Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • All four police officers who were present when George Floyd was arrested in the US city of Minneapolis are now facing charges in connection with his death.

  • Derek Show Vin, the officer who was filmed kneeling on his neck, has had his charge elevated to second degree murder.

  • The three other police officers who were there have all been charged with aiding and abetting murder.

  • George Floyd's death has sparked huge protests in cities across America.

  • The vast majority of demonstrations over the past eight days have been peaceful, but some have turned violent.

  • Today, the U S Defense Secretary Mark Esper, distance himself from President Trump's suggestion that the military could be deployed.

  • Toe end protests over George Floyd's death on North America Correspondent Barbara Plett.

  • Russia is in Minneapolis for us tonight.

  • While it's been quite a day here, I'm at the memorial site for George Floyd and earlier his son Quincy and their lawyer passed through and flagged up that they were expecting new charges and one of the key ones that they've been demanding, as you said, is that all four officers be charged on that has happened.

  • Now the sun has welcomed that on as we were here, we were hearing that the people chance we got all four.

  • We got all four.

  • That has been one of the key rallying cries for the protests throughout the week.

  • This is how things played out.

  • For the past week, protesters have been demanding justice for George Floyd, tougher action against the police officers who arrested him.

  • There's been frustration, sadness and pain.

  • But today, finally, some news.

  • The very fact that we have filed these charges means that we believe in them.

  • But what I do not believe is that one successful prosecution can rectify the hurt and loss that so many people feel.

  • The solution to that pain will be slow and difficult work of constructing justice and fairness in our society.

  • Thes air.

  • The four officers who arrested George Floyd, the one who pinned him to the ground with a knee to his neck while he struggled to breathe, was charged, but not the others, who are now formally accused of playing a role in his death.

  • Today, the family returned to the memorial on the street corner where Mr Floyd took his last breath, speaking through their lawyer.

  • They've been calling for the authorities to carry out a thorough investigation into the actions of the police force.

  • We cannot have to justice systems in America.

  • What for black America and one for white America.

  • We must have equal justice for the United States of America.

  • Protests that began on the streets of Minneapolis spread across the country in demonstrations not seen since the civil rights unrest of the 19 sixties.

  • Hundreds of thousands of people marched, defying curfews, clashing with the police, chanting I can't breathe and black lives matter.

  • The turmoil provoked a threat from the president to deploy the military, a scenario that so alarmed the defense secretary today.

  • He publicly opposed it.

  • The option to use active duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire of situations.

  • We are not in one of those situations now.

  • I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act, the mother of George Floyd, six year old daughter, said.

  • He'd been a good father who provided for them grow up graduate.

  • He will never walk down.

  • The charges announced today may bring justice for Mr Floyd, but they won't be enough to quell the demands for radical reform of the way America polices black people.

  • This feels different from previous protests against police brutality.

  • It has galvanized more people across more divides than ever before, a movement against racial injustice that will not be easily silenced.

  • Theater Knee general admitted that the justice system has failed, he said, in investigating and bringing to justice other cases like this in Minnesota, but also across America, which is quite an extraordinary statement.

  • But George Floyd's family are looking for justice.

  • They're hoping that this will play out in a way that does bring a fair accountability to what happened, and the prosecution will be closely watched.

  • But what will also be watched is what happens on the street weather.

  • Cases of police brutality continue on how they're handled.

  • So the floor wants this to be a pivotal moment.

  • A tipping point, he called it.

  • But it will depend on what happens going forward.

  • Barbara, Thank you Well, George Floyd's name is the latest in a long list of black Americans to die as a result of police brutality over many decades.

  • Clive Murray now looks at how a toxic mix of racism and bad policing has led to the most serious racial unrest in the US for many years.

  • His report contains images you may find disturbing.

  • America's original sin perpetuates The notion of the supremacy of whiteness over blackness has enshrined in slavery.

  • Where the Negroes have come up against determined white resistance, fighting has often broken out.

  • It helps underpin the brutality of some in the police.

  • It helps underpin the poverty of the inner city on that fundamentally underpins the racial inequality of the land.

  • And we're all meant to be equal.

  • I've been reporting from the United States for almost 1/4 of essentially Clive Myrie, BBC News LOS Angeles It's a generous nation, but for some, the original sin is still a rule to live by.

  • A slavery morphed into segregation and Civil war battle flags became proud emblems of identity.

  • Perhaps inevitably, the institution charged for centuries with enforcing discrimination, is the one having the toughest time.

  • Changing.

  • Policing in America is opaque.

  • There's little transparency.

  • Powerful unions can protect bad cops on the principle of qualified immunity means.

  • Officers accused of misconduct are almost always given the benefit of the doubt.

  • I think that there are bad apples among many good police officers in most departments.

  • But the fact that they don't get out it quickly and dismissed i za problem the fact that a lot of these people who do get dismissed because of misconduct quickly find themselves recruited by other police departments in neighboring communities that just go from one place to another.

  • It also doesn't help that America's policing system is fragmented to the point of fast.

  • With around 18,000 different forces in California, training can last 24 to 48 weeks, while in North Carolina it's just 16 weeks, half the length of time it takes to become a licensed barber in the state.

  • Whatever the training, the real life fear of stopping a suspect who may be armed in a country awash with guns can lead to bad decisions.

  • Thing is Atlanta In Georgia, it's after curfew.

  • During protests over the death of George Floyd, police stop a car with two college students inside who protest.

  • They simply got stuck in traffic and didn't mean to break the curfew.

  • The officers aren't convinced.

  • Students have tasted.

  • You can hear the tension and fear in the officers way with students run on six officers now face misconduct charges, rogue cops, inadequate training and weak oversight or a toxic mix.

  • Then add racism, a scourge in America that sleeps lightly when it sleeps.

  • It all Tawake.

  • All it needs is the slightest provocation has happened on a Minneapolis ST one day in May.

  • Clive Myrie, BBC News here.

  • Thousands of people have taken to the streets of London to join in the protests at the death of George Floyd.

  • The event was organized by the Black Lives Matter groups and began in High Park, Cheechoo Zone do.

  • Is there, Theo Gesture of a generation?

  • A protest against needless death?

  • Thousands gathered at London's Hyde Park to march against racism in solidarity with the protests in the United States.

  • Just because the way of born this is Louise, her mom, Margaret, and her son, Jay Go Louis says she dreads the day she'll have to sit her sundown and explain why he may face discrimination.

  • The truth of the matter is, I will have to have that difficult conversation.

  • Andi, I will have to say that there were certain things that you should do and something she should say on, Be mindful off who you are, your race on, how people might see you and judge you and treat you judgment and treatment felt by stone walls.

  • Actor John Boyega Way Theo.

  • People here are angry.

  • They say that this has been a long time coming and that the death is just a catalyst to express how they're feeling.

  • They say that the UK is no different when it comes to racism.

  • It was a largely peaceful protest, but towards the end this was a Downing Street and after the protest was officially over, more clashes Organizer's thought only up to 1000 people would walk with them.

  • Today said this is a turnout of support they didn't expect.

All four police officers who were present when George Floyd was arrested in the US city of Minneapolis are now facing charges in connection with his death.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it