Communities across the world were left in a state of horror and disgust as footage of George Floyd’s murder spread across social media.
The anger over Floyd’s death and countless others across America’s history has led to unrest across America for four nights in a row.
Floyd has tragically become the latest victim of police brutality and institutional racism in policing that continuously leads to innocent and unarmed black women, men and children being killed.
Protests have been reported in Minneapolis where George Floyd was killed and in other cities and states such as Atlanta and California.
With reports of civil unrest, looting, and protests, Donald Trump has announced that he will be putting the army on standby to deploy to the streets.
The National Guard has also been called in to reduce tensions.
This comes days after his violent tweet that implied that looters will be shot – “These THUGS are dishonouring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”.
This decision by the White House to call on the army was last made in 1992 when riots happened across Los Angeles following the Rodney King trial.
Back in 1992, Rodney was beaten brutally by a gang of police officers. A witness filmed the incident and sent it into a local news station.
Despite the evidence, the officers were acquitted of all charges following their trial. The verdict led to almost a week of civil unrest in Los Angeles.