Philonise Floyd, George Floyd's brother, holds up his fist as he marches with others on Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House, to protest police brutality and racism, on … George Floyd, a survivor’s guilt and a global Black Lives Matter. But it was also because the protests pitted demonstrators against officers, who became defensive and emotional in the face of criticism, some reports said. In Philadelphia, police sprayed tear gas on a crowd of mainly peaceful protesters trapped on an interstate who had nowhere to go and no way to breathe. In Raleigh, N.C., a consulting firm that reviewed body cameras and other footage said videos appeared to show officers using pepper spray indiscriminately. The Black Lives Matter movement has been protesting the unfair treatment of black people - including by the police and other authorities since 2013 - long before the death of George Floyd. Here's what you should know. Reviewers more often found that officers behaved aggressively, wearing riot gear and spraying tear gas or “less-lethal” projectiles in indiscriminate ways, appearing to target peaceful demonstrators and displaying little effort to de-escalate tensions. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! The scene outside the courthouse as the first week of the trial comes to a close. The murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and numerous others, plus the Black Lives Matter protests, confirmed what my students of color had told me for years. A Black Lives Matter mural painted on the street outside George Floyd's alma mater, Jack Yates High School, in Houston. While the vast majority of protests were peaceful, in cities like New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis and Portland, buildings were looted and fires were set, and demonstrators hurled firecrackers and Molotov cocktails at law enforcement officers. Eight minutes, 46 seconds. . A mural dedicated to George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement has been unveiled at Floyd's alma mater, Jack Yates High School, in … “Heaping blame on police departments while ignoring the criminals who used protests as cover for planned and coordinated violence almost guarantees a repeat of the chaos we saw last summer,” said Patrick J. Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association in New York City. Eight minutes, 46 seconds — a father, a brother, a friend, an unarmed Black man was murdered on the street, in broad daylight. In Denver, officers used similar “less lethal” weapons against people who yelled about officers’ behavior. No matter who we are, no matter where we’re from, no matter what we do — we matter. As with the protests in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 that culminated in the Capitol riot, police also did not understand how angry people were, in some cases because they lacked resources devoted to intelligence and outreach that would have put them in better touch with their communities. News|Black Lives Matter ... Floyd was Black. At some protests, marchers stood in silence for the amount of time Floyd struggled to … The email recipient gave no indication that the department “could not supply that number of flex cuffs, simply replying ‘[o]kay, will do,’” the report found, describing this as a signal of “a widespread, multi-faceted system failure from beginning to end.”. Business owners, downtown residents and elected leaders demanded a strong response against protesters who were often never held accountable, the police have said. Almost uniformly, the reports said departments need more training in how to handle large protests. George Floyd struggled, pleading for his life: “I can’t breathe,” until he drew his final breaths, calling for his mother. All told, the reports suggest the likelihood of problems in the event of future protests. The reports are strikingly similar, a point made by the Indianapolis review, which said that officers’ responses “were not dissimilar to what appears to have occurred in cities around the country.” Of the outside reviews, only the police department in Baltimore was credited with handling protests relatively well. The question now is how far this energy will translate into concrete action, not least in terms of public policy. “American police simply were not prepared for the challenge that they faced in terms of planning, logistics, training and police command-and-control supervision,” said Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit that advises departments on management and tactics. Chauvin and three other officers involved in the incident were fired the day after Floyd died. The department deployed officers in ordinary uniforms and encouraged them “to calmly engage in discussion” with protesters, the report said. We honor those lost and pledge to fight for justice. The Black Lives Matter movement has been protesting the unfair treatment of black people - including by the police and other authorities since 2013 - long before the death of George Floyd. For many long weeks last summer, protesters in American cities faced off against their own police forces in what proved to be, for major law enforcement agencies across the country, a startling display of violence and disarray. #ChooseToChallenge is the theme for International Women's Day 2021. The protests, some peaceful and some violent, began after a black man named George Floyd died after a police officer held him down in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US on Monday, May 25. It was the "absolute brutality" of George Floyd's death and the fact that it … Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis was one that may have been added to the long tally of Black Americans who have died at the hands of police officers. But weeks after George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died while being pinned by a white Minneapolis police officer on Memorial Day, Newsome was … . For decades, criminal justice experts have warned that warrior-like police tactics escalate conflict at protests instead of defusing it. The death of George Floyd also brought similar tragedies, like that of Breonna Taylor, into public light. At some protests, marchers stood in silence for the amount of time Floyd struggled to … How many Black lives have to be taken before something is done? These 15 million tweets were compiled using an open-source command line tool known as Twarc, which archives tweets that contain a specific qualifying term – in this case, any tweet containing the word or hashtag “protest.” (Note that owing to technical issues, some of the days do not have full collection of tweets. George Floyd: ¿qué es y cómo surge el movimiento Black Lives Matter? In part, the reports acknowledged, that was because of the chaos. But the new training lasted only two hours. ... “If you aren’t moved by the George Floyd … Nationally, at least eight people were blinded after being hit with police projectiles. Many held signs that read "Black Lives Matter," while others kneeled. Hashtags are rich in information, but can vary in terms of exact in spelling of phrases, even well-known ones like #BlackLivesMatter. The authors did not receive financial support from any firm or person for this article or from any firm or person with a financial or political interest in this article. Black Lives Matter: Ex-Police Officer, Chauvin's Body Camera Captures His Remarks After Kneeling On George Floyd "That's one person's opinion," Chauvin responded as … Here we analyze the evolution of a moment into a movement by analyzing Twitter traffic from May 27th to June 4th related to protests sparked by the death of George Floyd. A … The Times also reviewed after-action examinations by police departments in five other major cities. Protesters told investigators this “made the police look militarized and ready for battle.”, At a largely peaceful Chicago protest on May 30, a demonstrator later told the inspector general’s office, the mood shifted when the police arrived. Black Lives Matter, the Killing of George Floyd, and the Long Fight for Racial Justice. Other murals in honor of George Floyd, and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement overall, have been created around the world, in … The recent Black Lives Matter protests peaked on June 6, when half a million people turned out in nearly 550 places across the United States. Officers need more training to manage their emotions and aggressions as part of de-escalation strategies. 2020 was the year America embraced Black Lives Matter as a movement, not just a moment. The police were supposed to have “mass arrest” kits to take large numbers of people into custody, but many kits were from 2012, the report found. In Portland, where protests continued nightly, police officers used force more than 6,000 times during six months, according to lawyers with the U.S. Department of Justice, which reviewed officers’ actions as part of a previous settlement agreement. Now we must turn protest to policy. Once extracted, we sorted the hashtags into bundles. On June 5, 2020, during the George Floyd protests, the DC Public Works Department painted the words "Black Lives Matter" in 35-foot-tall (11 m) yellow capital letters on 16th Street NW on the north of Lafayette Square, part of President's Park near the White House, with the assistance of the MuralsDC program of the DC Department of Public Works, with the DC flag accompanying the text. The reports repeatedly blamed police departments for escalating violence instead of taming it. Senior law enforcement officers in Cleveland developed plans to manage a large protest but did not share the details with patrol supervisors. Conway the Machine, “Front Lines” After protesters set fire to the Minneapolis police department’s … The Minneapolis Police Department has a history of conflict with the Black community. The New York Times reviewed reports by outside investigators, watchdogs and consultants analyzing the police response to protests in nine major cities, including four of the nation’s largest. On May 29, Indianapolis police showed up with helmets, face shields, reinforced vests and batons. In Chicago, reviewers noted that the police force was not adequately trained to conduct mass arrests. Race gaps in COVID-19 deaths are even bigger than they appear, Race gaps in SAT scores highlight inequality and hinder upward mobility. How many Black lives have to be taken before something is done? The recent Black Lives Matter protests peaked on June 6, when half a million people turned out in nearly 550 places across the United States. Derek Chauvin’s Defense Puts Black Lives Matter on Trial If George Floyd was somehow culpable in his own death, the defense seemed to argue, then so … Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis was one that may have been added to the long tally of Black Americans who have died at the hands of police officers. Inquiries into law enforcement’s handling of the George Floyd protests last summer found insufficient training and militarized responses — a widespread failure in policing nationwide. A … In Raleigh, N.C., officers said they were supposed to be trained to manage crowds annually, but those trainings were often canceled. KHOU Floyd died after a … Black Lives Matter posts dominated social media in the month after the police killing of George Floyd, eclipsing some of the most popular brands. In city after city, the reports are a damning indictment of police forces that were poorly trained, heavily militarized and stunningly unprepared for the possibility that large numbers of people would surge into the streets, moved by the graphic images of Mr. Floyd’s death under a police officer’s knee. “We’ll be doing this time and time again in the years ahead, unless we are ready for a hard assessment.”, In City After City, Police Mishandled Black Lives Matter Protests, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/20/us/protests-policing-george-floyd.html. For years, only Los Angeles police who were certified and frequently trained to use a 40-millimeter “less lethal” weapon — usually loaded with hard-foam projectiles — could use it to control crowds. Guidance for the Brookings community and the public on our response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) », Learn more from Brookings scholars about the global response to coronavirus (COVID-19) ». Chicago police also did not have enough computers to process large numbers of arrestees. Police departments in some cities have fought back against the findings, arguing that officers were asked to confront unruly crowds who lit fires, smashed shop windows and sometimes attacked the police. But the death of George Floyd, a black man whose neck was pinned to the ground under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, sparked the most … It could have caused a … In many ways, the problems highlighted in the reports are fundamental to modern American policing, a demonstration of the aggressive tactics that had infuriated many of the protesters to begin with. Derek Chauvin’s Defense Puts Black Lives Matter on Trial If George Floyd was somehow culpable in his own death, the defense seemed to argue, then so were the bystanders. Leaders need to develop more restrictive guidelines and better supervision of crowd control munitions, such as tear gas. As a white man of privilege what has transpired, what I see, what I hear is … A report from the New York City Department of Investigation noted that most officers had not been adequately trained for policing protests. From midsize departments like the one in Indianapolis to big-city forces like New York City’s, from top commanders to officers on the beat, police officers nationwide were unprepared to calm the summer’s unrest, and their approaches consistently did the opposite. ¿Cómo surge el #BlackLivesMatters? But this time was different. Mr. Floyd’s death set off a series of nationwide protests against police brutality from late May through June. The Black Lives Matter struggle is no longer confined to the national borders of the United States. Los Angeles officers were issued highly technical foam-projectile launchers for crowd control, but many of them had only two hours of training; one of the projectiles bloodied the eye of a homeless man in a wheelchair. In Los Angeles, police did not have enough buses to transport arrested people — a problem the department has had for a decade — and did not plan appropriately for field jails. “We continue to make the same mistakes,” Mr. Stamper said. It consisted of learning how to manipulate the weapon and firing it a few times at a stationary target. “What we’ve been doing needs to be acknowledged as a failure,” said Norm Stamper, a former police chief in Seattle, who said he made some of the same missteps while trying to contain the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 1999, when tear gas unleashed by officers triggered an escalating backlash. More than a dozen after-action evaluations have been completed, looking at how police departments responded to the demonstrations — some of them chaotic and violent, most peaceful — that broke out in hundreds of cities between late May and the end of August. Officers also improperly fired projectiles that hit or nearly hit heads and faces, according to the report by the city’s independent police monitor. BLACK LIVES MATTER. The review found that the force sometimes deviated from policy; one officer justified firing a “less-lethal impact munition” at someone who had engaged in “furtive conversation” and then ran away. Black Lives Matter, the Killing of George Floyd, and the Long Fight for Racial Justice. Tras la muerte de George Floyd, este ha ganado fuerza, sin embargo, el origen de Black Lives Matter se remonta al 2013. That’s how long a police officer kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck. Those first days of protest after Mr. Floyd’s killing presented an extraordinary law enforcement challenge, experts say, one that few departments were prepared to tackle. The Global Legacy Of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter Protests : Rough Translation Five personal stories from five continents on the global impact of George Floyd. Protests continue across the US and elsewhere around the world over police treatment of black people. The name of George Floyd looks set to enter the history books along with Rosa Parks and Emmett Till, as the face of a moment that fueled a movement. Fourteen people in Minnesota have been selected as jurors in former officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial for killing George Floyd, ending a more than two-week process in which they explained their views on Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter, the protests after Floyd’s death, and defunding the Minneapolis Police Department. ... Mementos dedicated to George Floyd … The authors are not currently officers, directors, or board members of any organization with a financial or political interest in this article. He added: “They had batons in their hands already.”. Giant Black Lives Matter mural painted across from George Floyd’s high school. Let me begin by saying, I am a white man of privilege. #BlackLivesMatter #justiceforgeorgefloyd. Philonise Floyd, George Floyd's brother, holds up his fist as he marches with others on Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House, to protest police … The Twitter traffic shows that protest-related tweets, initially strongly centered on George Floyd, quickly widened to be about Black Lives Matter more generally: At the same time that the protests broadened from the specific case to the general cause, the movement spread out geographically, from an initial concentration in Minneapolis to other U.S. cities and other nations.