The Story Of Racism In The US: From Unhappy Deeds To Flying Lives

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JAKARTA - The murder case of Ahmaud Arbery has not yet been resolved, but cases of racism in the United States have increased. This certainly adds to the number of tragic stories from the issue of racism in the country. The real stories have always existed and never disappeared since the past, it's just that now people can record and prove them.

William Roddie Bryan, the person who recorded the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, is now the third suspect in the case. As has been told in a VOI article entitled "The Story of the Murder of Ahmaud Arbery, which has caught the attention of the world," the shooting was carried out by Greg McMichael and Travis McMichael. Previously, Bryan's lawyer had always been evasive whenever his client was accused of being guilty, either on the part of McMichael or the Ahmaud family. He admitted that his client was only a witness who even received death threats because of the video. But in the end, he was shown to have helped the incident by trying to block Ahmaud's way using his vehicle.

Recently, there have been two viral incidents involving the issue of racism. The incident occurred in Central Park, Manhattan, New York City and Minneapolis, Minnesota. An incident that describes unpleasant actions to the loss of lives.

The incident in Central Park occurred on May 25 yesterday, in the morning, around 7:30 to 8:00 local time. Christian Cooper, a man in black, admits that he is diligent in seeing birds in the Ramble area, a part of Central Park that is full of winding paths and thick greenery that attracts more than 230 species of birds. That's when he saw a dog who was released without a leash, even though in that area it is forbidden to release a dog without a leash.

The dog's owner is Amy Cooper, a woman in white. Although their names are Cooper, they did not know each other before. Amy said that Christian came out of the bush and yelled at him, while Christian said he was very calm when he told Amy to tie his dog or take him to another area. However, Amy refused because she thought it was too dangerous for her dog.

Amid the feud, Christian tapes the moment Amy calls 911 and says an African American man was threatening her and her dog. The video was uploaded to Christian's personal Facebook account which later went viral.

Since the video became widespread, Amy has told CNN US that her life is starting to fall apart. His dog has been handed back to the adoption shelter and he was fired from his job last Tuesday.

Another unfortunate incident of racism was perpetrated by four Minneapolis police officers and the victim was a 46-year-old black man named George Floyd. The four policemen were reportedly responding to the alleged forgery on Monday afternoon, May 25 local time yesterday and found George similar to the characteristics given. They say George rebelled when he got out of the car, but this is not proven from the CCTV footage of a nearby restaurant. The footage was shared by George's family lawyer Benjamin Crump via his Twitter account. Benjamin is also a lawyer for the Ahmaud Arbery family.

This incident continued through videos that went viral everywhere because they were witnessed by many people in public places. The video circulating shows George lying on his stomach facing the asphalt near the police car with one of the policemen kneeling on his neck.

In the video, George tries his best to say he can't breathe, is in pain, and asks the policeman to let him go. People had gathered around and said that they should let the man go because he was already handcuffed and was clearly in pain, but they ignored him and said he was fine because he could still speak. This incident lasted about nine minutes until finally George did not move again. The crowd screamed for the police to check his pulse but they didn't budge until the ambulance arrived. The attitude of the officers who put him on a stretcher was somewhat rude. On the way to the hospital, George reportedly died.

Later it was discovered that the policeman who knelt on George's neck was named Derek Chauvin. Then three other policemen who did not stop the tragic incident were Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng. They've been fired from the police and now the FBI is investigating this case. Both the family and society are asking them to be convicted of a murder case. They were police, they should be helping society, but they even ignored George's pleas that clearly said he couldn't breathe.

This incident also reminds us of the Eric Garner case that occurred on July 17, 2014 ago. Like George, Eric was also a 43-year-old black man who died of being illegally strangled by police on the side of a New York City road. His last words were the same, "I can't breathe" which means "I can't breathe". This phrase is used by demonstrators who demand justice for the deaths of Eric then and George today. The hashtags #BlackLivesMatter and #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd also enliven social media.

Siniar VOI this time will tell you the story of racism in the US that never stops. Even struggling demonstrations never materialized. Hit the listen button and we'll tell the story for you.