The incidents were debated by the EU Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights as the protest movement since Floyd’s death gathered pace in Europe and around the world, according to AP.

Finnish Greens lawmaker Heidi Hautala said, “The police should not be there to shoot when some loot. The police should be there to protect, and it is clear that widespread reforms in law enforcement in the United States are needed.”

Irish EU lawmaker Sean Kelly said some of the problems is due to a failure of leadership. He said what happened in the United States is “chilling in the extreme. I think it indicates what can happen when you have poor leadership.

“Leaders can either divide or unite. Good unite. Bad divide. That’s what we see unfortunately in America at the moment.”

Swedish liberal parliamentarian Karin Karlsbro said, “America has a long and tragic history on police brutality. At the heart of this lies racism and segregation based on history. This is a systematic problem that needs to be addressed at all levels in the US.”

Floyd died on May 25 when a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, an incident captured on video.

His death reignited long-felt anger over police killings of African-Americans and unleashed a nationwide wave of civil unrest unlike any seen in the US since Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 assassination.

The protests have been met with a heavy-handed police crackdown.

Several videos of police brutality have also emerged during protests over the death of George Floyd, according to BBC.

In Buffalo, New York State, two officers were suspended after they were seen shoving an elderly white man to the ground.

And in New York City, police were captured on video roughly handling demonstrators as they ran away.

The reports come hours after a memorial for Floyd in Minneapolis, the city where he died at the hands of police.

Massive suppression

On Thursday, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani also reacted to the US protests, saying that the US has been experiencing the “worst days in its political and social history” amid angry protests over US police brutality, Press TV wrote.

Rouhani said under such circumstances, “We have witnessed that black people and those who reject the White House’s mindset are being subjected to massive suppression.”

“It is shameful that the US president reaches for The Bible [to justify] issuing an order for murders and crimes against American citizens,” Rouhani said.

He was referring to Trump’s photo stunt on Monday when US police drove back peaceful protesters near the White House so the US president could walk to the nearby St. John’s Church and pose briefly with a Bible.

Declaring himself, “your president of law and order,” Trump vowed on the same day to return the order to American streets using the military if the protests continue.

The Iranian president further said The Bible is a holy book that invites peace and kindness. The Bible, he added, is the holy book of Abrahamic religion and such a move angers the followers of all other such religions.

Rouhani expressed sympathy with the American people and those who are protesting in the streets, saying, “We condemn the White House which is issuing orders to commit these crimes.”