Whose Streets? Our streets!
who was dealing with the emotional trauma of near capacity emergency rooms. Al Jazeera, however, is all about taking our viewers to the frontlines. And ultimately, interviewing people is about getting close to them - physically, emotionally and psychologically. So before long we hit the streets with the added challenge of masks, social distancing and no public restrooms. We broadcast live in front of a temporary morgue set up outside a public hospital and interviewed emergency responders. Of course many jobs were lost in addition to lives. Some companies were able to pivot to online sales, or making PPE. Others, including many restaurants, were forced to close for good. The impact on education and mental health may take years to calculate. One thing we did learn is that communities of colour suffered the most, both in terms of health outcomes and job losses. No wonder, then, that the video of a white police officer in Minnesota calmly kneeling on a Black man’s neck as he gasped his last breath brought people back to the streets. Months of confinement gave way to political unrest around the country, testing bans that had been placed on large gatherings. In New York, there were daily protests and marches, through all five boroughs of the city, even as people continued working from home, right up until Officer Derek Chauvin was charged with murder for the death of George Floyd.
George Floyd’s death particularly resonated in New York where “I can’t breathe” first became the rallying cry of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014, after the death of another Black man at the hands of police. Eric Garner had been arrested for selling loose cigarettes. In his case the officer involved lost his job but was never criminally charged. The young leaders of BLM I met encouraged mask- wearing, but were otherwise undeterred and unapologetic in their march through still mostly empty streets past boarded up shops for justice, stopping in the street for interviews or to recite
the names of others who had also died under questionable circumstances. In liberal New York, and much of the country, they had widespread support. Even after some instances of looting and destruction happened on the sidelines of events. Thousands of people, young and old, Black and white, took part in a memorial for George Floyd attended by his family and local officials. So many I spoke to expressed their belief that systemic changes were not only necessary but, in the wake of pandemic upheaval, possible.
Nearly one year later Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder and demonstrators returned to the streets to celebrate. and racial concerns had helped Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential elections. Some would say they exacerbated the nation’s political divide, but in New York, another rallying cry of demonstrators echoed. “Whose streets? Our streets!” Outdoor dining, crowded parks and city cyclists began to proliferate and slowly bring the city back to life… along with hope for change.
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