Protests Against Racism Take Place In America

Protests have erupted across the world, sparked by the death of George Floyd, a fourty six year old black man who died when Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed face down in the street.Two other officers further restrained Floyd and a fourth officer prevented onlookers from intervening: During the final three minutes Floyd was motionless and had no pulse. No attempt was made to resuscitate Mr Floyd who had Chauvin's knee on his neck for several minutes. Floyd had been arrested for passing a counterfeit bill at a nearby market. Eye witnesses captured evidence of the attack and this has been widely circulated on social media and broadcast news.

Criminal charges have now been brought against Chauvin and the remaining three officers. The former Minneapolis Police officer who pressed his knee into George Floyd's neck was charged on Wednesday with a new, more serious count of second-degree murder, and the three other officers on scene during his killing were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

There have been several riots in America including one in Buffalo, New York where two police officers have been arrested for charging in to a crowd and knocking an elderly protester to the ground. There have been talks that a pandemic of racism in the USA led to the death of George Floyd as he was a black man being attacked by four white police officers.

Mr Floyd's killing, which was captured on video, has caused outrage and sparked a wave of protests in cities across the US.

Meanwhile, a few blocks away, three police officers charged with aiding and abetting Mr Floyd's murder made their first appearance in court. Bail was set at $1m (£800,000) but would be lowered to $750,000 if they handed in any guns they owned and met other conditions, the judge said.

The mother of Mr Floyd's daughter has said he would be greatly missed. former President Barack Obama said the demonstrations were as profound as anything he had seen in his lifetime, and called on Americans to seize the chance to deal with underlying problems in society.

Megan Marcle, the Duchess Of Sussex has paid tribute to all coloured people who have been killed and said that things could have been done to avoid their deaths. She declared that everyone's life mattered and no one should be attacked because of the colour of their skin.

Floyd's death follows the high-profile cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; Eric Garner in New York; and others that have driven the Black Lives Matter movement in recent years.

For many, the outrage over Floyd's death also reflects years of frustration over socio-economic inequality and discrimination.

Protests over the death continued in dozens of cities on Wednesday night despite widespread curfews.

Protests around the world have been largely peaceful with cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago relaxing their restrictions amid hopes that the worst of the violence had passed.

A post-mortem examination has revealed that Floyd had the coronavirus in early April. But officials stressed that this played no role in his death.

During the 2015–2016 school year, Black students represented only 15% of total US student enrollment, but they made up 35% of students suspended once, 44% of students suspended more than once, and 36% of students expelled. The US Department of Education concluded that this disparity is “not explained by more frequent or more serious misbehavior by students of colour.

1. In New York City, 88% of police stops in 2018 involved Black and Latinx people, while 10% involved white people. (Of those stops, 70% were completely innocent.)

2. In one US survey, 15.8% of students reported experiencing race-based bullying or harassment. Research has found significant associations between racial bullying and negative mental and physical health in students.