Name: Black Lives Matter protesters have unwittingly recorded the single largest outbreak of police brutality in US history - ABC News
Brand: abc.net.au
SKU: abc-net-au-101
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Black Lives Matter protesters have unwittingly recorded the single largest outbreak of police brutality in US history - ABC News

preview

Black Lives Matter protesters have unwittingly recorded the single largest outbreak of police brutality in US historyShareA stand-out feature of the protests in the United States has been the amount of police brutality caught on film.In this era of social media, Americans have unwittingly recorded the single largest outbreak (and archive) of police brutality in US history.Law enforcement officers have been captured beating, gassing, and shooting rubber bullets at terrified US citizens across the country, in a wave of state violence.And the footage has exposed in real time how police have historically used "official reports" of controversial incidents to obscure the truth.There have been so many examples.Last week, before falling and cracking his head on the pavement, to leave blood running from his ear.Police released a statement about the incident claiming a man "tripped and fell."But when footage emerged showing they had shoved him aggressively, the official police statement was amended and the two officers were suspended without pay (and subsequently charged).New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the incident was "wholly unjustified and utterly disgraceful". Buffalo's Mayor, Byron Brown, said he was "deeply disturbed by the video".What if the incident hadn't been filmed? Would the original police statement still be the official record?The nationwide protests were sparked by exactly the same phenomenon.Late last month, a Minneapolis police spokesman told reporters that a man had died after he "physically resisted" officers, but "officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and officers noticed that the man was going into medical distress"..It revealed the truth: a white police officer had used his knee to pin the neck of an unarmed African-American man, George Floyd, to the ground. The officer had kept his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes, despite Floyd's pleas that he couldn't breathe, and long after Floyd had stopped moving.A crowd of onlookers had begun pleading with the officer to check Floyd's pulse, but the officer remained unmoved and kept his knee on Floyd's neck.It's horrific to watch. And protests erupted after the footage went viral. African-American communities in Minnesota had had enough. The protests have since spread across America and become a nationwide pushback against police brutality.The Star Tribune (Minnesota's largest newspaper), ran a story last week in which the chief public defender in Hennepin County, Mary Moriarty, said her office frequently dealt with cases where local police officers gave official accounts of arrests that were later found to be false by video evidence."Am I at all surprised that the police lied in their report? No," Ms Moriarty told the paper., in major cities and towns, against similar mistreatment of Indigenous Australians.Protest organisers highlighted the more than 430 Indigenous people who have died in police custody since 1991.They also shared appalling statistics — just 2.8 per cent of Australia's population identifies as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, but Aboriginal people account for over 25 per cent of the prison population.A few days ago, , after the boy had given him lip. The boy had to be taken to hospital.What if it hadn't been filmed?The official police statement said: "It's alleged a 17-year-old boy … threatened an officer, before being arrested and taken to Surry Hills Police Station. He was subsequently taken to St Vincent's Hospital for observation before being released into the custody of family pending further inquiries."The fact it was caught on camera made a huge difference.It made it a political issue, and the officer involved was placed on light duties pending an internal investigation.When asked about the footage, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said, "we still have a long way to go in our country".Mick Fuller, the NSW Police Commissioner, said the officer "had a bad day." In 1832, four Aboriginal people were shot and killed on the NSW south coast, on the same headland where James Cook made his first sighting of Aboriginal people when he sailed up the east coast in 1770.The place is called Murramarang Point. It's just south of Bawley Point.It has one of the biggest middens on the east coast, with material dating back 12,000 years. It was once an important meeting place for Aboriginal people ("Marramang" means ceremony).The first white person to explore the area was a surveyor, Thomas Florance, who arrived in 1828. Within two years, the land had been stolen for a farming settlement.Then in 1832, a party of white men shot and killed two Aboriginal elders (a man and wife), a young Aboriginal man, and a pregnant Aboriginal woman, with musket balls, and buried their bodies. The murders supposedly took place in revenge for cattle being speared.A white witness to the massacre reported the incident to the resident magistrate at Wollongong, 170 kilometres north, and the ringleader of the massacre, Joseph Berryman, was arrested. Berryman told the magistrate in Wollongong that he had only fired his gun to protect himself and frighten the "blacks", but his musket had also discharged by mistake once, and he wasn't sure if the accidental firing had caused any injury.He was believed.Since 2008, the International Monetary Fund has increasingly warned of the damage that inequality does to economic growth.It has warned how inequality can make growth more volatile, and why growth is hindered when equality of opportunity is poor for some groups.In recent decades, Australian researchers have also nominated racism as the root cause of the extreme socio-economic and health disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal people, including extremely poor mental health.They say racism and inequality go hand-in-hand.7 Jun 20207 Jun 2020Sun 7 Jun 2020 at 4:52am, 8 Jun 20208 Jun 2020Mon 8 Jun 2020 at 4:15amMore on:

Black Lives Matter protesters have unwittingly recorded the single largest outbreak of police brutality in US historyShareA stand-out feature of the protests in the United States has been the amount of police brutality caught on film.In this era of social media, Americans have unwittingly recorded the single largest outbreak (and archive) of police brutality in US history.Law enforcement officers have been captured beating, gassing, and shooting rubber bullets at terrified US citizens across the country, in a wave of state violence.And the footage has exposed in real time how police have...

public

Gareth Hutchens

Official account of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, connecting you to the best content. Follows ABC accounts, lists trusted profiles.

Black Lives Matter protesters have unwittingly recorded the single largest outbreak of police brutality in US history - ABC News

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS