The riots and protests happening all over the U.S. started in May 2020 after the tragic death of George Floyd. A black man who lived in Minneapolis was held down on the ground, knee pressed up against his neck by a police officer named Derek Chauvin. Floyd stated that he was unarmed and of no harm but Chauvin continued to hold him down for about 9 minutes. In that time he pleaded for his mother and cried, please stop. “I can’t breathe” was one of Floyd’s last sentences. These three words have started a huge movement for black lives and equality amongst races. 

Floyd was definitely not the first. Others that have sadly had to suffer the same mistreatment are Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, and Jacob Blake. Millions of people around the U.S. have never experienced riots or protests and are taking the opportunity to take a stand and make things right, not only in the U.S. but all around the world. Paris is even having riots‒they had to send in the french guard with rubber bullets and tear gas because the rioters were throwing whatever they found at the police. “There are hundreds of deaths that aren’t caught on video, but I think the gruesomeness and obvious hatred in the video woke people up,” Sarina LeCroy, a protester from Maryland, told BBC. 

George Floyd’s case was very similar to Eric Garner’s death, which also drew the eyes of the media and protesters. In 2014, a man named Eric Garner, who was 43 years old, was arrested. He was then put in a chokehold by Daniel Pantaleo, a New York police officer. Garner, as Pantaleo had him in his arms, said that he has asthma and that, “I can’t breathe.” Later Garner was reported dead in the hospital, another case where an African American died at the hands of a white police officer who racially profiled them. The state grand jury didn’t face Pantaleo with any criminal charges. He lost his job in 2019, but there were still no charges against him for the incident.

Why do so many of these cases get overlooked and why do the police officers have no legal repercussions nor their jobs being taken away for killing someone they assumed to be ‘a dangerous criminal’ because of the color of their skin? Some cases are accidents but so many are so unnecessary and hate crimes against African Americans. This is not ok. The world is now demanding change and it’s not gonna stop until we get it. It’s been months since the protests and riots started and it could be years more until they stop. The anti police brutality and black lives matter movements have been the biggest protest and media covered story in over two decades. 

A lot of people in power or in the media have made comments on what has been going on involving the topic of the black lives matter movement and president Jimmy Carter had something to say. A statement from CBS NEWS, “The former president noted that in his 1974 inaugural address as Georgia’s governor, he said, ‘The time for racial discrimination is over.’ In his statement Wednesday, Carter expressed dismay that he has to repeat that sentiment nearly five decades later.”