The Conversation (0)
James Besanvalle
Jun 02, 2020
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Getty
Marina Diamandis has come under fire for a tweet conflating mental illness to being a police officer.
The tweet came about after white police officer Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for the killing of George Floyd last week.
Chauvin was filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck, causing an independent medical examination to label the death a homicide.
The incident has caused week-long mass protests worldwide, with many calling out systemic racism and police brutality.
The Marina and the Diamonds singer wrote on Twitter on Sunday:
In response, many believed conflating mental illness with cops only served to further "stigmatise" mental health issues:
@MarinaDiamandis I absolute adore you marina but this is an incredibly harmful thing to tweet, remember people with… https://t.co/29XTtonKBd— Sarah🌸🌱 (@Sarah🌸🌱) 1590933099
@MarinaDiamandis this is a really bad take. 1. mentally ill people (especially Black mentally ill people) are at h… https://t.co/dl25lk8Cmq— jaynuary blues (@jaynuary blues) 1590934093
@MarinaDiamandis - this is ableist - mentally ill doesn't equal bad - calling someone mentally ill when you mean '… https://t.co/kmVmOLoEAV— Bo. B / Jason Momoa troostcommittee (@Bo. B / Jason Momoa troostcommittee) 1590935016
Many people implored the singer to delete her tweet:
@MarinaDiamandis Marina you know I love you but you need to delete this. It’s not cool to imply that people with me… https://t.co/m7ce7GQlfS— Marina Alerts (@Marina Alerts) 1590935868
@MarinaDiamandis Hi, mentally ill person here, who has zero desire to enact a brutal system of white supremacy agai… https://t.co/X5HjZJHeWj— VƎX, Whomst Transed The Gender (@VƎX, Whomst Transed The Gender) 1590946020
Marina is yet to publicly address the backlash but she’s since tweeted about the shooting of kids in the face with rubber bullets.
She tweeted:
Watching footage from last night's US protests - I have never seen this level of sadism or brutality toward human b… https://t.co/oC6xo3nPgN— M A R I N A (@M A R I N A) 1590933283
She also quoted another tweet about police brutality and wrote: “No job is worth this level of injustice”.