WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th May, 2020) The death of handcuffed African-American suspect George Floyd in the US state of Minnesota, apparently caused by a police officer's knee crushing the victim's neck against pavement, shows little has changed despite reform efforts prompted by years of police killings of black suspects, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a press release on Tuesday.
"Nearly six years after Eric Garner's death in New York - and four years after Philando Castile's in Minnesota - this tragic video shows how little meaningful change has emerged to prevent police from taking the lives of Black people," the release said.
Garner died in July 2014 from a choke hold applied by a New York City police officer during his arrest while Castile was shot during a traffic stop in Minnesota two years later. They were among dozens of African-Americans killed by police, often during routine encounters with law enforcement during the past decade. The incidents that have sparked protests as well as the introduction and deployment of police body cameras and attempts to reform police policies.
A bystander's video of Floyd's killing Monday shows a police officer kneeling on Floyd's neck, crushing it to the pavement as Floyd moans "I can't breathe."
"Make no mistake: George Floyd should be alive today. The officers responsible must be held accountable. The public has seen the video," the ACLU said.
The ACLU charged that African Americans continue to be targeted by police for low level offenses and subjected to unreasonable, unnecessary violence.
