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In Minneapolis, in the United States, the broadcasting of a video of a black man smothered by the police in the street generates indignation and demonstrations.
It's a video that has toured the world as it is appalling. It shows the arrest of a black man, George Floyd, begging a police officer to stop crushing his neck. Throughout the video, he says to him: "I can not breathe" but neither of the two police officers present at the scene responded to his distress. One of the two policemen can be seen pressing his whole body against George Floyd's neck. We also hear several passers-by asking the police to stop without succeeding in making them hear reason. George Floyd died shortly after in hospital after being rescued by an ambulance.
This death engendered number of indignations across the United States, and especially within the African-American community. This tragic story unfortunately recalls that of Eric Garner in 2014, an African-American man who died after a violent police arrest. If this case had caused the setting up of numerous demonstrations, it is the same for the case of George Floyd. Rallies have taken place. His last words before dying, "I can not breathe", have become a wake-up call for anti-racism activists in the United States within the Black Lives Matter movement.
George Floyd had been arrested on Monday May 25 because he was suspected of having tried to pay his sum with a counterfeit bill in a grocery store. The four police officers on the intervention were dismissed the day after his death and an investigation is under way. Before the video was released on the internet, the police gave a different version of the facts, citing a "medical incident during the arrest of George Floyd. Following the broadcast of the video, the mayor of the city of Minneapolis said that the methods used by the police were indeed not in accordance with the rules.
Unprecedented clashes subsequently ensued between protesters from the Black Lives Matter movement and law enforcement in Minneapolis. Police stations were degraded and cars were damaged. Many other cities across the country followed suit and various demonstrations took place.
The political sphere also reacted to these facts. Joe Biden, for example, a Democratic presidential candidate, spoke on Twitter and supported the movement: "George Floyd deserved better and his family deserved justice. His life was important." can we read on his Twitter account;
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