This was published 3 years ago
Floyd's death symbolised experience of all African-Americans: Sharpton
By Brendan O'Brien
Minneapolis: Prominent civil rights activist the Reverend Al Sharpton told mourners at George Floyd's memorial that his fatal encounter with police marked a reckoning for America over race and justice, demanding: "Get your knee off our necks".
Delivering the eulogy at a memorial service inside a university chapel in Minneapolis, Sharpton said Floyd's fate – dying in police custody, pinned to the ground under the knee of a white officer – symbolised the collective experience of African Americans.
The Reverend Al Sharpton speaks at a memorial service for George Floyd at North Central University in Minneapolis.Credit: AP
"George Floyd should not be among the deceased. He did not die of common health conditions. He died of a common American criminal justice malfunction," Sharpton said. "It's time for us to stand up in George's name and say, 'Get your knee off our necks'."
Sharpton led mourners in eight minutes and 46 seconds of silence, the amount of time Floyd lay on a Minneapolis street with a knee pressed into his neck.
The day of remembrance capped nine straight nights of raucous but largely peaceful street demonstrations in Floyd's name across the country, which were punctuated by sporadic arson, looting and clashes between protesters and police.
It came on the same day that defendants were brought to courts in two different states over the deaths of both Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, the 25-year-old black man chased and shot dead while out jogging near Brunswick, Georgia.
While the two cases are at very early stages, civil rights advocates point to them as a sign that the authorities want justice to be done.
Bail for the three Minneapolis police officers charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter of Floyd was set at $US1 million each ($1.5 million).
Derek Chauvin, the officer seen in widely circulated video footage kneeling on Floyd's neck, is slated to appear in court on Monday on murder charges.
In a hearing to determine whether there was enough evidence to proceed with a murder trial, the lead agent in the case testified that Travis and Greg McMichael and a third man in another ute, William "Roddie" Bryan, used their trucks to chase down and box in Arbery, who repeatedly reversed directions and ran into a ditch while trying to escape.
The agent also said he heard on video Travis McMichael using a racial slur as he stood over Arbery's body.
In Minneapolis, while hundreds gathered inside the North Central University chapel to grieve, hundreds more clustered outside under trees and in window sills, listening to the service broadcast over loudspeakers.
One was Zsa-Vona Williams, 36, who knew Floyd from his days working at the homeless shelter where she once lived, recalling him as a caring, friendly soul.
"He gave to and fed a lot of people. He was a gentle, peaceful person," Williams said, adding that in death, "He has changed the world."
Floyd's brother Philonise Floyd recounted to mourners that he and his siblings grew up so poor they washed their socks and underwear in the sink and dried them in the oven.
“It’s crazy man, all these people came to see my brother, it’s amazing he touched so many hearts,” said Philonise Floyd, wearing a dark suit adorned with a photo of his brother.
George Floyd's brother Philonise Floyd, right, and cousin Shareeduh Tate.Credit: AP
A second brother, Terrence Floyd, joined an outdoor memorial in a Brooklyn park, where many in the crowd knelt in the grass in the afternoon sunshine in a symbol of protest and chanted, "No justice, no peace."
He urged the crowd to continue to seek justice but to avoid violence, saying, "My brother wasn't about that."
Sharpton acknowledged that some demonstrations had devolved into incidents of lawlessness, which detractors had seized on to avoid a larger conversation about systemic racial inequality.
"None of us condone it - looting and violence," Sharpton said. "But there is a difference between those calling for peace and those calling for quiet. Some y'all don't want peace, you just want quiet. You just want us to suffer in silence."
Martin Luther King III pauses in front of George Floyd's casket at his memorial service.Credit: AP
Services for Floyd are expected to stretch across six days and three states, including memorials in North Carolina and Houston. A funeral was planned for Tuesday.
The outpouring of rage appeared to ebb by Wednesday after prosecutors in Minneapolis elevated murder charges against one police officer jailed last week in Floyd's May 25 death and arrested three others accused of aiding and abetting the first.
By Thursday, curfews had been lifted in most cities across the nation, although New York City police still arrested demonstrators breaching their 8pm shutdown.
Upstate in Buffalo, two police officers were suspended without pay after pushing a 75-year-old man to the ground during a protest. The man was hospitalised, and was reported to be in a stable but serious condition.
Reuters
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