June. 9, 2020 – A protest was held on Tuesday in Zagreb against police violence and racism, expressing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and anti-racist protests taking place across the United States over the death of unarmed African-American George Floyd.
“We refuse to participate in the policy of destroying life. We want to be part of the policy of solidarity, the fight for freedom and economic equality and a society that condemns all forms of violence and racist expression and the imposition of supremacy,” the initiative said, as reported by Index.hr.
About 400 protesters expressed their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and anti-racist protests in the United States, which many already call the largest human and civil rights movement in history.
Anka Mrak Taritaš was also at the protest.
“I am glad that a lot of young people gathered today to protest against racism in Zagreb,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
Protests around the world are taking place after unarmed African-American George Floyd was killed on May 25 in the American city of Minneapolis.
Floyd died after asphyxiation from sustained pressure by the knee of police officer Derek Chauvin, who kneeled on Floyd’s neck.
Protesters knelt in support, and silently paid tribute to all those whose lives were “suffocated and extinguished by racism.” The banners had inscriptions such as “stop injustice to minorities in Croatia”, “only love”, “we are all equal” and shouted George Floyd’s name several times, and at one point protesters sang Oliver Dragojevic’s song “Believe in Love”.
The initiative also wanted to emphasize the fact that “racist policies are present in America, and thus in Europe”.
“We are witnessing the criminalization of brown and black lives on our borders, unprecedented violence perpetrated by the Croatian police at the borders and deep into the territory of Croatia. Systemic racism is a feature of our society and is most evident in relations with migrants,” said the Initiative.
HND President Hrvoje Zovko, SDSS President Milorad Pupovac, Zagreb SDP President Gordan Maras, Glas President Anka Mrak Taritaš and members of the Možemo platform Tomislav Tomašević, Sandra Benčić and Rada Borić came to express their support for the protest.
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