WASHINGTON, June 5 — Family, friends and guests observed silence of eight minutes and 46 seconds as the memorial service honouring George Floyd came to a close on Thursday in Minneapolis, reported Xinhua news agency.
That length of time represented the duration, for which the unarmed 46-year-old black man was pinned down under a Minneapolis police officer’s knee before he died last week.
“What happened to Floyd happens every day in this country, in education, in health services, and in every area of American life.
It is time for us to stand up in George’s name and say, get your knee off our necks,” said civil rights activist Alfred Sharpton, when delivering a eulogy at the service held at the Frank J. Lindquist Sanctuary of North Central University in downtown Minneapolis Thursday afternoon.
Sharpton, the founder of the civil rights organisation National Action Network, called for a march in Washington on Aug 28 — the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s original March on Washington during the historical Civil Rights Movement — to call for a federal policing equality act.
“We need to go back to Washington and stand up — black, white, Latino, Arab — in the shadows of Lincoln, and tell them this is the time to stop this,” he said.
“It was not the coronavirus pandemic that killed George Floyd,” said Benjamin Crump, attorney for the Floyd family.
“(It’s) the other pandemic that we’re far too familiar with in America, the pandemic of racism and discrimination, that killed George Floyd.”
Prior to the memorial, hundreds of Minneapolis residents paid their tribute to Floyd by laying wreaths at a makeshift memorial site near the store where Floyd died.
“All these people came to see my brother. And that is amazing to me that he touched so many people’s hearts,” Floyd’s brother Philonise said at the memorial.
“Everybody wants justice. We want justice for George. He’s going to get it. He’s going to get it,” he said.
Thursday’s memorial streamed live to the public, is the first in a series of services to remember Floyd.
A public viewing and a private memorial service will be held on Saturday in Raeford, North Carolina, the state where Floyd was born.
Floyd’s body will return on Monday to Houston, Texas, where Floyd called home, for a public memorial and private service on Tuesday.
Floyd’s death has triggered protests all over the United States.
Protesters in Minneapolis, New York and other cities continue to rally, as the four fired Minneapolis police officers who had been arresting Floyd are now in jail.
Derek Chauvin, the ex-officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes, was charged Wednesday with an additional count of second-degree murder, on top of a third-degree murder charge. He is scheduled to be in court Monday.
The three others were charged Wednesday with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
If convicted, all the officers could spend up to 40 years in prison, according to local reports.
— Bernama
