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The U.S. faced a growing chorus of global criticism on Wednesday, sparked by outrage over the death of black man at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer just over a week ago, as well as over President Donald Trump’s response to the millions that have taken to the streets in protest.
The latest high-profile voice to chime in was that of Pope Francis. “We cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form. At the same time, we have to recognize that violence is self-destructive and self-defeating. Nothing is gained by violence and so much is lost. Let us pray for reconciliation and peace,” the pontiff tweeted on Wednesday.
Since May 25, when a graphic video began circulating of 46-year-old George Floyd dying in Minneapolis as a policeman put a knee on his neck for upwards of eight minutes, even as he said he couldn’t breathe, U.S. protests have dominated global headlines.
“ ‘The killing of George Floyd and the demagogic reaction of Donald Trump to legitimate protests has shocked the world.’ ”
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned Floyd’s death and voiced support for lawful protests. He stopped short of criticizing Trump, who earlier this week threatened to call in the military on protesters, with the response to mass demonstrations in Washington, D.C., some of them veering into violence and vandalism, alarmingly military in character.
Johnson also faced pressure from members of the Labour and Scottish National parties, who urged a ban on tear-gas and rubber-bullet exports to the U.S..
“The killing of George Floyd and the demagogic reaction of Donald Trump to legitimate protests has shocked the world,” tweeted Richard Leonard, leader of the Scottish Labour Party, on Wednesday.
“We all watch in horror and consternation what’s going on [in the U.S.],” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday. “It is a time to pull people together.”
Fanning the global anger were scenes of riot police charging a crowd near the White House on Monday, with social-media images flooded with images of protesters as well as journalists being fired on with rubber bullets.
Among them were an Australian journalist and camera crew, whose coverage of the incident aired live on TV, to the horror of colleagues back home. On Tuesday, Australia’s U.S. ambassador, Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., released a statement on Twitter about the importance of the free press and that his country “takes mistreatment of journalists seriously.”
Global protests were seen over the weekend in Germany, the U.K., Iran and elsewhere. In Paris, no stranger to mass-scale public demonstrations, protesters clashed with police on Tuesday evening and set fires. A London protest drew hundreds on Wednesday, and buildings turned purple on Tuesday evening to pay homage to Floyd’s memory.
More demonstrations are planned later this week, with several expected to target U.S. embassies, the Associated Press reported.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Mass said on Twitter on Tuesday that he hoped peaceful protests in the U.S. will no longer result in violence, and will make a difference. Journalists who report on the scene, he said, must be able to do their work — a rule of law must guarantee that they can.
Global opinion was not wholly condemning of Trump’s rhetoric and approach. Spain’s right-wing, anti-immigrant Vox Party tweeted out its support on Monday with the hashtag #SpainSupportsTrump. That triggered a backlash on Twitter, with contratweets under hashtags #VoxIsNotSpain #SpainDoesNotSupportTrump.
Meanwhile stars of European football, such as the Italian-born French forward Marcus Thuram, who plays for Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Bundesliga, was one of several players in that German league showing his support. Thuram dropped to one knee in a during a match on May 31.
When then–San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began taking a knee during the pregame playing of the national anthem early in the 2016–17 season, to protest racial inequality and police brutality, it triggered a movement and a wave of intense criticism, notably from Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, that is believed to have been a key factor in his not having played a down in an NFL game since that season.
English winger Jadon Malik Sancho, who plays for Borussia Dortmund, showed his support by wearing a shirt at a weekend Bundesliga match that read, “Justice for George Floyd.” London’s Chelsea Football Club, having resumed in-person training with a June 17 date set for the pandemic-suspended season’s resumption, formed a kneeling “H,” for the word humans, in a show of support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Among companies, U.S. business leaders from the likes of Apple AAPL, +0.55%, Microsoft MSFT, +0.24% and Netflix NFLX, -1.25% were quick to express outrage over Floyd’s death and support for protesters while directing funds to social-justice movements.
The Americas regional chief executive of Barclays BARC, +4.87% BCS, +5.37%, Richard Haworth, and the British bank’s chief risk officer, CS Venkatakrishnan, said Wednesday that they were “horrified by the needless deaths of members of the black community.” In expressing solidarity, the Barclays executives said every black employee had the bank’s “unwavering support.”
