On Monday, May 25, George Floyd, 46, was strangled to death by a police officer on suspicion of having used a fake card at a convenience store in Minneapolis, USA.
By: PSTU’s secretariat for Black men and women in Brazil – 05/28/2020
The murder was recorded and shows George in handcuffs, with his face on the ground, with a policeman kneeling on his neck. Suffocated by the cop, George fought for his life, constantly saying he couldn’t breathe, but the cop who was strangling him, as well as the others who were doing the operation, ignored George’s appeal.
The people who recorded the video tried to stop the police, while another officer kept the observers away. The police torture continued until George’s death.
This episode is tragically similar to the murder of Eric Garner, a Black man who was assaulted and pinned down by several cops in New York City on the clumsy suspicion of illegal sales of cigarettes six years ago. The cop who strangled him to death was quickly acquitted in U.S. bourgeois justice. Eric Garner’s last words were the same as George Floyd’s: “I can’t breathe”.
George was one more Black man murdered in the U.S., in broad daylight and in front of cell phone cameras. The police, without any hesitation, still intimidated people who were outraged by the violent and murderous action. The U.S. imperialist police do not shy away from using violence against blacks, Latinos, working class Asians and in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A new uprising in the United States
As if the Covid-19 pandemic, which has taken the lives of blacks and the poor in the United States in an extremely high proportion,[1] was not enough, the police have increased their racist repression against Latinos and blacks.
But the vicious murder of Floyd by the Minnesota police was responded to with an explosive people’s uprising! Hundreds of people quickly took to the streets in protest of this racist murder. The protests were massive, with protesters driving out the police cars that tried to suppress them.
The uprising of Black, white, Latino and working people against police violence points the way for the struggle not only against racism but against the genocidal policies of mayors, governors and President Donald Trump in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Therefore, we of the PSTU reaffirm our indignation and repudiation of this murder, and we extend our solidarity to his family and unconditional support to the struggles and uprisings in the streets of Minnesota and other U.S. cities.
Until they stop killing, exploiting and oppressing us, we will not stop fighting racism and all forms of violence against our class, in every corner of the world.
Capitalism and racism kill! Death to capitalism and racism!
Justice and exemplary punishment for the murderers of George Floyd!
[1] See: https://litci.org/es/menu/lit-ci-y-partidos/partidos/pstu-brasil/las-muertes-de-los-negros-en-estados-unidos-por-el-covid-19/
Translation: Blas ( Corriente Obrera LIt-ci)
