Religion

John Sentamu: I would join George Floyd protests


The archbishop of York has said he would join protests over the death of George Floyd but violence should not be part of the action.

John Sentamu, the most senior black leader in the Church of England, who retires on Sunday, said he was shielding at present, but added: “I certainly would want to join [the protests]. But at the moment it turns to violence, I wouldn’t be there because I don’t believe violence is the same as going out and protesting. 

“People should have the right to protest but not use violence, because I’m afraid you can end up in trouble and arrested.”

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Sentamu was also critical of Donald Trump’s threat to use troops against protesters in US cities.

“People sometimes think that because you’ve got the power and the authority, you can abuse that authority. Martin Luther King said violence causes as many problems as it solve … darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that; hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” he said.

“The problem is America has not been listening to the real problems of African Americans and people of colour.”

The country had not “dealt with this endemic brutality that some people experience from people in uniform”.

Although he condemned violence from protesters and authorities, he said people who had watched the video of a police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck were “saying enough is enough”.

“Many in moments of anger, in moments of deep bitterness, engage in riots,” he said.

Governments must “listen to the voices of those who are really telling it as it is. Isn’t it shocking that people who have died in large numbers … of Covid-19 come from mainly minority groups? … We ought to be holding a mirror to ourselves.”

He added: “I want to plead with my brothers and sisters that what is called for is restorative justice, where truth, justice, mercy, peace meet.” But some people “don’t feel they are being heard and, as Victor Hugo said, sometimes violence is the only response”.

He suggested people put a light in their windows to show solidarity over Floyd’s death.

Sentamu, who came to the UK from Uganda in 1974, is retiring after 15 years as archbishop of York. He will be succeeded by Stephen Cottrell, the bishop of Chelmsford.

In the late 90s, Sentamu served as an adviser on the MacPherson inquiry into the murder of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence and the police mishandling of the case. He also chaired a review of the police investigation into the death of Damilola Taylor, a 10-year-old black schoolboy who was stabbed to death in south London in 2000.



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