The ongoing protests in the United States are not about a black person killed by a white officer, but it is a rage against the US system, injustice and violence in the country, says a political analyst.
Anti-racism protests have been held in major cities across the US for nearly a week over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, who died last Monday after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into his neck as he begged for air.
A video released showed officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly 9 minutes as Floyd cried for his mother and said he couldn’t breathe.
The incident touched off outrage that has swept across the country, triggering mass demonstrations and while curfews have been announced in many cities, the demonstrators remained defiant, continuing their protests.
“Every city of major size in the US, there are people on the streets, protesting what is going on and it goes way beyond a cop killing a black person, or cops –plural- killing black people,” Stephen Lendman told Press TV on Sunday.
“It’s rage against the system, rage against injustice, raging against endless wars, against violence, state-sponsored violence, inequity, lack of justice,” he added.
He went on to say that “this is what’s going on in America, it’s not something new, it’s gone on in America, from inception, from colonial America to the present day.”
“Back at the old days, black people weren’t people, they were commodities, they were slaves brought from Africa and sold,” he said, adding, "but what have they gotten today, they got from chattel slavery to wage slavery in a lot more."
Four police officers were involved in the fatal incident on Monday who were all fired the day after.
The Minneapolis police chief said Sunday in his mind, the all four officers bear the same responsibility.
"Mr. Floyd died in our hands and so I see that as being complicit," Chief Medaria Arradondo told CNN's Sara Sidner. "Silence and inaction, you're complicit. If there was one solitary voice that would have intervened ... that's what I would have hoped for."
But no one intervened as 46-year-old Floyd begged for his life.
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