Story at a glance
- Since the death of George Floyd, Americans have taken to the streets in protest of police violence.
- Amnesty International has documented 125 separate incidents of police violence against protesters in 40 states and the District of Columbia.
- A map allows users to see recent incidents of police violence in their area.
Despite protests against the use of police force, police officers have continued to use such force to control crowds in cities across the United States.
Between May 26 and June 5, Amnesty International documented 125 separate examples of police violence against protesters in 40 states and Washington, D.C. Now, an interactive map allows users to track individual events of police violence by location, with information on what weapons were used, which law enforcement agencies were involved and video footage sourced from social media platforms.
“The analysis is clear: when activists and supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement took to the streets in cities and towns across the USA to peacefully demand an end to systemic racism and police violence, they were overwhelmingly met with a militarized response and more police violence,” said Brian Castner, Senior Crisis Advisor on Arms and Military Operations at Amnesty International in a statement.
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The map shows events across 80 percent of the United States and is searchable by weapons used and the authorities involved. The organization gathered and analyzed nearly 500 videos and interviews with victims, as well as statements from local police departments in some cases.
In one such interview, Lizzie Horne, a rabbinical student in Philadelphia, described protests in the city on June 1.
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“Out of the blue, they started breezing pepper spray into the crowd. There was one officer on the median who was spraying as well. Then they started with tear gas. Someone who was right in the front – who had a tear gas canister hit his head – started running back … We were against a big fence that people had to jump over up a steep hill. The fence was maybe 6 feet tall. People started putting their hands up – but the cops wouldn’t let up … We were drooling and coughing uncontrollably … The police started coming up the hill and continued to harass people who were still on the hill – they were hitting and tackling people. They were dragging people down the hill and forcing them down on their knees, lining them up kneeling on the median on the highway with their hands in zip ties – and pulling down their masks and spraying and gassing them again,” she told Amnesty International.
Amnesty goes a step further than identifying violence, calling many of these uses of force “unlawful” and holding law enforcement responsible for distinguishing between peaceful demonstrators or bystanders, and any individual who is actively engaged in violence.
“The violent acts of an individual never justify the disproportionate use of force against peaceful protesters generally, and force is only justified until the immediate threat of violence toward others is contained,” the report said.
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