Police Violence And Racism, International

June 2 BLM protest in Paris

Hannah Steinkopf-Frank

As more than 20,000 protesters in Paris reminded us last night, police violence against people of color is a global issue. Demonstrations have been held in cities across the world, including London, Auckland, and Berlin to condemn the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of police in Minneapolis. There is something more than just solidarity with American victims in the outpourings, even though the notorious tough police tactics, as well as historical racism, feed the problem in the United States. There are cases of unarmed people killed at the hands of police in other countries, and often there is also race and history involved

France: The Paris protests Tuesday night centered around the 2016 death of 24-year-old construction worker Adama Traoré in police custody.

Expert opinions have been conflicted around the police's role in his death. His family, who have been at the forefront of the Truth for Adama Movement, recently presented evidence that asphyxiation caused by excessive police force killed him.
Large-scale anti-police demonstrations took place in France in 2005, after two teenagers, one black and one Arab, were killed while trying to escape police custody.
"In France, it is the scars of slavery, the scars of colonialism that we suffer from, that result in these barbaric acts," actor Greg Germain told French public TV at the Paris protest. "I beg the French State: Let this be a lesson for us."

Belgium: A few weeks ago in Brussels, Adil a 19-year-old of Moroccan descent, died after being struck by a police vehicle.

Last year, a similar incident left a 17-year-old named Mehdi Bouda dead, launching the "justice for Mehdi" movement on social media.
In a 2018 study by Amnesty International, half of Belgian police officers interviewed said there was a problem with ethnic profiling and dubious practices around identity stops.
Police also often take or break bystander's phones to prevent them from filming.

March for Mehdi Bouda in Brussels in October — Photo: Hugo Monnier via Instagram

Brazil: The latest in a long history of police killings, a 14-year-old boy died after being shot in the back during a botched drug arrest operation in the Rio de Janeiro area. Over the weekend, protestors marched in the country's favelas against unprecedented police violence:

João Pedro Matos, who dreamed of being a lawyer, is one of the thousands of black Brazilians who have been killed by police.
Between 2017 and 2018 in Brazil, more than 75% of those who died in police interactions were black.
In April, Rio state police killed 177 people, the second highest number recorded since tallying started more than 20 years ago.

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FOLHA DE S. PAULO

Founded in 1921, the "Sao Paulo Gazzette" became Brazil's leading daily in the 1980s by applying standards of openness and objectivity to its coverage of the country and Latin America as a whole.

FRANCE INFO

French public radio

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FOCUS: Israel-Palestine War

mideast war

How Biden's Mideast Stance Weakens Israel And Emboldens Iran

The West's decision to pressure Israel over Gaza, and indulge Iran's violent and troublesome regime, follows the U.S. Democrats' line with the Middle East: just keep us out of your murderous affairs.

Demonstration against U.S President Joe Biden in Iran.

Rouzbeh Fouladi/ZUMA

Bahram Farrokhi

-OpEd-

The Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is weak both structurally and for its dismal popularity level, which has made it take some contradictory, or erratic, decisions in its war against Hamas in Gaza.

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Other factors influencing its decisions include the pressures of the families of Hamas hostages, and the U.S. administration's lukewarm support for this government and entirely reactive response to the military provocations and "hit-and-run" incidents orchestrated by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its allies, which include Hamas. Israel has also failed to mobilize international opinion behind its war on regional terrorism, in what might be termed a full-blown public relations disaster.

The administration led by President Joe Biden has, by repeating the Democrats' favored, and some might say feeble, policy of appeasing Iran's revolutionary regime, duly nullified the effects of Western sanctions imposed on that regime. By delisting its proxies, the Houthis of Yemen, as terrorists, the administration has allowed them to devote their energies to firing drones and missiles across the Red Sea and even indulging in piracy. The general picture is of a moment of pitiful weakness for the West, in which Iran and other members of the Axis - of Evil or Resistance, take your pick - are daily cocking a snook at the Western powers.

You wonder: how could the United States, given its military and technological resources, fail to spot tankers smuggling out banned Iranian oil through the Persian Gulf to finance the regime's foreign entanglements, while Iran is able to track Israeli-owned ships as far aways as the Indian Ocean? The answer, rather simply, lies in the Biden administration's decision to indulge the ayatollahs and hope for the best.