Against the backdrop of a health crisis, the death of George Floyd on May 29th in Minneapolis, following an unbearably violent police intervention, further fractured the country. Demonstrations and angry riots to denounce racism, police violence and demand justice marked the week.
Taking up George Floyd’s tragic phrase (“I can’t breathe”), the slogan “Black lives matter” and the knee to the ground (a symbolic gesture initiated in 2016 by American football player Colin Kaepernick to denounce racial discrimination), many Americans (including in the ranks of the police) expressed their solidarity.
President Trump finds here a new opportunity to show his inability to bring the country together, preferring to brandish the threat of order and military intervention to calm the streets and thus comfort his electorate. An attitude that could cost him dearly a few months away from the presidential elections?
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