British-Nigerian actor and star of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, John Boyega, joined Black Lives Matter activists in London to protest against the death of George Floyd in the United States.
On Wednesday, thousands of protesters gathered in London’s Hyde Park before marching to the Houses of Parliament and Downing Street, where clashes with the Metropolitan Police and acts of vandalism were witnessed.
The protesters were joined by Boyega, who said according to The Metro: “Black lives have always mattered. We have always been important. We have always meant something. We have always succeeded regardless. And now is the time. I ain’t waiting.”
“I’m speaking to you from my heart. Look, I don’t know if I’m going to have a career after this, but fuck that,” the Star Wars actor proclaimed.
“So none of you out there, all those protesters on the other side, protesting against what we want to do, protesting against what we want to try and achieve, burn you, this is so vital,” he shouted into a megaphone.
The actor then went on to implore protesters to keep their actions as peaceful as possible, saying that “they want us to mess up, they want us to be disorganised but not today”.
Boyega’s call for calm was apparently not heeded by the mob that later descended upon Downing Street, where they were filmed violently confronting police outside the official offices of the UK Prime Minister.
Last week, Breitbart News reported on an outburst from Mr Boyega, who told users on social media to “fuck off” during an impassioned tribute to George Floyd, who lost his life when a police officer in the American city of Minneapolis held his knee on Mr Floyd’s neck.
“I really fucking hate racists,” Boyega wrote.
“This just burns. Seems to be a never-ending cycle. The murderers need to be charged severely. Even in the face of death, this man was given zero empathy,” he added.
On Tuesday, another prominent British actor, Idris Elba, took to Twitter to make a so-called ‘Blackout‘ post, in which the Hollywood celeb attached an apparently self-authored poem, which read:
“This ain’t a movie/ ain’t calling cut/ we cutting the throat of the old system/so if you ain’t with us/ then you better run. New breed.”
The protests in London come days after Black Lives Matter and Antifa flooded the streets of the British capital over the weekend — with little to no regard for the government-mandated social distancing — calling “to burn this shit down” and hailing the chaos and riots in America as a sign that the “West is Falling”.
Follow Kurt on Twitter at @KurtZindulka
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