In the days after thepolice shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota and deadly sniper firein Texas,wherefive officers were killed and others were wounded hundreds have protestedin solidarity.
In London, manyhave showed support marching onWestminster, congregatinginWindrush Square in Brixton and cloggingOxford Street holding up signs saying "Stop Killing Us" and "How Many More," and chanting "hands up, don't shoot" and "black lives matter." Othershave been tweeting withthe hashtag #stopkillingthemandem, Jamaican slang for a group of men that has been adopted by Britain's youths.
The founder of the Black Lives Matter movement in London,Marayam Ali, told the Voice newspaperthat she hopes the protests show that the U.K. supports"our American brothers and sisters."
"By these people coming here to stand and unite, they are showing that they are against police brutality and thats the most important thing," shetold the newspaper, adding:"I think people forget that racism is a worldwide thing. Its still very prevalent. This is ultimately a cry for help."
They are making their voices heard in a country where few police officers carry guns and even fewer have fatally shot anyone with them.
A 2015 analysis by The Washington Post showed that over the past decade there has been anaverage of only five incidents a year in which Britain's police have opened fire and that the most killed in a single year was also five.
From 2012to2015, "Police in Britain have fatally shot two people," wrote The Post's Griff Witte."Thats less than the average number of people shot and killed by police every day in the United States over the first five months of 2015."
It's unclear how many fatal police shootings there have been in the U.K. this year. One death has been noted: Earlier this year, anarmed man inSouth Shields, a coastal town inEngland, was shot in the chest bypolice and later died at a hospital.
By comparison, police fatally shot 990 people in the United Stateslast year alone. This year,thatnumber has reached at least 512.
On Tuesday morning, Alton Sterling became one of them when he waskilled by a white police officer inBaton Rouge a slaying captured on videoby a bystander. The next night, Philando Castile was killed in Falcon Heights, Minn., ashis girlfriend broadcast his final moments in real time on Facebook.
Dallas's top cop said Sunday morning that the police-involvedkillings may havesparked the "delusions" of a man who opened fire on police officers during a protest Thursday night in the city's downtown.
PoliceChief David Brown told CNN that it appears the shooter,Micah Xavier Johnson, was trying to make police "pay for what he sees as law enforcements efforts to punish people of color."
When there are fatal police shootings in the U.K., they don't go unnoticed and are highly controversial inciting city-wide riots and sparking years-longlegal battles.
One of the most well-known cases wasin 2005, when Jean Charles de Menezes was thought to be asuicide bomber and shot nine times in the head by policein London,whichwas reeling from a recent terrorattack.Prosecutors chose not to bring chargesin his death, a decision that hisfamily foughtand ultimatelylost in March of this year.
Then in 2011, police in London fatally shot a 29-year-old black man named Mark Duggan and the city was overcome with outrage.
Human rights advocates say such incidents may not be as prevalent in the U.K. but presentthe samequestions as they do across the pond.
They may well be fewer here, but they raise similar issues, Deborah Coles, director of the advocacy group Inquest,told The Post last year.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1484"]
People march in London's Brixton area to protest police brutality in the United States. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images)[/caption]Starting Friday, protesters marched downsome of London's busiest streets to drawattention toperceived racism and police brutality and call for change.
Some signs read: "Yes, all lives matter but we're focused on the black ones right now, OK? Because it is very apparent that our judicial system doesn't know that. Plus, if you can't see why we're exclaiming #blacklivesmatter you are part of the problem."
The same day, Stormzy,an English rapper and MC, posted a picture on Instagram showing a smallblack girl holding a cardboard sign that read, "Is my daddy next?" along with a letter, explaining why peoplein the U.K. need to stand with Americans.
Ali, with the Black Lives Matter groupin London, said it's more than a moment it's a worldwide movement.
"Sometimes people just focus on the now. It creates a buzz now, but in time youll forget it," she told the Voice. "Were going to keep showing our support."
This article was written by Lindsey Bever on July 10,2016. Lindsey Bever is a general assignment reporter for The Washington Post
