Mass riots due to murders of African-Americans by policemen occur regularly in the United States, the analyst of Vestnik Kavkaza, Artyom Sokolov, said in the National Question Program on Vesti FM, commenting on the protests and pogroms in Minneapolis.
“For example, in February 2012, George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch coordinator in a Florida settlement, shot dead 17-year-old African-American teenager Trayvon Martin, believing that he was threatening him. The death of Trayvon Martin caused a wave of mass protests in the United States demanding to hold Zimmerman accountable. His trial began in the summer of 2012, and a year later, the jury found Zimmerman not guilty. This decision provoked large-scale protests in many US cities, which in some cases, grew into clashes with the police,” the expert recalled.
“Against the backdrop of these events, the Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum. The supporters of the movement are actively involved in protests against a policeman in Minneapolis. The Black Lives Matter is a movement of activists opposed to violence against black people, it organizes protests and demonstrations in connection with the killings by police, police violence and racial discrimination in the United States. The movement became widespread in 2014 during street demonstrations caused by the death of two African-Americans - Michael Brown and Eric Garner,” Artem Sokolov said.
“Now about whether African-Americans are really a particular subject of brutality by the American police. It is definitely very difficult to estimate since there are no publicly available official studies on this topic. As for the unofficial data, a few years ago, The Wall Street Journal quoted statistics refuting the police’s excessive brutality against African-Americans. According to the newspaper, among whites and Hispanics, police account for 12% of fatal cases, and 4% for African-Americans,” he said.
“At the same time, whites made up 50% of those killed as a result of incidents, during which police officers used weapons, African-Americans - 26%. In addition, black Americans account for the vast majority of violent crimes. In 75 districts, where most of the country's population lives, African-Americans make up 15% of the population, but they account for two-thirds of serious crimes. In New York, 23% of the population are African-Americans, but they commit 75 to 80% of crimes using weapons, 70% of robberies. 34% of New Yorkers are white. They accounted for 2% of cases with shooting and 4% of robberies,” Artem Sokolov said.
