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One
death resulted removing rulers
Iqbal
Hadi Zaidi
George Floyd death in America reminds me of Arab Spring where death of
just one ordinary person in Tunis sparked fires which resulted that 4 head of
states including that of Tunisia faced 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 such self-immolation resulted in unprecedented events in human
history.
Street processions and agitations started which started on the day
whenBonazizi 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 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 equalities, unemployment, soaring prices and untold hardships
being faced in their respective countries and though in each country the rulers
tried to pacify their angry populationbut 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.
Coming back to an ordinary citizen black American named George Floyd it
is alleged that on 25th May he gives US $ 20 note to buy a
cigarette packet but the currency note turned out to be counterfeit bill so the
police was reported the incident. Police comprising of 4 white officers namely
Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, J Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao reached to 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 out burst and anger whereby law and order situation is created. All type
of traffic came to sudden halt because hardly anyone can walk through the
crowds so 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 vandalizingand
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 dully 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 their 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 next
step police resorted to use tear gas so as well so that the crowd thins out but
to no avail. Police felt so much 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 proves nothing but
their helplessness.
It must be appreciated that president Trump showed grace by calling and
meeting Terrence Floyd, the elder brother of deceasedGerorge Floyd offering his
heartfelt condolences and assuring him that he and his family must not t be
afraid because I as president of USA gives 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 had been so
much charged that they 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 to deploying police even National Guards
be also used to curb such vandalism which has continued for so many days in
continuing.
In sheer desperation Trump announced that if such notorious protests
cannot be controlled by police and national guards then he will have no option
but to issue orders for deployment of army to take control of the situation.
Needless to mention some of the governors did not agree with Trump to deploy
national guardswhat to talk of 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 history angry crowdstormed none but
White House which is not only the sign of force but honor as well simply
because the President works and lives in White House and therefore neverever
people showed their anger before White House but this time the people wanted
their president Trump to realize how annoyed are people upon brutal killing of
their compatriot 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 then at first attempt official machinery should have
resorted to listen the grievances of the agitators and satisfy then through
dialogue but ever since Trump instead of talking to his compatriots he adopted
to coerce the demonstrators by using force instead.
Many protests have been organized in different parts of the globe like
Australia, Canada, Germany, Kenya, Netherlands and 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” “Death to cruelty” “Justice
for all”
End up saying that specific instructions be issued henceforth that the
police must not turn out to be so savage whenever dealing with any accused to
avoid such ugly occurrences in future otherwise USA earns nothing but black
spot though it should try to earn nothing but laurels. I wish all blacks and
whites must enjoy peaceful life devoid of any hatred, heart burning and ill
feelings so that such like untoward scenes do not occur again.
Iqbal Hadi Zaidi
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