With the distressing events that have happened in the last week, Black people in Africa along with allies have come down on the streets to protest against the hate crimes and the police brutality that have been happening against them in America with no consequences at all.
As the cities across US have been raging with raves of protests and violence as well to protest for Justice for the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis by the white police officers who kneeled down on his neck for nearly 9 minutes, making his choke for air and die.
To show solidarity and support to the Black community, Indian Americans in Palo Alto organised a silent demonstration on May 31’s afternoon to help show their part in the Black Lives movement.
“It just saddens me to see people losing their lives because of their color. This is a show of solidarity. We cannot just stand by and watch this happen over and over again,” said Madhan Babu, a technical architect who was part of the demonstration.
George Floyd, an unarmed 46-year old, who was killed on May 25 by a former Minnesota Police officer, Derek Chauvin who pulled him out in front of the vehicle and kneeled down on his neck even after Floyd kept muttering “I can’t breathe”.
According to reports, Chauvin kept pressing down on Floyd’s neck even after he became unresponsive. Not just that, three police officers, Tou Thao, Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane, who stood on the byline have been fired as well because of them not taking any action to stop the possible murder of Floyd.
A group of bystanders kept shouting at the police to leave him as they could see Floyd dying right in front of their eyes.
All four of the police officers have been fired from their jobs. Not just that, the main accused, Chauvin has also been charged with third degree murder and second degree manslaughter and is now held captive in a state prison.
Several organisations and protestors have demanded that Chauvin’s charges should be changed to second or first degree murder and the rest of the three officers should be equally charged because of the lack of action to prevent the case from happening.
The silent demonstration conducted by the Indian-Americans in Palo Alto was organised by Karpagam Narayanan and Umesh Mewari who talked to their friends about arranging the event and then posted a facebook event titled “Palo Alto Desi”.
Responding to the Facebook event, over 100 people gathered around Lytton Square, observing the social distancing protocol but carrying signs of protests, demanding justice for George Floyd and for the Black community in America. They also observed 8 minutes of silence in memory of Floyd.
Some even kneeled down on the ground as a classic symbol for the Black Lives Matter movement.
The Palo Alto police stayed in their squad cars a lane down from the site of the demonstration. Things went on smoothly until a white man came through shouting “All Lives Matter”, a statement that has been associated with White Supremacy.
“My colleague, who is African American, asked me what he could tell his son about what was happening. I didn’t know how to answer initially,” said Narayana to India-West.
To the question asked, Narayana further replied to their colleague asking them to tell their son that there are good people in the world as well. That was when the idea struck because it was necessary they show to their kids that the generation cares.
“South Asians need to show their support to other minority groups. It is wrong that people are treated differently because of their skin color,” she further added.
Mewari further added to the statements saying that while he expected the outbreaks and the riots to be peaceful, he understands the rage behind the protestors and what made them resort to looting and violence.
“A riot is the language of the unheard,” he said.
Ashok Srinivasan, administrator for the Facebook group “Palo Alto Desi” further told to India-West that he has reached out to authorities including Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris on this matter but has not received any response yet.
Srinivasan shared his own experience saying that when he came down to US in 1991, he witnessed an African-American man, Rodney King, getting beaten by 14 Los Angeles police officers who used their batons to severely hurt him. While only four of the officers were charged with police brutality, three of them were acquitted by an all-white jury in 1992.
“We watch this happen over and over again, as police officers are arrested for excessive use of force, but then acquitted. This was completely unnecessary. A man was crying out for help as he died,” said Srinivasan.
