WASHINGTON – Thousands of protestors gathered in anti-racism rallies took place in across the United States (US) and number of other countries to demand an end to racism and brutality.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators have marched in Washington to protest against the brutality by U.S. law enforcement agencies as protests over the killing of a black man by Minneapolis police entered a 12th day.
In the UK, Parliament Square in central London was filled with people supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, despite calls by the government to avoid mass gatherings for fear of spreading the coronavirus.
In Australia, there were major protests in the cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane that focused the treatment of indigenous Australians.
The current wave of mass protests in the US was sparked by the death of George Floyd, an African-American man, in police custody in the US state of Minnesota. Floyd died on May 25 after Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis white police officer, pinned him to the ground with his knee for over eight minutes.
A total of four police officers involved in the arrest have been fired in connection with the incident. Chauvin has been charged with second-degree and third-degree murder and manslaughter while the other three officers have been charged with aiding and abetting murder and manslaughter.
