Iran Calls for Justice As Protests over Police Brutality Ignite across US

“Iran regrets the tragic murder of black Americans, denounces deadly racial profiling in US & urges authorities to do justice for every case. The protestors' voice must be heard. In doing so, suppressing the suffering Americans & #PressFreedom must URGENTLY be stopped,” the ministry said in a tweet on Friday.

The protests ignited once again on Friday across the US, as demonstrators clashed with police in Minneapolis, New York and Atlanta.

Gatherings were largely peaceful as people marched in the streets from Los Angeles to New York, but in Atlanta, demonstrators set a police car ablaze and broke windows at CNN’s headquarters. Meanwhile, in Washington, the White House temporarily went under lockdown orders as protesters gathered outside.

Protests have raged all week in the wake of Floyd’s death, with protesters calling for an end to police brutality and justice for him and other black Americans, including Breonna Taylor, who was shot and killed in March by police officers in Kentucky, and Ahmaud Arbery, who was killed by a retired law enforcement officer and his son in Georgia while out jogging.

George Floyd, a Black man who yelled “I cannot breathe” as a white Minneapolis police officer pinned him down with his knee in the US state of Minnesota, died on Monday, police confirmed, drawing outrage from community members and leaders, and leading to the officers' termination.

Video of the incident shows the police officer pinning down Floyd, believed to be in his 40s, to the pavement with his knee on the man's neck for several minutes. Floyd was identified by prominent civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who said he had been retained by the Floyd family.

Police-involved shootings and killings of unarmed black men in the hands of white police officers have led to mass protests across the country in recent years and the formation of the Black Lives Matter movement.