George Floyd's fifth anniversary of murder with call for reform, Trump's barb
Police reform and civil rights activists joined thousands on Sunday to mark the fifth anniversary of the administration of George Floyd's murder and condemn U.S. President Donald Trump.
Rev. Al Sharpton said during a grave service in Houston with Floyd’s family that Floyd, 46, represents all “no defense for those who think they can put their knees on our necks.”
He cited the killing of Floyd with the killing works of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black child who was kidnapped, dismembered and killed in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of offending a white woman.
“Emmett was in this history until his time,” Sharpton said.
The incident in Minneapolis centered around George Floyd Square, which policeman Derek Chauvin used his knee to hold Floyd's neck to the 9½-minute intersection on the sidewalk, even though Floyd cried “I can't breathe.”
By noon Sunday, a steady man was killed to Floyd in the memorial in front of Unity Foods (formerly known as Cup Foods). Across the street, militants built a feeding area at an old gas station, which has often been a stage area since Floyd's death. In the middle of the street, the fake pig's head is mounted on a stick. Wearing a police cap.
Concerts, street festivals and “Self-care Fairs” will begin on Friday, and will be summited on Sunday with worship, gospel concerts and candlelight vigils.
Even as Minneapolis officials promised to remake the police station, some activists believe that progress is also at the rate of glaciers.
“We know that change takes time,” Michelle Gross, the president who united against police brutality, said in a statement last week. “However, the progress the city demanded was not getting on the street.”
Slow change
The activists had hoped that global protests following Floyd's murder on May 25, 2020 will lead to national police reforms and focus on racial justice.
Under President Joe Biden, the U.S. Department of Justice actively promotes overseeing local police, which has been accused of widespread abuse. But the Trump administration moved Wednesday to cancel settlements with Minneapolis and Louisville, which called for a major overhaul of its police department after Floyd's murder and murder of Brena Taylor.
Trump also announced an end to the diversity, equity and inclusion program within the federal government, and his administration is using federal funds to force local governments, universities and public school districts to do the same. Republican-led states accelerated their efforts to eliminate the DEI initiative.
In Houston, Sharpton condemned the government's settlement cancellation, saying they “sprayed George Floyd's grave with the Department of Justice and the President.”
“To wait for the anniversary and announce this, knowing that this family will be brought back to what happened is a sign of the ignorance and insensitivity of this administration,” he said. “But the reason we won’t be stopped is that when George Floyd happened, Trump was the president, and he did nothing at the time. We made things happen. We will make them come true again.”
Detrius Smith of Dallas, who visits the Floyd Memorial Site with her three daughters and five grandchildren, tells a granddaughter about how people around the globe united to condemn racial injustice after Floyd’s murder.
“It feels great, really to see everyone here celebrating life, and memories of George Floyd and really remembering what happened,” Smith said. “We wanted to do everything we could to work together so that everyone has the same equal rights and everyone can move forward and there is no such thing going on in this country.”
