Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter activist carrying a poster during protest

Rashid Hussain

Black Lives Matter is a decentralized political and social movement promoting non-violent civil disobedience against incidents of police brutality and racial injustice in the United States of America and some parts of Europe. In February 2012, when a Hispanic white man George Zimmerman killed an African –American teenager Trayvon Martin in the American state of Florida; George said he committed the murder in self-defense under Florida’s law of “Stand your ground“. He was charged with a second-degree murder case but the Jury, later in July 2013, acquitted him. A large number of protesters gathered around the court, started chanting slogans “no justice no peace”, and the Black Lives Matters movement kicked off right away. The movement was nationally recognized following another extra-judicial killing of African-American individual Michael Brown, he was shot by Ferguson Police officer Darren Wilson but was never convicted. A new slogan “Hands up, don’t shoot” was chanted by Black Lives Matter. A month earlier in July 2014, a black man Eric Garner was arrested on suspicion of selling loose cigarettes by a white New York police officer Daniel Pantaleo, the police officer used a prohibited technique of chokehold that caused Eric’s death; bystanders recorded the whole footage in which Eric was seen uttering “I can’t breathe”, the footage became viral and protesters took to the streets. Daniel Pantaleo was later sacked but was not prosecuted.

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During the George Floyd protests, another slogan “Defund the police” gained widespread popularity amid the ongoing campaign “The Black Lives Matter”, the protesters were demanding for police funds restriction and to assign police responsibilities to other organizations. An American socialist Alex S. Vitale’s book “The End of Policing” was published in 2017; the book cover reads “The problem is not police training, police diversity or police methods. The problem is the dramatic and unprecedented expansion and intensity of policing in the last forty years, a fundamental shift in the role of police in society. The problem is policing itself.” In recent years, long-lasting grievances of African-Americans, America has seen in the shape of consecutive demonstrations organized against police cruelty. Discrimination and social injustice have resulted in long-held protests and social unrest across the country. Following the George Floyd brutal killing, in series of protest demonstrations, numerous citizens have been killed and injured, police causalities have also been reported, dozens of properties were set on fire, multiple vehicles were set a blazed. In retaliation, police now have been using the prohibited flash bangs and rubber bullets against the unarmed protesters.

During the George Floyd protests in Washington, so-called non-lethal stun grenades were fired on the mob, resultantly many protesters suffered serious injuries, some of them succumbed to the wounds; similarly in 1989, while conducting an anti-drug raid on a house of a black couple, police fired flash-bang and the whole house was set on fire, both husband and wife were burnt to death. The menace and curse of racism are not new in the United States, the Americans had also experienced the civil war from 1861 to 1865, which was launched against the social inequalities, slavery, and racism and was followed by the Reconstruction Era from 1865 to 1877. Then in1950s, and 60s, ‘American Civil Rights Movement” was led by the Noble Peace Prize winner, a black minister of the then American government Martin Luther King, who was later assassinated in 1968 after a successful movement that resulted in new legislative achievements and human rights for all American.

ANTIFA which is the short form of antifascist, is a decentralized loosely organized militant group of black Americans that has been involved in violence against what they say, are racists, fascists, and right-wing extremists; their role was observed during the George Floyd protests when at some places in different cities of the United States, vehicles were burnt, shops were looted and CNN office was attacked. American law enforcement agencies say the Antifa activists have been involved in instigating and turning the protests violent at the time of George Floyd’s death and thereafter. The United States President Donald Trump has tweeted amid George Floyd's demonstrations that Antifa should be designated as a terrorist organization. Antifa workers have been seen in various protests across the USA, they are supportive of Black Lives Matter.

The list of brutally killed black American is too large to be defined here, let’s have a look at a recent incident that took place in Kenosha, a city of Wisconsin state of America on 23 August 2020, when a 29 years old black African-American Jacob Blake was shot and seriously injured with four bullets in his back while he was opening the door of his vehicle SUV to come out. As he opened the vehicle door he was fired seven times by police officer Rusten Sheskey, and at that time, three children of Jacob Blake were also sitting on the vehicle’s back seat who saw that awful scene so closely. The incident was filmed by passers-by, it became viral on social media platforms, and caused an eruption of a new wave of protests across the Kenosha and then all over the United States, some protesters were killed and many were wounded in clashes with the police −the incident reignited the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement. Jacob is now in hospital, doctors say that he might get paralyzed from the waist down. Jacob Blake posted a video on social media that he was in constant pain all the time; protesters again turned violent in different cities of the country.

Footage of a weekend protest held at Downtown Pittsburgh of United States went viral; the footage shows that a group of protesters was misbehaving with customers who were busy having their dinner at a restaurant. President Donald Trump condemned the incident, he tweeted that “BLM Protesters horribly harass elderly Pittsburgh diners, scaring them with loud taunts while taking their food right off their plate. These Anarchists, not protesters, are Biden voters, but he has no control and nothing to say. Disgraceful. Never seen anything like it. Thugs!”

The Photographic Society of America (PSA), the National Basket Association (NBA), human rights organizations, and many others have shown their solidarity to the black African-Americans who have been victims of racial discrimination by some of the white supremacists.