UK. It is not innocent. ‘George Floyd spark protest anti-racism demonstrations around the UK

UK. It is not innocent. ‘George Floyd spark protest anti-racism demonstrations around the UK

Thousands of people gathered in London was not for the Black Lives Matter protests Saturday and Sunday, the largest of several demonstrations in Britain triggered by the assassination of George Floyd in Minneapolis May 25 It is a gathering of people to protest police brutality and systemic racism in the US only, but also in the UK. Sunday at Bristol, a city in southwest England, the demonstrators marched a statue of the slave traders of the 17th century down and threw him in the port where slave ships once docked. Although chants of “George Floyd” interrupted the air charge in both the city and across the country, protests continued solidarity with American blacks. For many in the crowd was an overdue bill for Britain, the country that made the transatlantic slave trade and built the empire’s wealth pioneer. “UK. No innocents has” continued to sing regularly to those who have said in recent days that racism in the United States is a bad phenomenon unique. Monday ‘, a spokesman Boris Johnson has said the Prime Minister U.K. Country was believed a racist. “[Johnson] has no doubt that there will be discrimination and racism, but continued to disagree that this is a racist country,” said his spokesman reporters at a government briefing. The activists disagree. “It ‘s always been symbiotic [relationship] between the struggle in America and fight in the UK,” says Patrick Vernon, a community activist and social justice activist. “Historically it is a different trip, but it’s still the same effect. Structural racism, stop and search, poverty, exclusion” The songs listed in London victims of racist attacks and police brutality, both in the United States and the United Kingdom. Justice Floyd was required in addition to justice for abdominal Mujinga, a black transport workers who have died of COVID-19 in April, after spitting in a central London. “I’m here because racism is an increased threat of COVID,” she held a sign reading above by a protester. “As a black and minorities are more at risk if you are infected with COVID. In a way, we got more at stake, why we are here,” Landa George, a black protester, TIME said Saturday in Parliament Square . Black women are sometimes to die more often from 4.3 COVID-19 than their white counterparts, according to data from the United Kingdom Government. (Blacks Men are 4.2 times more likely.) “For me it means a lot that I’m willing to risk that to be here today,” said George. “The reason we have helped the world, is that we have not emphasized that not really dealt with racism, we were not treated with discrimination and inequality.” Continue reading: why the protests in the United States is an awakening for Floyd hit some people do not blacks for the death of the world a particular nerve in a country where blacks suffer disproportionately from police brutality. The blacks of police officers in England and Wales are more likely to have used violence against them than whites. Despite representing only 3.3% of the black population experienced people, 12% of accidents use-of-force in 2017-18, according to government statistics. They also make 12% of the adult prison population. “We want to see a change of control, not only in the US but in the UK, and we want to see changes to how charging police officers for wrongs,” said Tracey Joseph, a black woman who lives in Hackney, East London on Saturday protests. “We wanted to represent the black community.” The presence of the police in the early afternoon seemed easy enough, with visible officers to prevent the book of protests standard central London text to corralling crowds at some distance, and some officials in Parliament Square. before the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, the prime minister Boris Johnson split the amount in different directions, with different columns in the direction towards Downing Street, the residence of accumulation; Victoria Station Mujinga job was when he was spat; and the US Embassy, ​​where a large crowd in front of the police were guarding the perimeter. As a group of Pimlico past, is an area rich as much of London, home to the two villas and blocks of dense social housing, saw a man middle-aged black from the balcony of a public housing estate down. He closed his eyes and held hands, smiling. Then he lowered his hands and his head cocked to the protesters as if in worship. The phase masses of five lanes stall on a street adjacent to the River Thames running. Drivers honked their horns in support; some fists raised from the windows in the Black Power salute. As a light rain in the afternoon he turned into evening downpours, but the police presence was reportedly heavy. There have been sporadic clashes between police and protesters, with videos posted on social media showed some protesters throwing bottles and other objects at the police. Mounted police moved in Parliament Square. In wet roads a horse rider beat bolted into the street, when a streetlight. A video taken seconds later, the horse showed no knight pawn ground knock before being brought under control. On Twitter, conservative commentators seized on the incident as evidence of unruly protesters; Activists said horses should have never been used in the first place. Another video showed a group of demonstrators to retreat police chase, bullets flying overhead and a young woman trying to stop the group moves forward and shout: “That’s not why we’re here.” Fourteen officers were injured on Saturday evening, after the Metropolitan Police. On Sunday, Johnson said on Twitter the protests were “hooliganism undermined” violent protesters was the addition would be “responsible waiting.” At the end of Saturday, the police surrounded the remaining protestors allegedly announced as a tactic presumably to prevent activists “boil”, which to leave when he gave his name and personal data. “If this is true, their illegal actions and nothing less than an attack on the right of people to protest were,” Gray said Collier, director of Defense of Liberty, a civil liberties group on Sunday. The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, a member of the opposition Labor Party, spoke in support of the protesters, but criticized those who become violent. all over the world to come “London of all ages, races and backgrounds joined millions of people around yesterday peacefully together. I’m with you. George Floyd brutal immediate killing and must keep permanent change in the world,” Khan wrote on Twitter on Sunday. “The vast majority of the demonstrators in London was peaceful. But this important cause was thwarted by a small minority in the lurch who have been violent. This is simply not acceptable, will not be tolerated and permanent change and must not win, we need to see urgent. “protest Sunday in the capital were peaceful. Activists of the U.K. also called for the national curriculum history program it can be seen in England and Wales, the UK’s role in the slave trade and the poor. Davina Elliot, a blacks demonstrators in London on Saturday spoke of the need of British children a more balanced version of history to teach, does not take brilliance of the imperial past and often racist country. “You need to teach the correct and very honest story about a hand he played in bondage,” he said long as protesters chanted them the Floyd name. “If people have a better idea of ​​the story, you can see how things are now getting us where we are today, and you can see that there is prejudice. You can see, things are lined up against certain persons, and knowing a better understanding of what is going on in the world, as we move forward. “- With Suyin Haynes and cover Ciara Nugent / London