Protesters take part in a 'Black Lives Matter' demonstrations PHOTOS

Slides 50: LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 01: Protesters take part in a 'Black Lives Matter' demonstration on June 01, 2020 in London, England. Protests and riots continue across American following the death of George Floyd, who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Chauvin, 44, was charged last Friday with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)Next Slid
Protesters take part in a 'Black Lives Matter' demonstration on June 1, in London, England.
Photo gallery by photo services

FROM THE GUY WHO HID FROM PROTESTERS 
IN THE BASEMENT BUNKER IN HIS HOUSE  

Trump calls governors ‘weak,’ urges them to use force against unruly protests

Trump told the governors that “you have to use the military” and “we have a wonderful military,” and he mused about the Occupy Wall Street movement and said it was a “disgrace” that was ended by governors and mayors being tough.

The president said that people arrested at the protests should serve 10-year prison sentences, according to another person familiar with the call.

“It’s like a war. . . . It is a war in a certain sense,” Trump said. “And we will end it fast. Be tough.”

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As cities burned, Trump stayed silent — other than tweeting fuel on the fire

© Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post Members of the U.S. Secret Service stand guard in front of the White House as demonstrators gather nearby on Saturday to protest the death of George Floyd.

In cities across America on Sunday, people awoke to see shattered glass, charred vehicles, bruised bodies and graffiti-tagged buildings. Demonstrators gathered again in peaceful daytime protest of racial injustice. By evening, thousands had converged again in front of the White House, where people had rioted and set fires the night before.


President Trump stayed safely ensconced inside and had nothing to say, besides tweeting fuel on the fire.

Never in the 1,227 days of Trump’s presidency has the nation seemed to cry out for leadership as it did Sunday, yet Trump made no attempt to provide it.

That was by design. Trump and some of his advisers calculated that he should not speak to the nation because he had nothing new to say and had no tangible policy or action to announce yet, according to a senior administration official. Evidently not feeling an urgent motivation Sunday to try to bring people together, he stayed silent.

Trump let his tweets speak for themselves. One attacked the Democratic mayor of Minneapolis; another announced that his administration would designate the antifa movement a terrorist organization; a third accused the media of fomenting hatred and anarchy; and in yet another, he praised himself for the deployment of the National Guard and denigrated former vice president Joe Biden.

In one of his missives, Trump wrote, “Get tough Democrat Mayors and Governors. These people are ANARCHISTS. Call in our National Guard NOW. The World is watching and laughing at you and Sleepy Joe. Is this what America wants? NO!!!”

© Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post People protest outside the White House on Saturday.

The United States is visibly, painfully broken by the unprecedented confluence of health, economic and social crises, any one of which alone would test a president. It was extraordinary then to hear some in the public arena suggest Sunday that this president ought stay in the background, arguing that Trump lacked the moral authority and credibility necessary to heal the country.

“He should just stop talking. This is like Charlottesville all over again,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” referring to Trump’s equivocations following a deadly white-supremacist rally in 2017. “He speaks, and he makes it worse. There are times when you should just be quiet. And I wish that he would just be quiet.”

This weekend exemplified many of the characteristics that have defined Trump’s five years as a presidential candidate and president — chaos and unrest, fear and anger, division and disruption. Some of these themes and qualities helped draw Trump’s supporters to him and keep them faithful, giving him a chance at reelection in November despite the carnage on his watch this spring.

WHAT IS VIOLENCE

VIOLENCE IS ASSAULT ON A PERSON

RIOT COPS CAUSE RIOTS 

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT

YOU ARMED THEM THEY HAVE TO USE THEIR TOYS 

THIS IS VANDALISM WHICH IS NOT VIOLENCE 

IT IS ASSAULT ON PROPERTY

NOT PEOPLE 

IT MAKES GREAT TV THOUGH 

Let Americans Breathe, Iranian Spokesman Tells US Government

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Seyed Abbas Mousavi decried the US government’s crackdown on protests over the killing of an unarmed African-American man at the hands of Police in Minneapolis, urging Washington to stop violence and let American people breathe.

June, 01, 2020 - 

In remarks at a weekly press conference on Monday, Mousavi pointed to the eruption of demonstrations in major US cities in protest at the tragedy of death of George Floyd in police custody, and told the American people, “The world has heard your outcry over the State oppression. The world is standing with you.”

He also lashed out at the US government for its destructive domestic and foreign policies, adding, “The American regime is perusing violence and bullying at home and abroad. We are greatly sad to see, along with the people across the world, the violence the US police have recently unfolded.”

“We deeply regret to see the American people who seek respect and no more violence are indiscriminately suppressed and met with outmost violence,” Mousavi said.

“Stop violence against your people and let them breathe,” the Iranian spokesman added, addressing the US government.

In scenes both peaceful and violent across the country, thousands of protesters have been chanting "no justice, no peace" and "say his name. George Floyd."

The demonstrations came as Derek Chauvin, the officer involved in Floyd's death, was arrested and charged with one count each of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

IRAN 

Darband Cave: Archaeological Site in Mehdishahr

TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Mahdishahr Darband Cave is one of the largest caves of Semnan province located 3 km. south of Shahmirzad, overlooking the green valley.

• June, 01, 2020 - 

The entrance of this cave in the mountains is placed at an altitude of 1.35 m. and its width is 2.75 m. On entering, is a passage with a length of 24 m and a width of 3 m. The interior space being oval in shape measuring 91 m. in length, 36 m. in width, with a maximum height of 20 m. Within the cave are beautiful stalagtites and stalagmites and the tallest column of the latter reaching a height of 12 m. to the average radius of 2.85 m.

The ancient most relic found in this cave is related to the 5th century AH. The most valid and on record being a gold coin embossed with the 'kufic' script related to the late Saljuqi period or the beginning of the Mongol invasion. Besides this, glazed bowls from the Mazandaran region and fine, ancient earthenware from the territory of Gorgan have been discovered here.

Another cave has been discovered to the north west of Damqan and 5 km. from Ali spring in the vicinity of Geev Tangeh. Travel to Darband Cave in Mehdishahr during the warmer months of the year to enjoy the cool air inside the cave. On average, the cave's temperature is 10 degrees cooler than the outside.

Source: Itto (Iran Tourism and Touring Organization).org

https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2020/06/01/2276614/darband-cave-archaeological-site-in-mehdishahr

Earthquake of magnitude 6.1 strikes Peru -EMSC

May 31 (Reuters) - An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 struck 28 km (17 miles) west of Lampa in Peru, at a depth of 144 km (89 miles), the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said.

© via USGS

Magnitude 4.7 Quake Jolts Southern Iran, No Casualties Reported

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An earthquake measuring 4.7 on the Richter scale struck an area in Iran’s southern province of Fars on Monday morning, but there are no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

• June, 01, 2020 - 09:26 
• Society/Culture 
• Comments 

The temblor hit an area near the city of Khonj at 4:29 am (local time) on Monday.

The epicenter, with a depth of 2 km, was determined to be at 27.8 degrees of north latitude and 53.31 degrees of east longitude.

Speaking to Tasnim, the managing director of the Crisis Management Organization in Fars Province said there have been no reports of casualties so far.

The official added that rescue teams from the Iranian Red Crescent Society have been dispatched to the area for necessary help.

Iran is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, being crossed by several major fault lines that cover at least 90% of the country. As a result, earthquakes in Iran occur often and are destructive.

On November 12, 2017, the western province of Kermanshah was hit by a major 7.3-magnitude quake that killed 620 people.

The deadliest quake in Iran's modern history happened in June 1990. It destroyed the northern cities of Rudbar, Manjil, and Lushan, along with hundreds of villages, killing an estimated 37,000 people.

Bam in the country’s southeastern province of Kerman witnessed a strong quake in December 2003 which killed 31,000 people.

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BAN USE OF TASERS AND PEPPER SPRAY, MACE, TEAR GAS

BAN BATON'S

BAN THE MILITARIZATION OF THE POLICE

BUILD COMMUNITY POLICING BASED ON SERVING THE PEOPLE NOT THE BOSSES OR THE STATE

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Opinion: Systemic racism is the real 'American carnage'

A majority of white Americans still cannot come to terms with what black people have known forever: Racism is systemic, systematic, and nowhere near gone. White America must step up not just for peace, but for justice.



The images of burning police cars, clouds of tear gas, looted stores, law enforcement officers pushing civilians to the ground and protesters marching undeterred are startling and shocking for us Americans, but they are not surprising.

The video of an African American man dying on camera under the weight of a white police officer's knee on his neck is gruesome and shocking. It, too, is not surprising — we have seen videos like these before.

Echoes of the 2015 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, come to mind; for older generations, it is deja vu to the Rodney King riots of 1992 and lynchings during the civil rights movement.

But today's mass protests are gripping the nation at a time when a pandemic has claimed more than 100,000 lives, with more than 30 million unemployed, sky-high wage and income inequality and political polarization that is tearing the country apart.

It now feels like the US is reaching a breaking point. The future of the country seems bleak and uncertain. What we are seeing is "American carnage" — but not of the sort Donald Trump likely imagined when he strangely invoked that term at his presidential inauguration.

Racism doesn't take a break

While America went on lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, much of what characterizes normal life stopped. But the country's more fundamental and structural problems continued. Systemic racism is one of them, with numerous examples evident even as normal life came to a halt in recent months.

In February, video showed Ahmaud Arbery, a black man, being shot by two white vigilantes while out for a jog in Georgia.

In another video, a woman in New York's Central Park is seen calling the police on a black man who asked her to follow park rules and leash her dog, immediately telling them that "an African American man" was there and falsely claiming he was "threatening" her and the dog.

As the pandemic unfolded, people of color have suffered disproportionately high death rates from the coronavirus — also an indirect result of systemic inequality and racism. Yet armed white demonstrators occupied various state capitols to protest lockdown rules and shouted, intimidated and even spit at police officers, who handled them with the utmost care, in a glaring reminder that whites are treated differently by police.

Polarization blocks progress

Like nearly every topic in the US right now, the role of police and the criminal justice system are seen along political and racial lines. The 2015 Ferguson protests led to the creation of Black Lives Matter, a movement dedicated to increasing awareness of systemic racism and fighting the individual and collective biases that perpetuate it.

In response, countermovements popped up with the slogans "All Lives Matter," affirming the belief that Americans live in a colorblind society, and "Blue Lives Matter," promoting the view that police are heroes and have allegedly been framed for race-related violence.

DW reporter Jenipher Camino Gonzalez

It is no surprise that these movements have largely been supported by conservative-leaning whites. Polls have consistently shown that public trust for the police is higher among Republican voters, white and older people, while only a minority of Hispanics, African Americans, young people and Democrats share that trust.

In 2020, these opposing demographic, racial, and political lines are at their most antagonistic, fueling the country's ongoing fragmentation and tribalism.

These groups are actively kept apart by opportunistic political leaders like Trump, who actively stokes discord and whose place in the White House is a direct result of this high polarization and its resulting culture wars.

In such a deadlock, progress is blocked, and US streets will remain susceptible to bouts of violence.

White complacency must end

Statistics show it, studies expand on it and videos like those of George Floyd's killing crystallize it: African Americans are disproportionately targeted by police. Still, many white Americans cannot admit that the country's criminal justice system and police culture protect and benefit them.

Many white Americans cannot admit that racism remains an inherent societal problem and state structures are in dire need of reform to achieve equal treatment for the citizens they purport to serve. This inability of so much of white America to come to terms with its own privilege and empathize with minorities' experiences is the single largest roadblock to progress and reconciliation.

Those who are part of the problem must be part of the solution. People of color cannot single-handedly change a system that is inherently skewed against them; nor should they be forced to try. Throughout history, black mobilization has required a critical mass of white people joining the fight to tip the balance toward progress — during the abolitionist movement, the black suffrage movement, the civil rights movement.

The same is true today — but at a time when political tribalism reigns, can this happen once again? The challenge has never been so great and the stakes so high. If there is to be progress toward eliminating prejudice and racial violence, white Americans must stop being complacent about systemic racism.



IN PICTURES: US PROTESTS OVER GEORGE FLOYD, POLICE KILLINGS RAGE IN DOZENS OF CITIES

When the looting starts…'

President Donald Trump has threatened to send in the military to quell the protests, saying his "administration will stop mob violence and will stop it cold." Trump's response has inflamed tensions across the country. He blamed the rioting on alleged far-left groups, but Minnesota Governor Tim Walz told reporters he had heard multiple unconfirmed reports of white supremacists stoking the violence. 123456789

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Opinion: Athletes deserve freedom of expression

A handful of Bundesliga players signaled support for the fight against racism after the killing of George Floyd. DW's Jonathan Harding says they have every right to do so — and now is the time to offer support. (31.05.2020)

George Floyd killing: US cities deploy National Guard to quell riots

Protests, some violent, have escalated across the United States with people angry at the killing in police custody of unarmed black man George Floyd. Authorities in Minneapolis have vowed a stronger police presence. (30.05.2020)

AUDIOS AND VIDEOS ON THE TOPIC
From Ferguson, Missouri to Minneapolis, Minnesota

Date 31.05.2020
Author Jenipher Camino Gonzalez
Related Subjects The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Human Rights
Keywords USA, racism, George Floyd, police violence, human rights

Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3d4rE

African Americans face deadly endemic police violence in US

The killing of George Floyd has triggered nationwide protests in the US. But they also reflect larger frustrations with policing and the disproportionate number of African Americans killed by officers.


Since the killing of George Floyd in police custody last Monday, protesters have taken to the streets of numerous cities in the United States. They are angry, and they are demanding justice — and not just for Floyd's death alone, as the signs they hold make clear. The words they bear, "Black Lives Matter" and "I can't breathe," symbolize a much deeper frustration with police brutality and a desire for demand systematic change to policing, especially towards minorities, in the US.

What are the statistics on police-related deaths in the US?

The advocacy website Fatal Encountersdocuments deaths involving police officers going back to the year 2000. It currently crowdsources its data using 15 different Google Alerts to gather information on police-related deaths and is considered one of the most reliable datasources in the US on the issue.

As of May 27, the website's total number of records stood at 28,139, with the total for 2020 to date at 802. This number is high. By June 1, it had risen to 854.

"We're getting significantly more people killed in police encounters this year," the website's founder, Brian Burghart, told DW. "It's on track to be 1,978 [by the end of 2020] and our next highest number was in 2018 and that was 1,854."

In fact, Fatal Encounter's database shows that up to May 30, not a single day has gone by this year without a police-related death occuring. It also shows that African Americans are overly represented in those deaths since data collection began.

"You'll find that African Americans are killed at roughly double their ratio in the population," Burghart said. "They are about 13% [of the general US population] and they are about 26% represented in the data."

Of the 28,139 total records, African Americans made up 7,612. They are also significantly overrepresented in some categories of death, including "asphyxiated/restrained," "medical event" and "beaten/bludgeoned with an instrument."



IN PICTURES: US PROTESTS OVER GEORGE FLOYD, POLICE KILLINGS RAGE IN DOZENS OF CITIES
'I can't breathe'
Tense protests over decades of police brutality against black people have quickly spread from Minneapolis to cities across the US. The protests began in the Midwestern city earlier this week, after a police officer handcuffed and pressed a knee on the neck of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, until he stopped breathing and died. 123456789
Which other deaths involving police officers have sparked widespread protest?

2014 was a watershed year for protests against police-related deaths across the US. In particular, the deaths of African Americans Eric Garner and Michael Brown sparked nationwide outcries about the actions of primarily white police officers.

In July of that year, Eric Garner was arrested by a New York City police officer on suspicion of illegally selling single cigarettes on Staten Island. During the arrest the officer, Daniel Pantaleo, put Garner in a chokehold, with an arm around his neck.

In video footage of the arrest, not dissimilar to that of George Floyd, Garner tells the officer "I can't breathe" 11 times before losing consciousness. He was pronounced dead at the hospital an hour later. His last words, a final repetition of "I can't breathe," became a rallying cry for protesters. It continues to be used to this day, including by those demonstrating today, as Floyd uttered the same words before dying.

The following month, Michael Brown was shot six times in Ferguson, Missouri, by officer Darren Wilson, sparking citywide unrest. People marching through the streets used the slogan "Hands Up, Don't Shoot," implying that Brown — who raised his hands before being shot, according to some witness accounts — and protesters themselves were no threat to officers and should not be targeted.

Another high-profile police-related death took place this past March. Breonna Taylor, a medical worker in Louisville, Kentucky, was shot eight times by plainclothes police who broke into her apartment using a "no-knock" warrant, which allows police to enter a property without announcing their presence or purpose. The police mistakenly believed a drug dealer had been receiving packages at her home. The incident stoked tension in Louisville and has also fed the current nationwide protests.

Michael Brown's killing in Ferguson, Missouri sparked mass protests in 2014

What has happened after these police-related deaths?

For many African Americans, the action taken after each death has been nowhere near enough. Eric Garner's mother, Gwen Carr, told CNNin an interview that seeing George Floyd's death was "just like the murder of my son all over again."

A medical examiner found Garner's death to be a homicide, but Pantaleo was never criminally indicted. He was fired from the police force in August 2019, five years after the killing.

Darren Wilson was also not charged in the death of Michael Brown. In fact, according to the project Mapping Police Violence, which uses Fatal Encounters as one of its sources, 99% of killings by police from 2013-2019 did not result in a charge.

In Louisville, Mayor Greg Fischer announced last week that no-knock warrants were being suspended in light of Taylor's death, but civil rights advocates have called for a permanent ban.

Derek Chauvin, the officer who knelt on George Floyd's neck, , has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The other three officers present at the time have been fired but face no charges for now.

But a conviction won't solve the underlying problems, according to Philip V. McHarris, a writer and doctoral candidate at Yale who focuses on race, housing and policing.

"It [a conviction] tries to focus on individual officers or incidents, as opposed to seeing things as a broader structural issue," he said in an interview with DW. "The focus on individual officers will not lead to police violence ending."

From Ferguson, Missouri to Minneapolis, Minnesota

What is needed to reduce police violence?

McHarris believes that officer training in de-escalation, sensitivity, correct procedure and wearing body cameras — all measures police forces take to try and reduce violence, especially towards minorities — are too narrow in focus, as they do not address systematic abuse and injustice. In an op-ed he co-wrote for The New York Times, he argues that the Minneapolis Police Department "is held up as model of progressive police reform," but that did not stop Floyd's death.

Instead of increased police presence and militarization, which is clearly visible in the response to the current nationwide protests, McHarris argues that less police intervention is needed and more efforts must be made to tackle underlying frustrations.

"As opposed to just trying to reform and give police forces more resources and more money, just avoid it altogether," McHarris told DW. "Redirect those funds from things focused on policing and punishment to other programs and initiatives that actually have the buy-in of the community."

"The reason George Floyd sparks is because it's part of a systemic trend where everybody can relate," he told DW. "For many black people it's the constant reminder that if that can happen to George Floyd, that can happen to me, and it's not abstract. They killed a man on camera as bystanders pleaded to intervene to no avail."

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Opinion: Systemic racism is the real 'American carnage'

A majority of white Americans still cannot come to terms with what black people have known forever: Racism is systemic, systematic, and nowhere near gone. White America must step up not just for peace, but for justice. (31.05.2020)

George Floyd protests: Trump, officials blame extremist 'outsiders' for violence

Both far-right and far-left groups have been blamed for violence at recent US anti-racism protests, with videos showing white people escalating tensions. Black protesters worry that they'll end up in the crossfire. (31.05.2020)

Date 01.06.2020
Author Alex Matthews
Keywords George Floyd, Black Lives Matter, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, police violence, US, Minneapolis, racism

Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3d5rm