forces, halfway across the world, another democracy, India is no stranger to communal attacks and police beatings. But they don't elicit similar criticism in our backyard.
The year 2019, for example, saw massive student and citizen protests in India triggered by the CAA bill — which cops tried to tame with tear gas and lathis.