Police shootings in the USA claim over a thousand lives a year, with many going unreported, and 2021, the year after George Floyd’s murder, recorded as one of the deadliest years on record. A disproportionate number of those killed in such incidents are persons of colour.
The summer of 2020 saw massive Black Lives Matter protests across the USA. Although these protests have largely died down, a small group has continued to demonstrate in Cambridge MA, standing at the corner of Prospect and Broadway streets every Friday afternoon. No media outlet has picked up the story of these peaceful demonstrators holding up BLM signs, including: ‘All lives matter but not all lives are threatened with racist violence’.
In Spring 2022, one of my students at Emerson College did a video report on these Stand-outers as they call themselves. It includes comments from two of the group’s members, retired pediatrician Dr. Alan Meyers and history professor Dr. Tom Johnson (erroneously mentioned as Robinson in the video) on why they continue demonstrating. Report below, shared with the student’s permission:
Continue readingFiled under: Human rights, Resistance, Southasia | Tagged: BLM, cambridge ma, George Floyd, George Floyd protests, mental health, police brutality, police killing, police reform | 2 Comments »
Journeys to democracy 