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France
After French police killed Adama Traoré on his 24th birthday in 2016, people set fires and threw tear gas back at cops. In 2023, thousands gathered at a memorial rally in his name, even after the court banned it.
Nigeria
Since 2017, Nigerians have protested the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a police unit known for torture, rape, theft, and murder. #EndSARS drew international attention in 2020. Police reforms came within just days of the protest. Still, the violence hasn’t entirely stopped. Many Nigerian protesters have been tortured in jail.
Japan
In 2020, people flooded into the streets of Japan in solidarity with George Floyd. But Black immigrants face police violence there, too. In January 2024, three men, one of whom was a Black American, led Japan’s first legal case arguing “that officers routinely rely on racial profiling in policing.”
Brazil
U.S. police kill over 1,000 people a year. In Brazil, the police kill 6,000. In 2022, 83% of victims were Black, compared to 56% of the total population. Black Brazilians continue fighting back, with the Movimento Negro Unificado describing Brazilian policing as “genocidal” since the 1970s.
Globally, we have suffered from policing for generations. But although anti-Black violence is global, so is solidarity and resistance. From the Americas and Europe to Asia and Africa, let’s fight for abolition in every corner of the world.