KEY POINTS

  • Protests continue across the United States six days after the death of George Floyd
  • Multitude of videos and photos of cops beating up peaceful protestors and media people are going viral
  • A cop in Salt Lake City shoved an elderly man with a cane for apparently failing to get out of his way fast enough

Six days of relentless street protests tearing through the major cities in the United States over the death of George Floyd on May 25 unmasked the extent of police brutality in some departments across the country.

A multitude of videos and photos of cops beating up peaceful protestors and media people; of bloodied faces hit by police rubber bullets; of a Salt Lake City cop pushing an old man with a cane into the ground and police tasering defenseless black people are now going viral on social media. Some cops were also hiding their badge numbers to avoid identification.

In New York City, a cop drove a police SUV into a crowd and Mayor Bill de Blasio defended his action on television. De Blasio blamed protesters for not getting out of the cop car's way fast enough and putting the driver in an “impossible” situation.

In Atlanta, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms was so incensed at a video showing five of her cops assaulting two African-American students inside their car and tasering one of them, she announced two of the policemen would be fired and three others disciplined. The mayor said she came to this decision after consulting with Chief Erika Shields of the City of Atlanta Police Department.

Taken together, these images from across the U.S. seemed to attest to a common police strategy of meeting force with excessive force. There are some notable exceptions, however, of cops refusing to use force against residents of their cities.

The police brutality seemed to be so consistent that many might think it is coordinated at a national level, reported The Verge.

Some examples of police brutality since Saturday:

* A female freelance photographer in Minneapolis lost her left eye after being hit by a rubber bullet fired at her by a cop

* A Salt Lake City cop shoved an elderly man with a cane, who fell onto the street, for apparently failing to get out of his way fast enough

* An NYPD cop tore off the mask of a peaceful protester, who had his hands up, and pepper sprayed him square in the face

* In Columbus, Ohio, Rep. Joyce Beatty, representing the 3rd congressional district, Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin and Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce were pepper sprayed by Columbus cops while trying to de-escalate a conflict between protesters and the police

* In Dallas, a woman (not a protestor) bled profusely from a huge wound on her forehead after being hit by a police rubber bullet. She was hit while walking home with groceries

* An NYPD cop slammed a woman to the ground and calls her a “stupid f------ b----”

* Tear gas canisters were constantly being fired by police at demonstrators in San Antonio, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., Minneapolis, Atlanta and in more than a dozen other cities.

Protesters hold up their fists as flames rise behind them in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during demonstrations over the death of African American George Floyd in police custody
Protestors hold up their fists as flames rise behind them in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during demonstrations over the death of African-American George Floyd in police custody. AFP / Kerem Yucel
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