Amazon pulls George Floyd death t-shirt from US site

Amazon has removed from its US store a children's t-shirt featuring an image of a policeman kneeling on the neck of George Floyd.

The $14.99 garment was listed by a third-party reseller, alongside other clothing targeted at supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Amazon’s guidelines prohibit products that depict crime scene photos.

The e-commerce giant said in a statement: "All sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who do not will be subject to action including potential removal of their account. The product in question is no longer available."

Twitter backlash

As protests took place in dozens of US cities and around the world over the death of George Floyd, Amazon hit Twitter last week to express its support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

“The inequitable and brutal treatment of black people in our country must stop. Together we stand in solidarity with the black community - our employees, customers and partners, in the fight against against systemic racism and injustice,” it said.

The retailer has never been far from controversy during the coronavirus outbreak (it has, for instance, been blasted by American comedian, political commentator and television host, Bill Maher and John Oliver, host of HBO's Last Week Tonight show).

And sure enough, its tweet attracted a flurry of angry responses. “Will your Black employees be given bathroom breaks? Will they be able to unionise without fear of reprisal? Will they get hazard pay for working through Covid? Will you stop lobbying against a tax that mitigates homelessness in Seattle, which affects Black communities hardest?” said Tony Choi.

“Funny coming from the company that fired a Black man for asking for safer working conditions during Covid, sells Nazi flags and remains the last large advertiser on Breitbart, which once featured a “Black Crime” section, despite being asked to stop by 600+ of your diverse workers,” commented Sleeping Giants.

Whilst Robert Wing asked: “That's awesome - now, as one of the richest companies on the planet, one who has heavily profited during the pandemic, how about you take it a step further and provide some meaningful monetary support to the individuals and organisations you're claiming solidarity with?”

Amazon did not respond to our request for comment, but you can read about how it is responding to the coronavirus crisis here.