Updated: 9.30pm AEST
Melbourne, Australia
Reuters
Thousands took to the streets across Australia on Saturday, as did hundreds in Tokyo and Seoul to support US protests against police brutality, while demonstrations were expected around Europe in the coming hours.
The rolling, global protests reflect rising anger over police treatment of ethnic minorities, sparked by the 25th May killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis after a police officer detaining him knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes as fellow officers stood by.
A demonstrator wearing a mask holds a placard during a Black Lives Matter protest, following the death of George Floyd who died in police custody in Minneapolis, at Shibuya shopping and amusement district in Tokyo, Japan, on 6th June. PICTIRE: Reuters/Issei Kato
Asia-Pacific demonstrations, however, were limited by social-distancing curbs aiming at stopping the novel coronavirus pandemic.
In Brisbane, police estimated 10,000 people joined a peaceful protest, wearing masks and holding “Black Lives Matter” placards. Many wrapped themselves in indigenous flags, calling for an end to police mistreatment of Indigenous Australians.
In Sydney, a last-minute court decision overruled a coronavirus ban as several thousand people marched, amid a heavy police presence, chanting: “Whose lives matter? Black Lives matter.”
Rallies were also held in Melbourne, Adelaide and other Australian cities.
In Tokyo, marchers protested against what they said was police treatment of a Kurdish man who says he was stopped while driving and shoved to the ground, leaving him with bruises.
Organisers invoked the US protests, saying they were also marching in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I want to show that there’s racism in Japan now,” said 17-year-old high school student Wakaba, who declined to give her family name.
She and her friend, Moe, marching in their school uniforms, held a sign saying: “If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention”.
“No justice, no peace, no racist police,” the crowd chanted.
In Seoul, dozens of South Korean activists and foreign residents gathered, some wearing black masks with “can’t breathe” in Korea, echoing George Floyd’s final words as he lay on the pavement. Others participated in an online “viral photo protest.”
“South Korea is becoming a multicultural society,” organiser Shim Ji-hoon told Reuters. “So I proposed this march to have awareness of racial discrimination and make a world of living together.”
With pandemic restrictions in Bangkok, activists were going online, asking for video and photos of people wearing black, raising their fists and holding signs, and explaining why they “stand united behind Black Lives Matter”.
The Thai protesters plan to gather on the video-meeting platform Zoom on Sunday and observe 8 minutes 46 seconds of silence – the period that George Floyd was filmed pinned under the officer’s knee.
Around Europe, which has seen an unprecedented wave of anti-racism rallies drawing tens of thousands onto the streets, weekend protests were planned in Germany, Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Hungary.
As in Seoul, Paris authorities banned demonstrations in front of the local US Embassy, citing the coronavirus.
Some European demonstrators have been wearing masks and maintaining social distance, but in some places – notably Germany on Friday – large numbers marched closely together.
Banners and slogans have focused not just on George Floyd but on a string of other controversies in specific countries and mistreatment of minorities in general.
Meanwhile, in the United States on Friday, prominent Democratic politicians adopted the slogans of the nationwide protests and announced reforms, as tensions remained high in major cities after days of largely peaceful protests that saw sporadic violence.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has sparred with US President Donald Trump over his sometimes heavy-handed response to the rallies and marches in the nation’s capital, had the slogan “Black Lives Matter” painted in massive yellow letters on a street leading to the White House.
In Minneapolis, Democratic city leaders voted to end the use of knee restraints and choke holds, although the ordinance must be approved by a judge.
Separate autopsies conducted by the Hennepin County Medical examiner and a team hired by Floyd’s family each found that he died from asphyxiation.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said he would bar a state police training agency from teaching a restraint technique, sometimes called a “sleeper hold,” that involves restricting the carotid artery in the neck.
And in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo said his state should lead the way in passing “Say Their Name” reforms, including making police disciplinary records publicly available and banning chokeholds.
“Mr Floyd’s murder was the breaking point,” Cuomo, also a Democrat, said in a statement. “People are saying enough is enough, we must change.”
Amid accusations across the country of police use of excessive force during the 11 days of protests, a federal judge in Denver ordered city police to stop deploying tear gas, plastic bullets and other “less-than-lethal” devices such as flash grenades. The temporary injunction was in response to a lawsuit filed by protesters.
A spokesman for the Denver Police Department said the force would comply with the order.
National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell, in a videotaped message, said the NFL had made mistakes in not listening to players and it would now “encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest.”
The NFL, ranked as America’s most popular professional league in polls and television ratings, has been locked in a debate with players over kneeling protests during the national anthem before games, a practice made popular by quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who is black, in 2016 to protest against racial injustice and police brutality.
Trump, who derided the kneeling players as “sons of bitches” in 2017, criticized their actions again on Twitter earlier on Friday.
– with LISA LAMBERT and ALEXANDRA ALPER
