By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor

Democrats in the United States Congress are sketching comprehensive legislation to stem racial injustice by police, that led to the murder of George Floyd and is sparking protests in Minnesota, Sydney, Paris, Dublin, London, and other cities worldwide.

Thousands still turned out in peaceful protests on Sunday in New York and other U.S. cities; and across the Atlantic in Manchester, Bristol, Paris, Frankfurt, and other cities Europe, and in Tunis, in Pretoria, and down under in Australia and beyond.

It was the 13^th day of protests around the world over the gruesome murder in Minnesota on May 25 of Floyd, an unarmed African America killed in custody after a police officer knelt on his neck, even with his hands hand cuffed on his back.

The proposal in the U.S. Congress seeks to ban police chokeholds and racial profiling, require nationwide use of body cameras, subject police to civilian review boards and abolish the legal doctrine known as qualified immunity, which protects police from civil litigation, according to congressional sources.

“It is time for police culture in many departments to change,” Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Representative Karen Bass, told CNN on Sunday.

House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer; and Senator Kamala Harris along with Bass are discussing the bill.

Romney joins Washington protest 

The Minneapolis City Council has said it wants to disband the city’s police department, after days of protests over the killing, which Mitt Romney joined in Washington on Sunday, making him the first known Republican senator to do so.

Romney, who represents Utah (where he was previously governor), posted a tweet showing him wearing a mask as he walked with Black Lives Matter protesters in Washington. Above the photo he wrote: Black Lives Matter.

Walking with a Christian group, Romney told NBC News that he needed to be there.

“We need a voice against racism, we need many voices against racism and against brutality,” he said.

Worldwide rallies defy coronavirus guidelines

Demonstrators attend a protest against police brutality and the death in Minneapolis police custody of Floyd, in Frankfurt, Germany [Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters]

Taking a knee, banging drums and ignoring social distancing measures, outraged protesters from Sydney to London kicked off global rallies against racism and police brutality on Saturday, according to ALJazeera.

The death Floyd brought tens of thousands out onto the streets during a coronavirus pandemic that is ebbing in Asia and Europe but still spreading in other parts of the world.

“It is time to burn down institutional racism,” one speaker shouted through a megaphone outside the Parliament building in London.

“Silence is violence,” the throng shouted back in the rain.

Officials around the world have been trying to balance understanding at people’s pent-up anger with warnings about the dangers of a disease that has officially claimed nearly 400,000 lives globally.

Yet tens of thousands of Australians defied Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s call to “find a better way”, and thousands more in the United Kingdom ignored the health minister’s warning that the “coronavirus remains a real threat”.

“We want justice. We want to breathe,” hundreds chanted in Tunis, as demonstrations convulsing U.S. cities spilled out across the world.

“Are you sure of your silence,” asked a poster of a man laying a pink rose at a memorial set up outside the president’s office in Pretoria, South Africa. 

In Paris, riot police held back a crowd of several thousand who gathered outside the U.S. embassy compound for an unsanctioned protest.

“I find it scandalous that all these injustices go unpunished,” Dior, a 21-year-old Senegalese-Ivorian student, said amidst crowds holding up placards reading “Being black is not a crime” and “Our police are assassins”.

“How many more?” asked a poster held up in a crowd of thousands in Frankfurt.

In North Carolina, a long line of cars snaked its way down a highway as mourners arrived for a viewing and memorial service at a church not far from Floyd’s hometown.

And tens of thousands were again expected in Washington, DC where Mayor Muriel Bowse renamed the area outside the White House “Black Lives Matter Plaza”.

Huge turnout in UK cities

The BBC reports that thousands of people joined anti-racism demonstrations across the UK on Sunday.

The protests were held in cities including London, Manchester, Cardiff, Leicester and Sheffield.

In London, protesters knelt for a minute’s silence before chanting “no justice, no peace” and “black lives matter”.

The majority of the day’s protests were peaceful but in the evening there were disturbances outside Downing Street.

The protest was largely over when missiles and fireworks were thrown at a police line.

Police horses were used to regain control, but one horse galloped ahead and its rider fell to the ground after hitting her head on a traffic light. Her injuries are not life-threatening, the Metropolitan Police said.

Fourteen people were arrested and 14 officers were injured after a smaller group became “angry and intent on violence”, the force added.

In a tweet, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan told the protesters “I stand with you and I share your anger and your pain” and said the small minority of people who became violent “let down this important cause”.

The protests went ahead despite officials advising against mass gatherings due to coronavirus.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the social distancing advice was “for the safety of all of us”, while Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said the protests were “unlawful”.

Thousands of people gathered in the capital, the majority donning face coverings and many with gloves.

Some held signs made reference to coronavirus, including one which read: “There is a virus greater than Covid-19 and it’s called racism”.

In Northern Ireland, police said they had issued “a significant number” of fines given the dangers of crowds in the pandemic and organisers would now be reported to the Public Prosecution Service with a view to prosecution.

At a protest in his hometown of Watford, Britain’s world heavyweight champion boxer Anthony Joshua told the crowds: “We can no longer sit back and remain silent on this senseless, unlawful killing and sly racism on another human being.”

In central London, protesters dropped to one knee and raised their fists in the air outside the U.S. embassy amid chants of “silence is violence” and “colour is not a crime”.

Sarah Law, a 27-year-old train manager, said: “I don’t want my future children to experience what I have. It’s time for us all to unite together regardless of our race and stand up for what is right.”

O’Neall Rawle, a 27-year-old teacher from Leicester, said he was protesting because he was “exhausted of being treated as a second class citizen” and “to hopefully spark some change”.

In Glasgow, anti-racism campaigners renamed streets that have links to the slave trade, replacing street signs with the names of enslaved Africans, black activists and victims of police brutality.

Demonstrations were held in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen in Scotland.

In Manchester, about 15,000 protesters gathered at Piccadilly Gardens in the city centre, clapping in unison and holding placards bearing the initials BLM (Black Lives Matter).

Several hundred people marched in Newcastle, while many more took part in an online protest organised in the north-east of England.

More protests took place across Europe on Saturday and huge rallies are still taking place in major cities across the U.S.