Floyd e a América racista

30/05/2020 by j. manuel cordeiro 2 Comments

Copwatch (also Cop Watch) is a network of activist organizations, typically autonomous and focused in local areas, in the United States and Canada (and to a lesser extent Europe) that observe and document police activity while looking for signs of police misconduct and police brutality. They believe that monitoring police activity on the streets is a way to prevent police brutality. [Wikipedia]

Grupos de pessoas organizam-se, nos EUA, para filmar a acção policial porque já sabem que a probabilidade de esta ser violenta e injusta é elevada. Esperam pela reacção da polícia quando essa violência acontece e depois publicam os vídeos se o caso começa por ser abafado.

Foi o que aconteceu com Floyd.

Há assim tanto para investigar?

Floyd junta-se ao rol de vítimas da polícia americana que raramente sai condenada nestes casos – o agente que matou Floyd já tinha cadastro em crimes policiais e continuava no activo. Agora foi despedido, em conjunto com outros três agentes envolvidos, embora a primeira reacção oficial da polícia tenha sido dizer que Floyd tinha morrido “vítima de um acidente médico”. Mas a violência e o racismo foi filmada. [Ana Sá Lopes, PÚBLICO]

Foi o que aconteceu, em 2016, para citar mais um exemplo, com Alton Sterling.

While listening to the police scanner application on his cellphone, Arthur “Silky Slim” Reed heard the makings of what could be a violent confrontation between police and a suspect. Soon after, he rushed to the Triple S. Food Mart in Baton Rouge where two police officers had shot and killed Alton Sterling at point blank range. Reed arrived at the scene where several of his activists filmed the altercation—they immediately knew how significant the footage was, but wanted to wait for police to release a public statement on the shooting. “We wanted to wait to hear what police had to say, and make sure we had enough copies of our videos in the community,” Reed told The Independent, “so that when police did get their hands on the video it wasn’t something that they could destroy.”

The statement never came, so Reed distributed the footage to 125 supporters of Stop The Killing, his anti-violence nonprofit, who published the video on social media and sent copies to The Associated Press, which led to worldwide news coverage and outrage turning the public into key eyewitnesses. It wasn’t long before millions viewed the graphic footage: two officers pinning the 37-year-old Sterling on the ground before at least one officer fired multiple rounds into Sterling’s chest and back. The video is bloody and explicit, but unfortunately nothing new for the anti-violence group, whose filmed more than 30 violent interactions in the community over the years. [Independent, 2016]

Agora, quando a violência veio para a rua depois da morte de Floyd, a reacção mais veemente de Trump foi contra os protestantes nas ruas. Não foi contra a polícia que tentou abafar o caso. As palavras de apoio às vítimas foram meramente circunstanciais, quando comparadas com a violência verbal que usa no Twitter para outros temas e, inclusivamente, contra estes protestantes.