Saturday 6 June 2020

Black Lives Matter in Hereford

There have been protests right across the United States and in many places in the rest of the world, sparked off by the recent murder of George Floyd by a police officer.
On Thursday there was a Black Lives Matter protest in Hereford, and about 800 people turned up. As far as I can see from the videos of the event, there was a good effort to maintain social distancing while listening to speakers, who stood beside the Hereford Bull statue. They also knelt to observe an 8 minute and 46 second silence, which was the length of time that the police officer knelt on George Floyd's neck to kill him.
There was lively discussion on the Hay Community Facebook page, which seems to have disappeared. It had run to 90 comments the last time I saw it.
There's a good report on the Hereford Times website, though, with pictures of the event.

On Sunday 7th June, from 10am to 11am, a group called No Going Back Sundays is organising a protest - but this is not going to be a gathering. NGB organise events on different themes every Sunday in which people stand wherever they happen to be with placards about the issue of the day, and share photos. Normally, the themes are around Climate Justice but, as they say, Climate Justice and Racial Justice are entwined issues, because the people who suffer most from climate change tend to be the people with black and brown skins, in the poorer countries. This Sunday the theme is Black Lives Matter.

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