Daily Times

George Floyd’s death in America reminds me of Arab Spring where the death of just one ordinary person in Tunis sparked fires which resulted in four heads of states including that of Tunisia facing such an appalling condition that all the 4 rulers had to eventually quit the powers.

Tarek el Mohamed Bonazizi, an ordinary poor street vendor in Tunisia selling fruit on a wheel cart supporting his family, was fed up to his neck because daily he had been troubled by police and municipal officials despite the fact that poor vendor even bribed police but still he was continuously threatened and thus one day, he decided to kill himself instead of being torched daily. He doused kerosene oil on his body and lit match to set himself on fire which resulted in his death on 17th December, 2010 but eventually his self-immolation resulted in unprecedented events in human history.

Street processions and agitations started which started on the day when Bonazizi set himself on fire in Tunisia itself took such an ugly shape that President Zine El Abidin Ben Ali ruling the country as head of state for last 23 years tried his best to quell the uprising but to no avail and as a last resort felt went to see the burnt Bonazizi promising him that he will fly him out to France as government expense for his treatment but the most charged angry crowds were not satisfied with such tactful move of their president and they continued protesting on streets demanding that the rulers must be changed as they have ignored the masses and therefore nothing is acceptable than change of the ruler. President Zine El Abidin left the president and fled to Saudi Arabia.

Bonazizi self-immolation reaction started from Tunisia and it eventually engulfed many far off countries namely Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine and Yemen where people demonstrated on streets complaining of lack of freedom, economic inequalities, unemployment, soaring prices and untold hardships being faced in their respective countries and though in each country the rulers tried to pacify their angry population but very unfortunately three rulers utterly failed in their attempts to continue clinging to power and therefore Hosni Mubarak, President Egypt; Col Muammar Qaddafi, President Libya and Ali Abdullah Salem, President Yemen were thrown out of power.

Punishment is always commensurate to the offence committed by the accused and the punishment cannot be awarded otherwise whatsoever

Coming back to an ordinary citizen black American named George Floyd it is alleged that on 25th May he gave a US $ 20 note to buy a cigarette packet but the currency note turned out to be counterfeit bills so the police reported the incident. Police comprising four white officers namely Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, J Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao reached the scene and got hold of the accused on account of using the fake currency note. Derek Chauvin turned out to be extra smart and cruel by pinning down George on the ground and placed his knee on his throat for a period of 8 minutes 46 seconds and as a consequence George was suffocated to death which was quite a brutal act on part of Derek to kill the accused alike.

I simply cannot help writing that during my law degree studies not only I have read in the law books but my learned professors have told me that punishment is always commensurate to the offence committed by the accused and the punishment cannot be awarded otherwise whatsoever. In the present case no doubt an offence has been committed by George Floyd for using counterfeit bill amounting to US$20 to pay for the cigarette packets he bought and therefore his such action is a punishable crime to be honest but as per the principle of justice never ever the accused can be killed for such a petty crime and therefore Derek Chauvin could not even slightly suffocate the accused what to talk of suffocating him to death.

People, predominately black Americans seeing the video as to how brutally and savagely George had been killed and that too for such a petty crime quite naturally charged and ignited them, both men and women, to the extent that huge crowd flooded the streets in sheer desperation registering their outburst and anger whereby law and order situation is created. All types of traffic came to a sudden halt because hardly anyone can walk through the crowds so the question of passing through a vehicle does not arise. The reaction had been so quick and spontaneous that angry crowds in many cities and towns from east to west and south to north in USA protested on the roads and some of the even forced their entry into supermarkets whereby the agitators very freely looted whatever they could and none could simply stop them for vandalizing and ransacking the super markets. They even lit some fires, toppled police cars.

Truthfully, speaking each and everyone participating in mob demonstration is not basically a criminal but then there are always some scoundrels who are always waiting for any such like opportunity when they can play mean, criminal and dirty resorting to ransacking and looting and even stabbing and injuring to create extra terror in the locality. They are never ever empty handed but always fully equipped with devices like lock cutters, claw hammers, sticks, machetes, rods etc to use whatever suitably needed to be used to cash the opportunity. Less devils will come loaded with stones, broken glass pieces and rods etc to ravage to the maximum.

Seeing such like crowds police had to come out of police stations to tackle the situation and restore peace and tranquility but all those who were protesting did not disperse which annoyed the police which then had to baton charge the people believing that they may feel frightened and disperse but hardly anyone left the place and instead continued protesting. Then at the next step police resorted to use tear gas as well so that the crowd thinned out but to no avail. Police felt so nervous that now they were forced to fire rubber bullets to break the protests and even some were arrested but still the results were not encouraging. Police even deployed its mounted force whereby police riding horses wanted to trample the demonstrators proved nothing but their helplessness.

It must be appreciated that President Trump showed grace by calling and meeting Terrence Floyd, the elder brother of deceased George Floyd to offer his heartfelt condolences and assuring him that he and his family must not be afraid because “I as president of USA give an assurance that in the country all the citizens are equal and neither a white is superior to a white and likewise no black enjoys upper hand over white”. But I think Trump took time to call Terrence otherwise the situation has not flared up to such an extent. Terrence also appealed to people not to resort to violence but the crowd did not listen to an appeal be it from Terrence or Trump for that matter.

With each passing day more and more cities and towns embarked upon protests at their places whereby many people started public properties and lit fires at places and they even set off fires in police vehicles. President Donald Trump was very annoyed and instructed all the governors to curb such uprising with full coercive force available to them so that such mass hooliganism be stopped forthwith which had been continuous for many days in any case. Trump even ordered that instead of limiting the deployment of police even National Guards be also used to curb such vandalism which has continued for so many days.

In sheer desperation, Trump announced that if such notorious protests cannot be controlled by police and national guards, he will have no option but to issue orders for deployment of the army to take control of the situation. Needless to mention some of the governors did not agree with Trump to deploy national guards to talk of the army which of course Trump did not like but had no option but quite unwillingly had to swallow the bitter quinine pill. Curfew had also been imposed so that none is allowed to come out of their houses and hence no more demonstrations.

For the very time in the country’s history an angry crowd stormed none but White House which is not only the sign of force but honor as well simply because the President works and lives there and therefore never ever people showed their anger outside the White House. This time, people wanted President Trump to realize how annoyed people are upon the brutal killing of George Floyd. President Trump, despite living inside the most fortified building in the country, was frightened to the extent that he did not want to take even the remotest chance of physical contact, therefore, he took shelter in the basement of White House.

Quite surprisingly many did not agree with Trump for using force against his people particularly deployment of army and those who opposed their president included even the retired generals as they maintained that first of all such a situation should not have cropped in the first instance and when protests have started.

Many protests have been organized in different parts of the globe like Australia, Canada, Germany, Kenya, Netherlands and the United Kingdom which proves in quite crystal clear terms without slightest shadow of any doubt that their thousands of male and females came out on streets carrying photo of the deceased Floyd and placards remembering and paying their glorious tributes to the deceased George Floyd and condemning American authorities turning to be so inhuman towards their own nationals. Many placards had slogans like “Blacks be treated alike as Whites”, “Blacks are also Human” and “Death to cruelty”.

The writer can be reached at zaidi.formerdilomat@hotmail.com