The police killing of George Floyd has resonated around the world. In London — some 4,000 miles from where Floyd died in Minnesota — thousands of protesters gathered on Wednesday to show solidarity with mourning Americans.
It was a peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstration in Hyde Park, where protesters of many different racial and cultural backgrounds chanted Floyd's name through their face masks, demanding justice. Several protesters shared their outrage over the killing to CNN, drawing parallels with their own experiences, and expressed dismay about US President Donald Trump's reaction to the protests.
"There's racism everywhere, and we have to fight it. I don't just mean white people against black people. Racism is racism, and that's what we have to fight. We have to be just one, human beings, we just need to be one. We all breathe the same air, we all bleed the same color.
"When I saw what happened to George Floyd, I cried. Man, I cried, because someone is being killed for just looking like me. He did nothing wrong, absolutely nothing wrong, and even if he did, there's ways to deal with that. Why do other people get ways to deal with that but we don't? The only way to deal with us is through violence. Why? We are not savages, we are not animals — we are people, like everyone else, and we deserve to be free.
"We can't have people being scared when reaching for their wallets in their car. We can't have people being scared when they are raided at home by the police and being killed. We can't have people being scared of being on the street, not doing nothing, just standing on the street and the police come and finds a reason to shoot you and to kill you and to take your breath. (...)
"It's not the first time. Five years ago we were yelling the same thing — 'I can't breathe.' Why do we still have to do it today? It makes no sense. How can this still be? Why can't people understand we are one? Why so much hate?
"This is way bigger than just America, it's way bigger than George Floyd. It's way bigger than just one cop killing a black man — it's about injustice."
edition.cnn.com/2020/06/03/uk/black-lives-matter-protest-london-george-floyd-gbr-intl/index.html
