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Common Dreams

Your Week in Review


Police officers take position to shoot tear gas at the demonstrators in Downtown Los Angeles on May 30, 2020 in protest against the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died while while being arrested and pinned to the ground by the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Clashes broke out and major cities imposed curfews as America began another night of unrest Saturday with angry demonstrators ignoring warnings from President Donald Trump that his government would stop violent protests over polic

by Jon Queally, staff writer
Driving SUVs into demonstrators. Firing paint-ball rounds at people on their own front porch. Pushing an elderly man to the ground. These were just a few of the incidents witnessed as a militarized nation faced off against its own people on Saturday.


Following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, protest in downtown Charlotte turn violent in NC, United States on May 30, 2020 (Photo: Peter Zay/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II
If we want to reach a better place on the other side of this, we must refuse to be comforted too quickly.


A protester faces off with Minnesota State Police officers on May 29, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. - Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was seen in an explosive video pressing his knee to the neck of handcuffed George Floyd for at least five minutes on May 25, was arrested earlier on May 29, said John Harrington, Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. (Photo: Kerem Yucel / AFP via Getty Images)

by Robert Shetterly
To strangle George Floyd with his hands, officer Derek Chauvin would have had to look him in the face... The knee was a brutal coward's knee.


Ronald Scott, a central neighborhood resident for more than 10 years, takes a photo of the memorial mural over flowers and banners laid in the memory of George Floyd outside of Cup Foods on May 29, 2020, during the fourth day of protests over his death in Minnesota, Minneapolis, United States. Floyd, 46, a black man, was killed Monday when a white officer kneeled on his neck, despite Floyd's repeated pleas of "I can't breathe." (Photo: Steel Brooks/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

by Jon Queally, staff writer
Instead of calls for things to simply calm down and "go back to normal," said New York Congresswoman, "let's create a new world—one where all people are held to the same standard of the rule of law."


Protesters set a police vehicle on fire during a protest following the death of George Floyd outside of the CNN Center next to Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States on May 29, 2020. It was announced Friday that Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer caught on camera with his knee on Floydâs neck, has been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. (Photo: Ben Hendren/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

by Jon Queally, staff writer
"I thank God people are in the streets," said the Harvard philosopher and activist. "Can you imagine this kind of lynching taking place and people are indifferent? People don't care? People are callous?"



by Jon Queally, staff writer
"Facebook has once again failed to act against an explicit violation of its own rules and has allowed the violent and racist post to remain up."



by Eoin Higgins, staff writer
"This is what happens when leaders sign blank check after blank check to militarize police, CBP, etc while letting violence go unchecked."



by Jake Johnson, staff writer
"There has been a determined movement, occurring largely outside the public eye, to delegitimize public protest and paint demonstrators as dangerous or even criminal."



by Jake Johnson, staff writer
"The police killed him, bro, right in front of everybody. He was crying, telling them like, 'I can't breathe,' and everything. They did not care."



by Julia Conley, staff writer
"Donald Trump votes by mail, Mike Pence votes by mail, the American people should be able to vote by mail too."

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