A police officer chases a protester in the Brooklyn borough of New York, the United States, on May 30, 2020. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)
#PoliceBrutality, #PoliceViolence and #PoliceBrutalityProtests, have, among others, become trending hastags on U.S. social media as protests triggered by the death of George Floyd in police custody witnessed more incidents of excessive police force.
WASHINGTON, June 6 (Xinhua) -- #PoliceBrutality, #PoliceViolence and #PoliceBrutalityProtests, have, among others, become trending hastags on U.S. social media as protests triggered by the death of George Floyd in police custody witnessed more incidents of excessive police force.
Two police officers of Buffalo, New York, were suspended without pay on Thursday after a viral video showed them pushing an old man to the ground at a protest over Floyd's death.
"When I saw the video from Buffalo, it made me sick to my stomach. Where was the threat? How can you walk by a person when there's blood coming out of his head? It's fundamentally inhumane & frightening," tweeted New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday.
The local police department first claimed the man tripped and fell, but the video told a different story. The 75-year-old man is in stable but serious condition in hospital, city leaders said.
Police arrest a protester in the Brooklyn borough of New York, the United States, on May 30, 2020. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)
In Atlanta, Georgia, six police officers have been fired with five of the facing charges of excessive force against two college students during a protest Saturday.
Body camera footage shows the two students, who were on their way home from picking up food when they got caught in traffic downtown caused by the protest, were hit with tasers by officers before being pulled out of their car.
A Philadelphia police commander has been charged with aggravated assault for allegedly beating a student from Temple University with a baton during a protest Tuesday in Center City district, the city's district attorney said Friday night.
The cop is seen in a cell phone video attacking the student, then jumping on the student and making an arrest.
A police officer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has been relieved of duty and placed on administrative leave after a viral video showed him knocking over a protester who was kneeling with her hands up.
The shaky footage shows the officer walked away from a crowd of demonstrators before shoving the protester who was kneeling behind him.
"Hi. You're probably seeing this pinned tweet because cops are rioting nationwide and I'm trying to keep track," wrote T. Greg Doucette, an attorney in North Carolina, who has compiled 323 clips of videotaped incidents by Friday evening at his Twitter account @greg_doucette.
"The use of force by police can't pacify protests responding to the use of force by police," commented David A. Graham in his story published in The Atlantic on May 31.
"The demonstrations around the country take as their starting point that police are brutalizing citizens of color. Law-enforcement officers and agencies have two ways to respond: They can affirm that complaint with aggressive policing and overwhelming force, or they can work to show they are on the same side, against brutality … but the aggressive strategy clearly doesn't," he said. ■
