People no longer want this police violence, this terrible injustice, this racial discrimination. They will not let it happen again. Not here, not anywhere.

While dozens of cities in the USA are “on fire and blood”, according to the press, their streets are filled with demonstrators of all colours, demanding justice for George Floyd, and beyond, demanding an end to systematic police violence against blacks;

As the military is sent in to quell the protests and support the city police;

While the same police no longer want to be silent when they claim to be “keepers of the peace” and not guardians of the powerful of the States;

While some police chiefs no longer want to blindly obey orders that are unconstitutional and contrary to the essence of their mission, in several cities, the police officers, with the chief at the head, take a knee to the ground, thereby demonstrating their disagreement with the violence of some of their colleagues and their respect for the demonstrators.

In some cities, the police even joined the demonstration.

Then a hope is born and right after the despair in front of images of a great repression…

 

But the clamour for more justice and democracy is spreading much faster than the last “pandemic”.

In France, despite a ban issued by the Paris police prefect, thousands of demonstrators gathered in front of the court on Tuesday evening, 2 June 2020, responding to the call of the committee supporting the family of Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old black man who died in 2016 after being arrested.

On 19 July 2016, Adama Traoré died in the Persian barracks, almost two hours after his arrest in Beaumont-sur-Oise (Val-d’Oise) at the end of a chase with the gendarmes.

Four years later, the Traoré affair has become that of a war of experts: while three forensic medical expertises have ruled out the responsibility of the gendarmes, an expertise ordered by the family, unveiled on Tuesday, June 2, states the opposite.

In several cities in France and despite the prefectoral ban, thousands of people are gathering to demonstrate and demand JUSTICE, democracy and non-discrimination.

Repression was the usual response. And the demonstrators, in return, separated between those who had fallen into urban violence, and the others hoping to be able to peacefully express their desire for change.

Urban violence vs. police repression

No matter what you do, it seems that this huge wave will not stop: people know they are part of a
unique world, with the same LEGITIMATE aspirations for democracy, dignity, justice, freedom… We are
all connected. What happens elsewhere will have an influence here, what happens here will have an
effect elsewhere.

We hope that these events trigger rapid changes and that the need for non-violence is recognized and
declared EVERYWHERE.

Translation from Italian by Ilaria Cuppone