George Floyd

By Jennifer Okundia

In series of viral videos, a man simply identified as George Floyd has died in Minneapolis, a major city in Minnesota, United States.

George was arrested and handcuffed by 4 white police officers for alleged forgery. The footage shows one officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck while the dying man kept repeating ”I can’t breathe”.

The officers who have now been fired from their jobs said he resisted, but passersby who filmed the incident revealed the deceased did not resist. George was later taken to the hospital in an ambulance where he eventually died.

#icantbreathe is currently trending on Twitter with series of reactions from the black community. Different groups have since staged protests outside the Minneapolis station while some youths vandalized the vehicle of the police officers involved.

Earlier in May 2020, a father Gregory McMichael, aged 64, and son Travis McMichael, 34 were arrested and charged in the US state of Georgia for shooting dead Ahmaud Arbery, 25, an unarmed black man who was jogging in February when he was confronted.

Police did not charge the McMichaels, who are white, for over two months, until the shooting gained widespread attention through the media, provoking outrage.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said the father and son followed Mr Arbery and confronted him with two firearms, and the younger McMichael shot and killed him.