Some 5,000 people demonstrate in Geneva denouncing police violence, racism

Some 5,000 people joined a demonstration denouncing police violence and racism in downtown Geneva on Tuesday, the day scheduled for the funeral of George Floyd, an African-American man who died on May 25 at the hands of four police officers, with one of them keeping his knee down on Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes.

Demonstrators marched in the drizzle with at least one group stopping on the way to take a knee. They carried posters bearing slogans such as "Black Lives Matter," "Silence=Complicity," "No justice, No peace," "My Fight Is Your Fight," "Racism Is A Pandemic" and "Silence Is No Longer An Opinion."

At the front of the parade, a banner bore the inscription "I Can't Breathe."

"We are walking together for a better world where racial inequality has no place," said one protester to Xinhua.

Tuesday's demonstration, with many of the protesters wearing masks, is the first large-scale gathering in the city since the relaxation of COVID-19 containment measures.

Earlier last week, similar demonstrations had taken place in other Swiss cities like Neuchatel, Berne, Basel, Zurich and Lausanne.