Black Lives Matter: Violent Protests Continue Across The UK And Belgium; Brutal Footage Surfaces Online

The raging Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of George Floyd killing catapulted into vandalizations of epic proportions in the U.S.

Things are headed towards a similar path in the United Kingdom and Belgium too. Demonstrators knocked down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston in the U.K., while Belgium witnessed the vandalizations of the iconic King Leopold II statue -- a public figure who responsible for brutality against the colonized subject in Africa.

A ghastly video surfaced on social media early this week, giving viewers a peek of protestors in Bristol tearing down the statue of the historic slave trader, followed by the act of dragging it through the streets before dumping it into the harbor’s waves.

King Leopold II statue met with a similar fate, as protestors targeted the statues of the tyrant ruler across Belgium. While dismantling the monarch’s statue was always on the cards, things didn’t materialize up until now -- after an online petition garnered over 60,000 signatures. Protesters reportedly flocked to Brussels and chorused "murderer" as they circled around a monument of the colonizing leader.

Appalled by the aftermath of the events on Sunday, British Home Secretary Priti Patel termed the acts as “sheer violence,” “completely unacceptable” and “utterly disgraceful.” Just a day before, on Saturday, Patel reiterated the importance of adhering to the government-ordered stay home orders. “I completely understand people's desire to express their views and to have that right to protest, but the fact of the matter is, we are in a health pandemic across the United Kingdom,” said Patel.

The vibe of the Black Lives Matter, an international human rights movement, reverberated across the globe ever since the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis police custody came to the fore. Floyd’s death -- after a white police officer knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, despite him pleading: "I can't breathe.” -- continued to haunt millions world over, who took to streets to protest for Floyd’s justice.

Thousands of protestors gathered in London on Saturday for a peaceful protest against systematic racism in the United States and across the globe. The protests saw people flout the lockdown rules and stay home orders to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus to show their support to the gnawing social issue.