News

‘No Czech Floyd’: Cop Filmed Kneeling on Neck of Roma Man

Czech police say the man died from a drug overdose, but the Roma community and activists have drawn parallels with the murder of George Floyd.
'No Czech Floyd': Cop Filmed Kneeling on Neck of Roma Man Who Later Died
Photo: Romea.cz / YouTube

The government of the Czech Republic has backed the country’s police force after a video showed an officer kneeling on the neck of a Roma man who later died in an ambulance.

Many Roma activists have drawn parallels between the incident, filmed at the weekend in the northern town of Teplice, and the murder of George Floyd. Floyd died in May 2020 after a cop kneeled on his neck for more than nine minutes in Minneapolis, triggering a wave of global protests against racial injustice. In April this year former officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of his murder.

Advertisement

The video from Teplice, filmed from a window overlooking the scene and originally posted on Facebook, shows a man being overpowered by officers and then lying motionless on the street. “They’re smothering him,” a woman can be heard to say off-camera.

In a tweet, Czech police wrote “No Czech Floyd.” In a statement, police claimed that officers had resorted to force because the man had become aggressive after taking drugs suspected to be amphetamines. A preliminary autopsy gave the man’s cause of death as an overdose, police claimed, adding that the officers’ actions had not contributed to his death.

“Other circumstances of the whole case are now being investigated by forensic scientists and internal control staff,” police said.

Police also released a separate video, apparently filmed before the video that was posted on Facebook, showing a man lying on the street before getting up, appearing to strike out at another man, then striking a parked car.

In a tweet, Czech Interior Minister Jan Hamáček said that police had his “full support.”

The incident has shocked the Czech Roma community, which has historically been stigmatised and discriminated against

Gwendolyn Albert, a human rights activist and translator for Roma news portal Romea.cz, wrote: “The Ministry of the Interior must immediately, as a matter of priority, investigate and explain to the public how it is possible that police officers used such generally condemned tactics as kneeling on someone's neck.”

According to Romea.cz, which republished the original Facebook video on YouTube, a vigil has been held in Teplice for the deceased man. Protests outside the local police station are being planned, activists told Romea.cz.