Members of the Newcastle Roma community staged a demonstration after the death of a Roma man “like George Floyd”.
Organizers said up to 200 protesters gathered in Benwell on Friday afternoon, following the tragedy in the Czech Republic on June 19.
Footage shows police kneeling on the man’s neck – locally named Stanislav Tomáš – as they attempt to handcuff him. He later died in an ambulance.
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It sparked widespread anger across the Roma community, including in Tyneside, with protesters pointing to the similarity between his case and that of George Floyd, an African-American man whose death at the hands of policeman Derek Chauvin sparked global anger. and was a catalyst. for the Black Lives Matter movement.
The officer was convicted of murdering Mr. Floyd and is to be sentenced today.
Irma Karchnakova, who helped organize the Canning Street Park protest, said she hoped Stanislav’s case could bring changes for her community as well.
(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
“Unless we protest, there will be no change,” she said following the protest at Canning Street Park.
“We are angry and we are fed up with being silent.”
She said that one of the big problems at the heart of the demonstration was the mistreatment of the Roma community.
While discrimination against Roma is widespread across much of Europe, according to Irma, it is particularly severe in the Czech Republic.
In 2015, Amnesty International said Roma schoolchildren face “horrific systematic prejudices”, while many adults face discrimination in employment.
Officials in the Czech Republic have so far ruled out any police involvement in Stanislav’s death, although human rights groups and officials elsewhere in Europe are pushing for an investigation.
(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
For Irma, she just wants to ‘see the change’ – and thinks taking to the streets of Newcastle is one of the first steps in getting people’s attention to the problem.
“How is it that in England you can have justice, but in the Czech Republic we cannot have justice?” she added.