Protests turn violent over police brutality
Lesson summary
Hi, I’m Jeff and this is Lesson 267 of Plain English. JR is the producer and your full English lesson is available online at PlainEnglish.com/267.
Coming up today: Another unarmed black man in the United States was killed by a white police officer in a case of excessive and unjustified violence . In this case, a Minneapolis police office kneeled on the neck of man for almost nine minutes, killing him. The killing has sparked protests around the world—many of the protests turned violent in America’s big cities. The expression we’ll review today is “call for.”
Protests over police brutality
Demonstrations against police brutality in the United States have turned violent and have become the most serious case of civil unrest the country has seen in decades.
The flash point for the current round of protests was the killing of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis who was killed by a white police officer. Here’s what happened, based on reporting in the weeks since his death on May 25. Floyd went to a deli to buy a pack of cigarettes and he paid with a $20 bill. A teenage clerk at the deli called the police because he thought the $20 bill was counterfeit .
The police responded to the call and found Floyd sitting in a car near the deli. For some reason , they pulled a gun on him and arrested him. When they tried to get him into a police car, he stiffened up and complained of claustrophobia . He fell to the ground near the police car. Witnesses said he appeared to be in an agitated state . One of the officers put his knee on Floyd’s neck and pressed down .
Floyd repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe”; after six minutes, he stopped talking. Bystanders pleaded with the officers to check his pulse ; when they did so, they couldn’t find a pulse. The officers didn’t move. After a total of eight minutes and 46 seconds, the officer took his knee off Floyd’s neck. He was unresponsive . Floyd was put on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance and was pronounced dead an hour later. Most of the ordeal was caught on video . Three other police officers did not intervene in what happened.
This was an unspeakable abuse of police power . We do not know why the officer originally pulled out his gun on Floyd; police officers need a reason to do so, and we do not know if there was a reason or not. What is clear is that the officers at the scene had no justification for the level of force they used, and continued to use, against Mr. Floyd. The officer who had his knee on Floyd’s neck was fired immediately and has been charged with murder ; if he is convicted , he faces up to 35 years in prison. The other three officers have not been charged yet.
This has sparked outrage across the United States. It has reopened some deep wounds in American society. Floyd’s last words were, “I can’t breathe.” Those were also the last three words spoken by Eric Garner, a black man who was killed after police in New York put him in a chokehold in 2014. The phrase became a rallying cry against police brutality . The cases of Floyd and Garner are just two examples out of several in which white police officers used unjustifiable and excessive force against unarmed black people, who have died in the encounters . Just two months ago, a black emergency medical technician was killed by police inside her home. There are many other examples.
Citizens organized marches and protests to raise awareness of police brutality; to demand justice for victims of police brutality, including George Floyd; and to advocate for structural reforms of police departments. They highlight the mistreatment that black citizens frequently suffer at the hands of police and the desperation they feel over the unequal way citizens are treated based on their skin color.
Most of the protests have been peaceful , made up of activists and ordinary citizens calling for justice to be done and police forces to be reformed . But the protests turned violent first in Minneapolis and then in other American cities, with protesters smashing windows , looting stores , overturning cars , attacking (and in some cases shooting) police, and setting fires . In New York, three people threw explosives at a police car. The violence has led to clashes with police . They fired tear gas in once city and arrested a CNN reporter live on the air in another. The mayors of big cities are trying to allow protesters to peacefully demonstrate , but also control any violence and uphold order . Mayors in several big cities, including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, announced citywide curfews at night.
In the heat of the moment , it’s hard to tell who is doing what. But authorities believe that many of the people responsible for the violence are not ordinary citizens demonstrating for justice. Many of the people instigating the violence are organized protesters from across the political spectrum who are using this opportunity to cause chaos . This is giving a bad name to the people demonstrating against police brutality, and drowning out their message. The families of the victims, including George Floyd’s brother and Breonna Taylor’s mom, have called for protesters to refrain from violence when demonstrating. They are saying that the people who bring violence to the peaceful protests are doing nothing to help and are hurting the message.
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