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“RIP Rayshard” is spray-painted on a sign as flames engulf a Wendy’s restaurant during protests in Atlanta on Saturday over the death of Rayshard Brooks.
Brynn Anderson/AP
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“RIP Rayshard” is spray-painted on a sign as flames engulf a Wendy’s restaurant during protests in Atlanta on Saturday over the death of Rayshard Brooks.
Brynn Anderson/AP
For the third weekend in a row, protesters took to the streets in the United States — and in at least two foreign capitals — to demand racial justice in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by police.
In Atlanta, demonstrators were galvanized by the fatal shooting of a black man by police in the parking lot of a local fast food restaurant on Friday. Fallout from the shooting was swift and included the resignation of the city’s police chief and a fire at the Wendy’s where the deadly encounter took place.
As protests broke out, the city moved to fire the officer who shot 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks who was suspected of DUI, with Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms saying she did not believe it was “a justified use of deadly force.” A second officer was placed on administrative leave.
Video of the incident released by both witnesses and city officials shows Brooks cooperating with officers during a sobriety test. When the two officers move to arrest him, video shows a scuffle among the three men. During the scuffle, Brooks gains hold of one of the officers’ stun guns and runs away. The officers chase him, and when Brooks turns around and appears to point the stun gun at Officer Garrett Rolfe, the officer shoots him.
A man holds up a sign during a protest Saturday near the Atlanta Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks was killed.
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A man holds up a sign during a protest Saturday near the Atlanta Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks was killed.
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Action by city officials, including the resignation of chief Erika Shields and the termination of officer Rolfe, did little to quell the public outcry.
Crowds gathered to protest the killing, and by late Saturday, the Wendy’s where the deadly altercation took place was engulfed in flames.
“What other way is there to get the point across to them besides this? We’ve tried everything else and it doesn’t work, so this is what the result is,” said one protester, Damon Belton, in an interview with NPR member station WABE.
Riot police who arrived at the scene were met with bottles thrown by protesters. Police would later fire tear gas on the crowd.
Protests abroad
But anger and frustration over systemic racism and police violence spread far beyond Atlanta over the weekend.
In Paris, the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police last month has brought a renewed surge of calls to bring charges against three officers involved in the death of Adama Traoré, a black man who died in police custody in 2016 in a suburb just outside the French capital.
Protesters were met by riot police on Saturday as they filled the streets chanting: “Justice for Adama.” The protest began at the Place de la République, according to reports by The Guardian and the BBC, where several demonstrators climbed the statue of Marianne, a monument personifying the French Republic.
People gather at the Place de la Republique in Paris on Saturday for a march against police brutality and racism.
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People gather at the Place de la Republique in Paris on Saturday for a march against police brutality and racism.
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A man kicks a tear gas canister during a march against police brutality and racism in Paris.
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A man kicks a tear gas canister during a march against police brutality and racism in Paris.
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At one point during the protest, Traoré’s sister, Assa Traoré, addressed the crowd.
“The death of George Floyd has a strong echo in the death in France of my little brother,” she said. “What’s happening in the United States is happening in France. Our brothers are dying.”
Protesters tried to move on to the city’s Opera House but were blocked by riot police. Several skirmishes broke out, and police moved on the protesters, firing tear gas.
Protests were also held in several other French cities.
Counterprotests in London
Police confront protesters in Whitehall near Parliament Square in London. The weekend’s unrest include “protect our monuments” protesters.
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Police confront protesters in Whitehall near Parliament Square in London. The weekend’s unrest include “protect our monuments” protesters.
Jonathan Brady/AP
In London, fights broke out between Black Lives Matter protesters and far-right counterdemonstrators, leading to more than 100 arrests on Saturday, according to the city’s police department. The confrontations occurred despite calls from organizers and the city’s mayor for protesters to stay home.
According to The Guardian, a cry to “protect our monuments” drew largely white protesters to London. The protest came in an apparent response to recent vandalism of monuments of figures tied to racist practices in British history. These include the recent toppling of a statue of the 17th century slave-trader Edward Colston in the city of Bristol, and an incident where “racist” was spray-painted on a London statue of Winston Churchill.
Anticipating possible violence and vandalism this weekend, London authorities covered up the Churchill statue as well as the Cenotaph war memorial and a statue of Nelson Mandela.
On Saturday, hundreds of largely white far-right protesters, football hooligans and other supporters thronged Parliament Square, site of the Churchill statue. Police penned in the demonstrators, who began throwing bottles and punching officers.
In the city’s Trafalgar Square, anti-racist protesters clashed with the far-right demonstrators. Many groups organizing anti-racist protests had discouraged demonstrations this weekend. Events organized by both Black Lives Matter and a self-avowed anti-facist group were canceled to avoid overlapping with the “protect our monuments” rally. The city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, had also urged protesters to stay home this weekend.
In the end, at least six people were hospitalized.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the violence, tweeting “racist thuggery has no place on our streets.”
Racist thuggery has no place on our streets. Anyone attacking the police will be met with full force of the law. These marches & protests have been subverted by violence and breach current guidelines. Racism has no part in the UK and we must work together to make that a reality.
— Boris Johnson #StayAlert (@BorisJohnson) June 13, 2020
Frank Langfitt contributed to this report from London. Eleanor Beardsley contributed from Paris and Lily Oppenheimer of WABE contributed from Atlanta.
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Protests over police treatment of black people have sparked concerns about the spread of COVID-19. Here, a protester marches Monday in Philadelphia with a cloth mask saying, “I can’t breathe.”
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Protests over police treatment of black people have sparked concerns about the spread of COVID-19. Here, a protester marches Monday in Philadelphia with a cloth mask saying, “I can’t breathe.”
Mark Makela/Getty Images
Mass protests that have erupted over police brutality toward black people in America are raising concerns about the risk of spreading the coronavirus. But some health experts, even as they urge caution, said they support the demonstrations — because racism also poses a dire health threat.
Tens of thousands of people, masked and unmasked, have thronged the streets of Minneapolis, Atlanta, Louisville, Ky., and other cities in the week since George Floyd died after a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck. They are the largest public gatherings in the U.S. since the pandemic forced widespread shutdowns, and many local officials warned of a possible spike in new cases in one or two weeks.
“Risk of transmission is lower in open spaces, but wherever there is a gathering there is still the risk of transmitting the virus,” said Dr. Elaine Nsoesie, an assistant professor of global health at Boston University.
Health experts urged protesters not to sing and shout to reduce the threat of person-to-person transmission. And they cautioned that police tactics such as tear gas and pepper spray could exacerbate the situation by prompting people to cough and gasp for air.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene issued a list of tips for demonstrators to lower their risk of contracting COVID-19, such as covering their faces and staying in small groups.
“Don’t yell; use signs & noise makers instead,” the department advised.
Nsoesie said that while she agrees with the sentiment, “I can see how some of these tips can be difficult to follow. For example, if you are angry or frustrated about an issue, you want to express that feeling, and speaking is one way of doing that.”
She added, “It’s also hard to keep 6 feet of distance at a protest.”
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser said she’s worried about how consecutive days of protests could trigger an influx of COVID-19 cases. Huge demonstrations began in the nation’s capital on Friday — the same day Bowser lifted stay-at-home orders and eased shutdown rules.
The city is still limiting gatherings to no more than 10 people. But in the streets around the White House, that cap is regularly exceeded by orders of magnitude.
“I’m so concerned about it that I’m urging everybody to consider their exposure if they need to isolate from their family members when they go home and if they need to be tested, because we have worked very hard to blunt the curve,” Bowser said on NBC’s Meet the Press.
But the risks of congregating during a global pandemic shouldn’t keep people from protesting racism, according to dozens of public health and disease experts who signed an open letter in support of the protests.
“White supremacy is a lethal public health issue that predates and contributes to COVID-19,” the letter said.
Initially written by infectious disease experts at the University of Washington, the letter cited a number of systemic problems, from the disproportionately high rate at which black people have been killed by police in the U.S. to disparities in life expectancy and other vital categories — including black Americans’ higher death rate from the coronavirus.
“Data is showing that blacks and Latinos have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 in many states,” said Nsoesie, who was not among the letter’s signatories when NPR contacted her. “Racism is one of the reasons this disparity exists.”
She continued, “Racism is a social determinant of health. It affects the physical and mental health of blacks in the U.S. So I wouldn’t weigh these crises separately.”
Local governments should not break up crowded demonstrations “under the guise of maintaining public health,” the experts said in their open letter. They urged law enforcement agencies not to use tear gas, smoke and other irritants, saying they could make people more susceptible to infection and worsen existing health conditions.
The medical professionals also acknowledged the potential for COVID-19 cases to rise in the days to come, and they called for public health agencies to boost access to care and testing in affected communities.
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