Roma deaths are newsworthy in their own right

We should not feel the need to co-opt the Black Lives Matter movement to bring the plight of Roma to the world’s attention.

On June 19, a Romani man called Stanislav Tomáš died in the city of Teplice in the Czech Republic after a police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes. A video of the incident, showing Tomáš scream and writhe under the police officer’s knee before ceasing to move, has spread across Czech social media networks, raising questions about the proportionality of the force used by the police. In response, the Czech police quickly embarked on a character assassination campaign against the dead man. They accused Tomáš of being a repeat offender and a drug addict. They shared on social media a video in which he appeared to be under the influence of drugs prior to his violent arrest. They also said a court-ordered preliminary autopsy proved his death was not linked to the police actions, but to drugs.