Injusticeon show in US

THE EDITOR: At a time when the entire world is loudly in support of justice for black people in the US, their President’s tweets have effectively painted all the protests with the brush of violent radicalism, while he ignores the underlying conditions which have drawn many people to the streets.

What Donald Trump cannot now get away from is the image of the white policeman in Minneapolis snuffing out the life of a black citizen, George Floyd, becoming synonymous with his presidency.

Taken together with the fact that a majority of his decisions only favour the rich and mighty, America’s largely black underclass was poised to explode at the murder of another black citizen by the police.

Now, while most of us have little sympathy for the policeman who committed the murder, we can never forget that Trump pardoned three American soldiers, previously convicted and punished in a military court for war crimes in Iraq.

The worst of these soldiers murdered an unarmed, severely injured Iraqi teenager, who was no threat to him. Indeed, not only did Trump pardon this soldier, but he honoured him with a glittering, celebratory dinner at the “southern White House” (Mar-a-Lago) where he called the man a national hero.

Now you tell me if that Minneapolis policeman might not have felt that his President would have his back in putting down those those who oppose American law and order in the harshest manner after his pardon and celebration of an even more murderous American soldier in Iraq?

GREGORY WIGHT

Maraval