Some are questioning whether tough police tactics against demonstrators in protests over George Floyd's death in Minneapolis are actually making the violence worse rather than quelling it.
As protests grip the nation, officers have doused crowds with pepper spray, struck protesters with batons, steered police cars into throngs, shoved demonstrators and screamed curses. Some police action has been directed against people smashing windows, breaking into stores and burning cars, but many find other instances more difficult to understand -- like the elderly man knocked over by police as he walked with a cane on a Salt Lake City sidewalk.
While the protests and subsequent police interactions may be shocking to some, many African Americans aren't surprised because they've endured police brutality for decades, said Chris White, director of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality,U.S. Rep.
"It was hard for me to watch what happened, and I know it was even harder for him to experience it," Brown said. Two police officers in Atlanta were fired and three others placed on desk duty over excessive use of force during a protest incident involving two college students Saturday night. Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Sunday that she and the police chief made the decision after reviewing body-camera footage.
In a letter titled "Dear America," civil rights leader Rev. William Barber II, a pastor at Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, North Carolina, said protesters have the right to decry "brutal and inhumane" treatment at the hands of police. "I don't know what's going to happen over these next few days in this country because they want these killer cops arrested and they're not going to stop until they are," Williams said, referring to the lack of charges against the other three officers at the scene when Floyd's neck was pinned under Chauvin's knee.
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