“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People learn to hate and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love. For love comes more naturally to human heart than its opposite.”- Nelson Mandela
Two dancers entertain the crowd as they rock their best moves to African-beats playing in the background in Oslo, Norway. 46-year-old George Floyd's died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25, 2020, after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes while he was handcuffed facing down in the street.
Only 50 persons have permission to gather in Norway due to corona virus but thousands people gathered on June 5 for the BlackLivesMatter protest in Oslo, Norway.
The protest has been organised by African Student Association University of Oslo and Arise to take place at groups of 50 people kneeling in front of the US Embassy in Norway and a human change of 750 at Norwegian Parliament while observing social distancing. Some organizations like Rødt also supported the demonstrations.
However, in Oslo alone, over 15,000 protesters defied crowd restrictions and the pouring rain in support of the Black Lives Matter.
The police did not interfere even though health authorities like the Norwegian Institute of Public Health were concerned. Norwegian police have a 3 year bachelor education as a bare minimum to become become a professional police. Could police brutality be linked to higher education, cultural factors, system rot or combination of one of more?
It may seem that Freedom of speech is considered more important to the protester than the health precautions with the Covid 19 situation (which is relatively stable) but from my observations, group of friends were taking precautions while gathered in clusters.
Also, volunteers can be seen sharing anti-bak or hand sanitizers to protesters on sight. I watch keenly as the crowd continue to chant in solidarity "I can't breath", "We want justice not peace" "say his name, George Floyd"....
I have been in Norway long enough to realize how aware and passionate the people are about freedoms and activism. Many people stood up against the "Police Brutality Pandemic" , not just in Norway or US, or Nigeria where weak systems allow some Policemen and other law enforcement agents murder, permanently maim harmless civilians without any measures to addressed or stop it.
The straw that broke the camel's back" is George Floyd's brutal death, hearing him call out his maama and saying "I can't breath" over and over and the non-nonchalant Police officer ignoring his plea...those memories may never go away from some mind and may continue to be a trigger for many others for a long time to come.
The Police allowed the protesters to use the relatively safe political and social space to raise their voices to affirm that Police are meant to serve and protect the people, not kill them,because of their skin color, because they look different, act different want different things from everyone else.
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