On May 25th, 2020, George Floyd was arrested for allegedly using a counterfeit bank note. Arresting officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. As a result, Floyd died of asphyxiation. His dying words “I can’t breathe” became the slogan for a movement.
Floyd’s case was not an isolated incident. According to Washington Post research, 10,429 people were killed by the US police between 2015 and 2024. That is over 1,000 people every year. Black US Americans are killed by police at more than twice the rate of White Americans.
The murder gave a new lease of life to Black Lives Matter (BLM), which had been formed in 2013, following the murder of Trayvon Martin, and the subsequent acquittal of his killer, neighbourhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman. In 2020 in Berlin, BLM organised the first significant progressive demonstration post-Covid, when 3,500 people protested against Floyd’s murder.
This demonstration – primarily organised by BIPoC activists outside the White German bubble – marked a small but significant shift on the German Left. The next year saw 15,000 people demonstrate in Berlin on Nakba Day, the biggest pro-Palestine demonstration in a generation. One of the many reasons for the size of this demonstrations was the constant support of BLM for Palestine.
As we mourn Floyd’s death, we should learn the lessons – positive and negative – of what followed.
