Another African-American man shot to death by police in Atlanta
The dead man has been identified as Rayshard Brooks, 27, who was shot by a police officer during a struggle outside of a Wendy’s drive-through restaurant.
According to police, Mr Brooks resisted arrest after he failed a breathalyser test.
Atlanta's Police Chief Erika Shields has since resigned after the fatal shooting.
Shooting caught on camera
According to BBC News, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations is probing the death of Brooks and is looking at video taken by an eyewitness.
In the video, he can be seen on the ground outside a Wendy's restaurant, struggling with two police officers.
He grabs an officer's Taser and breaks free from the officers, running away. The other officer then manages to use a Taser on Brooks and both officers then run out of the frame of the video.
Gunshots can then be heard and Brooks is seen on the ground.
He was taken to hospital but later died.
Protests
A number of protesters gathered outside of Wendy's on Friday, according to the New York Times.
Protests then began again in the centre of Atlanta on Saturday, June 13, 2020. Images from the protest show demonstrators holding signs with Brooks' name and Black Lives Matter signs.
Atlanta Mayor Lance Bottoms has also called for the termination of the officer involved in Brooks' death.
People in Atlanta had already been protesting following the death of George P. Floyd Jr, who died after a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for over eight minutes. The officer has been sacked and charged with second-degree murder.
VI legislators speak out
Racial injustice and police brutality have been condemned by legislators in the Virgin Islands, including Premier and Minister of Finance, Honourable Andrew A. Fahie (R1), who has said what the world is seeing happening in the United States and elsewhere is the arrival of the tipping point after more than 100 years of hiding the serious issues of hate and discrimination under the carpet or simply turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to it.
'Mr Speaker, it is no secret that based on our own history here in the BVI, we do have some similar issues to confront and to overcome. And we have to deal with these issues sooner rather than later," Hon Fahie said during the Eighth Sitting of the Second Session of the Fourth House of Assembly (HoA) at the Save the Seed Energy Centre in Duff's Bottom, Tortola, on June 11, 2020.
VI not immune to racism- Dr Wheatley
Minister for Education, Culture, Youth Affairs, Fisheries and Agriculture, Dr the Honourable Natalio D. Wheatley (R7) also called on the Virgin Islands to stand together with the global movement against racism and police brutality, adding that the Territory is not immune to it.
“I think it is important that all of us stand together globally against racism because we still have a far way to go,” Dr Wheatley said in the House of Assembly on June 8, 2020.
He added that Virgin Islanders and their families travel all the time and some of their children attend colleges in the United States and United Kingdom, including children of Members of the House of Assembly, and they could end up experiencing racism and police brutality.
“I want to associate myself with the expressions of disapproval and discontent being expressed all over the world at police brutality that has existed in the United States of America and other places for a very long time.”
‘A collective knee on our necks’
Meanwhile, commentator Mr Claude O. Skelton-Cline called on all Virgin Islanders to get on the bandwagon and fight against injustices faced by people of colour, stating that the United Kingdom and Governor Augustus J. U. Jaspert have their 'knees on VI's collective neck.'
"Every time the United Kingdom uses its cohesive powers, that's a knee on our collective neck. Every time the United Kingdom threatens us or gives us an ultimatum, that's a knee on our collective necks," Mr Skelton-Cline said during his Honestly Speaking radio show on ZBVI 780 AM on Tuesday, June 9, 2020.
He said the British Overseas Territories (OTs) being forced to sign the Protocols for Effective Financial Management is a “knee on our necks."
In addition, he said imperial UK legislation such as ones that affect VI's financial services sector; that can also undermine the economy, are all oppressive strategies of institutional racism to suppress the people of the Territory.
VI to hold march against racism on June 20, 2020
Meanwhile, a march against racial discrimination against Black people is slated for the Virgin Islands on Saturday, June 20, 2020.
The march will begin at 2:30 pm at the Noel Lloyd Positive Action Movement Park in Road Town and end at Queen Elizabeth II Park.
In an exclusive interview with Virgin Islands News Online, Ms Via C. Donovan Hodge, a student of Marymount Manhattan College in New York, said a demonstration is necessary in the Virgin Islands (VI) not only for George P. Floyd Jr but against racial injustices “in America, our home, and the world moreover.”
She said although slavery was abolished in the late 1800s people of the African diaspora have been fighting to be treated as more than subhuman for generations “and I think it is time we put that fight to an end.
“I don’t want to live in a world where these stories of hate are stories told by my grandparents, parents, myself and my children after me. We as a Territory are not immune to the effects of racism and have silently allowed it to fester within our waters. I want to bring this fight to the forefront because I believe that confrontation is the only true catalyst for change.”
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36 Responses to “Another African-American man shot to death by police in Atlanta”
UNFORTUNATELY SOME OF THESE PEOPLE WHO PRACTICE THIS UNCIVILISE WAY OF LIFE ALREADY BELONGERS .SOME JUST ARRIVE AND SOME BEEN LIVING WITH US FOR QUITE SOME TIME. BVI HAS NO PLACE FOR THIS.
I THINK EMPLOYERS SHOULD EDUCATE EMPLOYEE FROM UK, EROPE AND USA ABOUT OUR LOCAL POPULATION AND THE DEMOGRAPHIC MAKE UP OF THE BVI SO THERE WILL BE NO SUPRISE WHEN THEY ARRIVE AND SEE A BLACK BRO LIKE MYSELF DRIVING A RANGE ROVER.
They care little about each other and neither about themselves.Blacks are their own and their worse enemies.
Racism is rampant in the BVI..check positions in the Trust Cimpanies, who holds the majority of the managing director positions and senior management positions.
The vision/mission of the police is to protect and serve, at least on paper. However, the police in both the UK and US protect Whites and their property. Black lives matter and some like to add that all lives matter. True. But does it not look like only White lives matter? From the first slave landing in James Town, Va, 1619 through today, Black lives never mattered in the US. Blacks have always been hunted like animals. Thousands have been lynched. Millions more unfairly and disproportionately jailed. Lynched mobs have burned property and murdered hundreds of innocent Blacks in Black communities, ie, 1923 in Rosewood, Fl , 1921 in Tulsa, OK (Black Wall Street property pillaged and burned to the ground and hundreds murdered)......etc. Prior the prevalence of cellphones(police hate cellphones; they are equalizers and evidence) and otherwise clear and convincing evidence, police have murdered thousands with impunity. As Arthur Hodge(buried at her old Her Majesty’s Prison. Why no Her Majesty’s High School) was the only White Slave master hanged for murdering a slave ( Prosper) so too only a few police have been brought to justice for murdering (not justified taking of life) Black men. The wave of police killings are not anomalies. Let’s march on June 20, the day after Juneteenth. Be in the number speaking loudly for justice. As Martin said, ‘Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.’ March! Be safe.
Now you want the Guv and Comish to show up to the march. Lol. You the **** and ***** not down with any racial, legal and social justice for Blacks. They are the system and these basic equal rights for Blacks may escape their conscience and human decency. Both are media w....s and like the media spotlight so they show up at all it will be to get some free press or look for someone to lock up. It is best they stay away for their attendance will be fake. The C****h living the life of Royale and the young G******* is on a career ticket punching campaign.
, ran and tried to fire it at them, he basically committed suicide
THAT IS THE GREATEST INJUSTICE HERE LOCALLY!! THAT IS WHAT WE NEED TO MARCH ABOUT!
PREMIER YOU NEED TO LOOK INTO THIS!