Skip to main content

Las protestas por la muerte de George Floyd incendian Estados Unidos de costa a costa


Disturbios en una treintena de ciudades, de Los Ángeles a las puertas de la Casa Blanca, donde Trump advirtió a los manifestantes de que serían recibidos con "los perros más feroces y las armas más amenazantes”

De Seattle a Houston, de Los Ángeles a las puertas mismas de la Casa Blanca, donde el presidente Trump advirtió vía Twitter de que, si los centenares de manifestantes hubieran osado atravesar la valla, ”habrían sido recibidos por los perros más feroces y las armas más amenazantes”. Un joven de 19 años muerto en Detroit, según la policía de la ciudad, después de que alguien abriera fuego desde una furgoneta contra un grupo de manifestantes. Un guardia de seguridad abatido en Oakland. Saqueos en Portland y declaración del estado de emergencia. Cortes de autopistas en Milwaukee. El cuartel general de la CNN en Atlanta, atacado. Centenares de detenidos y coches de policía ardiendo en Nueva York. Unos 500 arrestados en Los Ángeles. Este es el balance de una noche, la del viernes, la cuarta jornada de protestas tras la muerte de George Floyd, en que la mecha prendida en Minneapolis se extendió en disturbios por una treintena de ciudades de todo el país.

“Así no es como cambiamos América. Así no es cómo cambiamos el mundo”, dijo Keisha Lance Bottoms, alcaldesa demócrata de Atlanta, afroamericana, en una conferencia de prensa mientras la ciudad ardía. “Ya es suficiente. Todos estamos enfadados. Esto duele. Esto duele a todos los que estamos en esta sala. ¿Pero qué vais a cambiar rompiendo la ciudad en mil pedazos? Habéis perdido toda credibilidad. Esto no es una protesta. Esto es un caos. Esto no estaba en el espíritu de Martin Luther King Jr”, añadió, recordando a uno de los hijos más célebres de la ciudad, activista por los derechos civiles a quien invocan muchos de los que salen a la calle estos días contra el racismo policial.

Una batalla campal se había desatado en los alrededores del parque olímpico de la capital de Georgia, con cristales rotos, saqueos y cargas policiales. No muy lejos, algunos manifestantes se subieron a un gran logo de la CNN en su cuartel general, lo vandalizaron con espráis de pintura y rompieron los vidrios de entrada a la sede, en un tenso enfrentamiento con los antidisturbios retransmitido en directo por las cámaras de la cadena de televisión. El gobernador del Estado, Brian Kemp, anunció que medio millar de soldados de la Guardia Nacional habían sido activados.

“No puedo respirar”, rezaban las pancartas también en la ciudad de Nueva York, como gritaba George Floyd mientras el agente Derek Chauvin le ahogaba contra el suelo, la rodilla en su cuello, sin atender a sus súplicas de auxilio. Los manifestantes, con las manos arriba, se encaraban a la policía y gritaban: “¡No disparen!”.

Las escaramuzas con la policía se sucedieron en Brooklyn y en el sur de Manhattan. Los agentes respondían con gas pimienta y pelotas de goma a los objetos que les arrojaban. Vehículos policiales ardieron por las calles. Los detenidos se acumulaban y las autoridades quisieron trasladarlos a dependencias policiales en autobuses de línea. Pero al menos un conductor, como se recoge en un vídeo distribuido por redes sociales, se apeó del autobús lleno de manifestantes arrestados, y se negó a transportarlos. Los autobuses, dijo el sindicato en un tuit, “no trabajan para el Departamento de Policía de Nueva York. Transportamos a las familias trabajadoras de la ciudad”.

En la ciudad de Washington, la capital del país, el servicio secreto decidió cerrar el cerco sobre la Casa Blanca debido a las protestas que se producían en el exterior. Hubo al menos dos detenidos entre los cientos de participantes. En un insólito hilo de tuits, el presidente aseguró que estaba viendo “cada movimiento” desde el interior de su residencia. “No pude sentirme más seguro”, dijo, elogiando a los agentes del servicio secreto. “Dejaron a los manifestantes gritar y despotricar todo lo que quisieron, pero cuando alguien se ponía demasiado juguetón o fuera de lugar, se les echaban encima rápidamente, duro. No sabían lo que les golpeaba”, explicó. “Una gran multitud, profesionalmente organizada, pero nadie se acercó a atravesar la valla. Si lo hubieran hecho, habrían sido recibidos por los perros más feroces y las armas más amenazantes que he visto jamás. Ahí es cuando la gente podría haber sido herida de gravedad, por lo menos. Muchos agentes del servicio secreto solo estaban esperando para la acción".

“Son los antifascistas y la extrema izquierda. ¡No echen la culpa a otros!”, volvió a tuitear Trump el sábado.

La muerte de Floyd ha hecho revivir en algunas ciudades el recuerdo a sus propias víctimas de la brutalidad policial que denuncian los manifestantes. En Louisville (Kentucky) se protestó en memoria de la afroamericana Breonna Taylor, de 26 años, muerta en marzo por ocho balazos de tres policías en su apartamento. En Austin (Texas) se marchó por Mike Ramos, al que un agente mató a tiros desarmado en su coche hace un mes. En Phoenix (Arizona) los manifestantes quisieron que no se olvidara a Dion Johnson, de 28 años, que este mismo lunes recibió un disparo letal de una agente tras una discusión.

La violencia policial es la sexta causa de muerte entre los jóvenes de color. Estos tienen, según un estudio de las universidades de Michigan, Rutgers y Washington, 2,5 veces más de posibilidades de morir a manos de la policía que los blancos. Pero, si la jornada del jueves fue celebrada como una victoria por numerosos activistas, muchos vieron la escalada de violencia del viernes por todo el país como advertencia de una pérdida de control.

Source: elpais.com, Pablo Guimon, 30 de mayo 2020


⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.


Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!



"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Comments

Most viewed (Last 7 days)

Florida executes Michael Tanzi

Florida on Tuesday executed a death row inmate described by one local detective as a "fledgling serial killer" for the murder of a beloved Miami Herald employee. Florida executed Michael Tanzi on Tuesday, 25 years after the murder of beloved Miami Herald employee Janet Acosta, who was attacked in broad daylight on her lunch break in 2000.   Michael Tanzi, 48, was executed by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford and pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. ET. 

South Carolina executes Mikal Mahdi

Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers A man facing the death penalty for committing two murders was executed by firing squad on Friday, the second such execution in the US state of South Carolina this year. Mikal Mahdi, 42, was executed for the 2004 murder of 56-year-old James Myers, an off-duty police officer, and the murder of a convenience store employee three days earlier. According to a statement from the prison, "the execution was performed by a three-person firing squad at 6:01 pm (2201 GMT)," with Mahdi pronounced dead four minutes later.

Afghanistan | Four men publicly executed by Taliban with relatives of victims shooting them 'six or seven times' at sport stadium

Four men have been publicly executed by the Taliban, with relatives of their victims shooting them several times in front of spectators at a sport stadium. Two men were shot around six to seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the centre of Afghanistan's Badghis province, witnesses told an AFP journalist in the city.  The men had been 'sentenced to retaliatory punishment' for shooting other men, after their cases were 'examined very precisely and repeatedly', the statement said.  'The families of the victims were offered amnesty and peace but they refused.'

USA | Why the firing squad may be making a comeback

South Carolina plans to execute Mikal Mahdi on Friday for the murder of a police officer, draping a hood over his head and firing three bullets into his heart. The choice to die by firing squad – rather than lethal injection or the electric chair – was Mahdi’s own, his attorney said last month: “Faced with barbaric and inhumane choices, Mikal Mahdi has chosen the lesser of three evils.” If it proceeds, Mahdi’s execution would be the latest in a recent string of events that have put the spotlight on the firing squad as a handful of US death penalty states explore alternatives to lethal injection, by far the nation’s dominant execution method.

I spent 16 years in solitary in South Carolina. This is what it did to me. | Opinion

South Carolinian Randy Poindexter writes about the effects 16 years of solitary confinement had on him ahead of South Carolina’s planned execution of Mikal Mahdi , who spent months in solitary as a young man. For 16 years, I lived in a concrete cell. Twenty-three hours a day, every day, for more than 3,000 days, South Carolina kept me in solitary confinement. I was a young man before I was sent to solitary — angry, untreated and unwell. I made mistakes. But I wasn’t sentenced to madness. That’s what solitary did to me. My mental health worsened with each passing day. At first, paranoia and depression set in. Then, hallucinations and self-mutilation. I talked to people who weren’t there. I cut myself to feel something besides despair. I could do nothing as four of my friends and fellow prisoners took their own lives rather than endure another day of torturous isolation.

South Carolina | Man who ambushed off-duty cop to face firing squad in second execution of its kind

Mikal Mahdi, 48, who was found guilty of killing an off-duty police officer and a convenience store worker, is the second inmate scheduled to executed by South Carolina's new firing squad A murderer who ambushed and shot an off duty police officer eight times before burning his body in a killing spree is set to become the second person to die by firing squad. South Carolina's highest court has rejected the last major appeal from Mikal Mahdi, 41, who is to be put to death with three bullets to the heart at 6pm on April 11 at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. Mahdi's lawyers said his original lawyers put on a shallow case trying to spare his life that didn't call on relatives, teachers or people who knew him and ignored the impact of weeks spent in solitary confinement in prison as a teen.

Louisiana | Lawyers of Jessie Hoffman speak about their final moments before execution

As Louisiana prepared its first execution in 15 years, a team of lawyers from Loyola Law were working to save Jessie Hoffman’s life. “I was a young lawyer three years out of law school, and Jessie was almost finished with his appeals at that time, and my boss told me we needed to file something for Jessie because he’s in danger of being executed,” Kappel said. Kappel and her boss came up with a civil lawsuit to file that said since they wouldn’t give him a protocol for his execution, he was being deprived of due process, and the lawsuit was in the legal process for the next 10 years.

Lethal Injection, Electric Chair, or Firing Squad? An Inhumane Decision for Death Row Prisoners

South Carolina resumed executions with the firing squad killing of Brad Sigmon last month. Mikal Madhi’s execution date is days away. The curtain shrieked as it was yanked open to reveal a 67-year-old man tied to a chair. His arms were pulled uncomfortably behind his back. The red bull’s-eye target on his chest rose and fell as he desperately attempted to still his breathing. The man, Brad Sigmon, smiled at his attorney, Bo King, seated in the front row before guards placed a black bag over his head. King said Sigmon appeared to be trying his best to put on a brave face for those who had come to bear witness.

Execution date set for prisoner transferred to Oklahoma to face death penalty

An inmate who was transferred to Oklahoma last month to face the death penalty now has an execution date. George John Hanson, also known as John Fitzgerald Hanson, is scheduled to die on June 12 for the 1999 murder of 77-year-old Mary Bowles.  The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday set the execution date. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board has a tentative date of May 7 for Hanson’s clemency hearing, executive director Tom Bates said.

Arizona | The cruelty of isolation: There’s nothing ‘humane’ about how we treat the condemned

On March 19, I served as a witness to the execution of a man named Aaron Gunches, Arizona’s first since 2022. During his time on death row, he begged for death and was ultimately granted what is likely more appropriately described as an emotionless state-assisted suicide. This experience has profoundly impacted me, leading to deep reflection on the nature of death, humanity, and the role we play in our final moments. When someone is in the end stages of life, we talk about hospice care, comfort, care, easing suffering and humane death. We strive for a “good death” — a peaceful transition. I’ve seen good ones, and I’ve seen bad, unplanned ones.