The frustration, anger and discord in United States of America peaked in Minnesota’s Twin Cities on Friday during an unforgettable moment in the history of the country, triggered by the jamming of COVID-19, freedom of expression and racial injustice.
After over two months of battling with COVID-19, protesters in Minneapolis hit the street with some putting on face masks as a result of the lingering coronavirus to express their anger at the gruesome murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man. His last eight minutes in life was torturous as he was begging for mercy after a white cop knelt on his neck.
As a result of the protest, a police station went up in flames overnight after members of the police force left the premises of Precinct 3, which was later dominated by the protesters. On Friday morning, a CNN reporter, Omar Jimenez, a black man, was arrested with his crew members on live television.
Omar and his crew members were later released after the Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, apologized and said the arrest was a mistake.
By Friday afternoon, Derek Chauvin, the cop that knelt on Floyd’s neck was arrested and slammed with third-degree murder and manslaughter charges. However, activists have promised to keep up the fight until all the officers involved were put in police custody.
All of these instigated Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to comment publicly on domestic affairs of United States.
While rounding off his daily briefing in Ottawa, Trudeau said: “Anti-black racism, racism, is real; it’s in the United States, but it’s also in Canada.
“We need as a society to stand together, to stand up against discrimination, to be there for each other in respect, but also understand that we have work to do as well in Canada in our systems that we need to work forward on.
“I call on all Canadians — whether it’s anti-black racism or anti-Asian racism or racism discrimination of any type, to stand together in solidarity, to be there for each other and know just how deeply people are being affected by what we see on the news these past few days.”
