Greta Thunberg condemns 'police brutality' in US after video of 75-year-old man being pushed by cops goes viral
Greta Thunberg has called on EU leaders to officially condemn “police brutality and attacks on the free press” amid Black Lives Matter protests in the US. The Swedish activist took to Twitter to respond to a video of a 75-year-old man who was shoved by two police officers on the sidewalk, in Buffalo, New York.
“Still waiting for the EU and individual democratic nations to officially condemn the police brutality and attacks on the free press escalating the USA. For how long are we going to stand by, watch and say nothing?” Thunberg wrote on Twitter. Her tweet comes amid the unrest in the country sparked by the May 25 death of George Floyd. The 46-year-old African-American man was killed in police custody after a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes. The officer was later identified as Derek Chauvin, who has been charged with second-degree murder.
According to reports, the clip of the unidentified old man shoved by police officers was taken by a reporter from local radio station WBFO. In the video, the man was seen approaching a line of officers in riot gear outside of Buffalo City Hall on Thursday, June 4. When the man started to speak to the officers, they immediately began shouting at him to move along while one officer pushed him with a baton, and a second cop shoved him with his hand.
The elderly man was then seen stumbling before falling back and hitting his head on the sidewalk. Blood was also seen flowing from his head. Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said the man was later taken to a hospital, where he was in serious condition, as reported by The Daily Mail. Following the incident, police initially released a statement saying a person “was injured when he tripped and fell”. However, it has now been said that the two police officers were under investigation.
The shoving of the old man was reportedly one of the many incidents of police brutality in the US during the nationwide protests as they have been criticized for their use of heavy-handed tactics on largely-peaceful protesters. In another shocking video uploaded by journalist John Knefel, an NYPD officer wearing a white shirt was seen beating a male cyclist with his baton, before two more officers joined him and knocked the man to the ground and restrain him. The man in the video was seen repeatedly asking: “What did I do?” as officials grabbed him.
In another incident, a 29-year-old man at a rally in California identified as Dontae Parks claimed that an officer threatened to spray tear gas at his two-year-old son. Parks was present at the rally in Long Beach on Sunday, May 31, with his son when the officer allegedly made the threatening comments. The man also alleged that if he and his son were white, the cop would not have threatened to spray tear gas. “It would have been a whole different scenario and that's one of the reasons I was there [at the protest],” he added.