Can I nominate the extra bank holiday being touted for October as [i"St Flashman Day?"[/i

The point is that black lives should matter as much as any other, not more. With issues around 200+ years of slavery, legal systems of apartheid in living memory, white supremacist militias, redlining and significant ongoing inequality and racism that hasn’t been and still isn’t the case.

There are other bad things in the world, I admit, but those also often provoke dissent, protests and resistance.

No problem with dissent protest etc. but using anything as an excuse for wanton violence and looting is shameful.

If the numbers of "white" people being arrested or murdered was as high as is within the "black' community, it wouldn't and couldn't be a mantra for the protesters to use.
There is a huge issue with race in the USA, especially in the "deep south", where "blacks" are still regarded as second class citizens - in the 21st century, can that be right, I dont think so.

I agree ,but, I also don't think the bible belt gets much of its opinion from informed, intelligent educated individuals either. America is a very strange country in many ways.

What doesn't help here is the hypocrisy of many of our elected individuals - you have the likes of Naz Shah tweeting black lives matter but was very happy for the lives of the white girls in Rotherham not to matter!!

Everybody bears personal responsibility for their actions as individuals, absolutely.

The worry for me is that the, often justified, disillusionment across broad swathes of society isn’t leading toward reforms and a more equitable, efficient and just system. We’re just turning on each other like radicalised rats in a sack, with the system being set aflame (literally, and metaphorically with the elections of people like Trump, Bolsanaro et al.). Maybe something better will emerge from the ashes. Hard to be optimistic at the moment though.

It reminds me of the DADA art movement, but with violence as the means of protest.

The Dadaists believed social, political, and cultural ideas of their time to be a byproduct of a bourgeois society, a society so apathetic it would rather fight a war against itself than challenge the status quo.

[i"We had lost confidence in our culture. Everything had to be demolished. We would begin again after the tabula rasa."[/i
Marcel Janco

I hope the cop who killed him gets the death sentence. Although saying that, it would be funnier if he went to jail. Watching his back for 24 hours a day for the rest of his life

He can't get the death penalty, 3rd degree murder, which he will bargain down to culpable homicide, or even [i]just[i] homicide or manslaughter, probably serve 4 years of a 10 year sentence. Which for a police officer in the US convicted of a crime against a "minority" individual will be a tough time (not tough enough i.m.h.o).

Will be very difficult to prove intent, certainly nigh on impossible to prove it was pre meditated.

Looks like your police officers charges are gonna get an upgrade.
Public pressure and all that.

Indeed, just read that, upgraded to 2nd degree murder and 2nd degree manslaughter and the other officers charged with aiding and abetting second degree murder and second degree manslaughter. As you say, may be down to trying appease the public. I would expect it will all shake out to plea bargains and Chauvin will get 15 to 20, the others 4 to 6, all will be out before Floyd's daughter turns 18. One thing is certain, Chauvin wont get acquitted like OJ did!

Yes, yes, but the glove didn't fit.
OJ was innocent.

Trump would probably pardon him