BY SHRI RAM SHAW<\/p>\n
New Delhi : \u2018\u2018Rang aur nasl, zaat aur mazhab\/ Jo bhi ho aaadmi se kamtar hain\u2019\u2019\u2026 (Colour and race, caste and religion\u2026they are lesser important than human being come what may.) Did you remember the mesmerizing and thought-provoking number \u2018\u2018Ponch kar ashq apni aankhon se\u2026muskurao toh koi baat bane\u2019\u2019\u2026 (wipe out those tears from your eyes and smile\u2026only then something will emerge) in the film Naya Raasta (1970), straight from the rebel poet and lyricist Sahir (Magician) Ludhianavi\u2019s heart? He strongly advocated\u2026 \u2018\u2018Nafraton ke jahan me hum ko\u2026pyaar ki bastiyaan basaani hain\u2019\u2019 (we have to build bustees of love in this world of hatred.) But, alas! Those social evils are still prevalent in our societies and that too in 21st century!<\/p>\n
And, the latest heart-rending incident of racial crime and police brutality took place in a country which claims to be the world\u2019s oldest democracy i.e. United States of America. Just close your eyes and visualize the scene\u2026and it\u2019s for sure tears will start rolling down your cheeks automatically\u202629-year-old Jacob Blake being shot and wounded in the back multiple times by a white officer with his three children watching.<\/p>\n
Justice was expected to be tampered with mercy, but that didn\u2019t happen. Clashes erupted after the video showing the shooting of the black man went viral. Police in the US city of Kenosha in Wisconsin resorted to tear gas shelling when a demonstration demanding racial justice turned violent after tensions increased following his killing. Shortly curfew was imposed in Kenosha County.<\/p>\n
Not long ago, United States witnessed a nationwide violent protest over the killing of 46-year old African-American George Floyd at Minneapolis in Minnesota (USA). The unarmed black man was handcuffed and pinned to the ground wreathing in pain\u2026a white police officer kneeling on his neck and he was pleading for help\u2026 he was gasping for breath\u2026 he was groaning \u201cplease, I can\u2019t breathe , don\u2019t kill me\u201d\u2026 another officer was standing by and watching.<\/p>\n
His only crime was that he was a black and was allegedly trying to use a $20 counterfeit bill. He lived in St. Louis Park, a Minneapolis suburb. He grew up in Houston and was a high school sports star. He worked at a restaurant in Minneapolis and rented from the owner. His death was captured on video and was later widely shared on social media. His death in police custody sparked massive outrage across the United States.<\/p>\n
Floyd\u2019s death shows how black people are subjected to excessive violence even when laws such as a 2016 \u201cduty to intervene\u201d policy exist. The countless deaths of black men and women is a form of \u201cgenocide,\u201d according to Benjamin Crump – a civil rights lawyer who has taken on the cases of Martin, Brown, Rice, Arbery, and Taylor and represented Floyd\u2019s family as well – and the killing of Floyd follows the same pattern of systematic racism. \u201cHow many \u2018while black\u2019 deaths will it take until the racial profiling and undervaluing of black lives by police finally ends?\u201d Crump wrote in a statement on Floyd\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
The black community is far too familiar with the police brutality that led to Floyd\u2019s death; there is no shortage of stories about law enforcement killing black people who are often unarmed. Although they make up about 13 percent of the population, black people accounted for 23 percent of the people killed by law enforcement in 2019, according to a Washington Post database.<\/p>\n
Over the past seven years, there has been growing attention paid to police brutality, due to several high-profile cases: African-American Trayvon Martin, 17, was unarmed when he was shot in February 2012 after being reported as \u201csuspicious\u201d for simply visiting his dad\u2019s fiancee, who lived in a gated community. Neighbourhood watchman George Zimmerman was acquitted in the case. In the wake of his death came Black Lives Matter, a movement against the systematic violence and discrimination against the black population. Allegations of police brutality have been constantly highlighted since the start of the Black Lives Matter movement.<\/p>\n
Protests continued as more black men continued to die at the hands of the police in 2014. Eric Garner – whose case closely resembles that of Floyd \u2013 said, \u201cI can\u2019t breathe\u201d 11 times as NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo put him in a chokehold after a confrontation over untaxed cigarettes. A month later, the death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown sparked mass protests in Ferguson. And in November, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was playing with his toy pellet gun when he was shot dead seconds after officer Timothy Loehmann stepped out of his squad car.<\/p>\n
Even in the past month, the black community has mourned the death of two people killed by both former and current law enforcement officials. In February, Ahmaud Arbery was chased and killed in Georgia by a former police detective and his son; it wasn\u2019t until after a graphic video documenting the shooting went viral this month that the men were arrested. And in March, Breonna Taylor, a black woman in Kentucky, was fatally shot in her own apartment in Louisville by three white policemen for an investigation that she wasn\u2019t even involved in. Like Arbery, her case didn\u2019t gain national recognition until recently.<\/p>\n
EOM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BY SHRI RAM SHAW New Delhi : \u2018\u2018Rang aur nasl, zaat aur mazhab\/ Jo bhi ho aaadmi se kamtar hain\u2019\u2019\u2026 (Colour and race, caste and religion\u2026they are lesser important than human being come what may.) Did you remember the mesmerizing and thought-provoking number \u2018\u2018Ponch kar ashq apni aankhon se\u2026muskurao toh koi baat bane\u2019\u2019\u2026 (wipe out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n