From South Africa to Ireland, #BlackLivesMatter Finds Solidarity Worldwide

Demonstrators hold a banner at a protest against American police brutality in Berlin, Germany. (Photo: Wolfram Kastl/Getty Images)

From South Africa to Ireland, #BlackLivesMatter Finds Solidarity Worldwide

Protests against police brutality in the U.S. resonate around the world

As the U.S. reels from multiple shootings that made international headlines last week, the country's grassroots movement for racial justice and against police brutality has been met with solidarity around the world.

Denouncing the recent fatal police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, people marched and rallied over the weekend and through Tuesday for the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, and South Africa.

In Berlin, Germany, demonstrators read a list of the names of black men and women killed by police in the U.S., bringing many to tears before they staged a peaceful die-in at Potsdamer Platz, a large intersection in the center of the city. No arrests were made. (In the U.S., many similar protests have been met with mass arrests and a militarized police.)

Stateside on Tuesday, protests against police violence took place at the Los Angeles Police Commission and at New York Fashion Week.

In Los Angeles, the demonstrators appeared impassioned and distraught. "We are hurting, we are hurting, we are hurting!" one person appealed to police officers lining the walls outside of the building.

"Look at your police unions! They let you get away with murder and then collect checks while you go on vacation!" another protester shouted.

Meanwhile, at New York Fashion Week, participants printed t-shirts with the names of people murdered by police and staged a silent protest:

And elsewhere in New York, the United Nations on Tuesday invited Opal Temeti, one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, to a panel discussion on human rights "with a particular focus on combating discrimination and inequalities."

Temeti led the UN General Assembly in a moment of silence for Sterling and Castile before taking part in the discussion.

Also on Tuesday, a petition asserting solidarity for the movement for black lives began circulating under the hashtag #M4BLPledge. It had swiftly garnered tens of thousands of signatures by Tuesday afternoon.

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