As protest marches spread in over 75 US cities following the demise of Minneapolis resident George Floyd while in police custody, some of the demonstrators are counting the cost following the loss of a body part or two.
According to the Twitter post of artist and writer Molly Crabapple, New York State Senator, Zellnor Myrie was handcuffed and pepper sprayed by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers when he joined the protest against police brutality.
A New York State Senator, handcuffed and pepper sprayed by the NYPD https://t.co/y4IjBK2Kgb
— Molly Crabapple?? (@mollycrabapple) May 31, 2020
Myrie is a member of the Democratic Party and a member of the New York State Senate for District 20, based in Brooklyn.
Guardian photojournalist Linda Tirano covering the #GeorgeFloyd protests, fared far worse when she was deliberately targeted and shot in the eye by U.S. security forces, according to Anonymous, “the decentralized international activist/hacktivist movement widely known for its various cyber-attacks against several governments and corporations.”
Guardian photojournalist Linda Tirano covering the #GeorgeFloyd protests, deliberately targeted and shot in the eye by U.S. security forces.
— Anonymous (@YourAnonCentral) May 31, 2020
The doctors performed emergency surgery, but they were unable to save her eye. She lost her sight. #ICantBreathe #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/4SbQi9ebW7
Despite the efforts of doctors who performed emergency surgery, they were unable to save Tirano’s eye as she lost her sight. In an update, Linda Tirano revealed she is permanently blind in the left eye.
An Indiana Tech student also lost his eye after getting hit by a gas canister during another protest in Indiana. According to Balin Blake, he was likely going to have a second surgery to fix a broken bone in his skull after his right eye was ruptured.
To anybody curious. My eye ruptured when a FWPD Officer unnecessarily and improperly fired a tear gas canister at my head hitting my eye. I’ll be fine but I’m probably losing my eye after surgery tomorrow. https://t.co/Nd1hfAJPX0
— lens (@notbalin) May 31, 2020
The 21-year-old college student was standing with dozens of protesters Saturday in Fort Wayne when police in riot gear fired tear gas to disperse the crowd of which one of the gas cans hit him in the face. The city’s police department said the act was not deliberate.
Meanwhile, many journalists across the country are also counting the cost of covering the protest marches, noting despite revealing their identities, police officers are attacking them.
Oh, and here’s the bruise. Courtesy of Contra Costa County Sheriffs. pic.twitter.com/8n03RXghCc
— Sarah Belle Lin (@SarahBelleLin) May 31, 2020
Ali Veshi and his CNN crew come under fire from #Minneapolis police with tear gas and rubber bullets.
— Chad Loder (@chadloder) May 31, 2020
“There was absolutely no provocation. The police just drove up, split the crowd in two and started firing in both directions.” pic.twitter.com/GTXKU1fTdz
Minneapolis police here aiming directly at clearly identified journalists…
— Andrew Stroehlein (@astroehlein) May 31, 2020
Two members of a Reuters TV crew were hit by rubber bullets and injured. https://t.co/cxFmi4QJoR pic.twitter.com/ORFeVxAOYN
Police had weapons trained on a group of us. We held up our press passes. One kept his rifle on us while the others continued to fire foam baton rounds. pic.twitter.com/duZu5zzzZI
— Michael Anthony Adams (@MichaelAdams317) May 31, 2020
