Minneapolis – Sunday, five years since George Floyd was killed, Minneapolis square named for him was overflowing.
Hundreds gathered, as they have done during the last days, with tears and renewed called to justice for the man who died under the knee of a police officer while a crowd begged him to stop.
Sunday visitors launched colorful flowers, including many yellow roses, at the intersection where Floyd was killed, decorating a monument that consecrated it in the streets of the city.
“The feeling that we have of the previous ‘angels’ is very different this year,” said Bridgette Stewart, an independent journalist and community activist who lives in Minneapolis.
Stewart said his workplace is in George Floyd Square, so he’s there “every day.” Five years later, a feeling of calm has returned to the community, Stewart said, and people have begun to join.
“This is our first year, in reality, where we have not had to make national security between and make the entire bomb sweep,” he said.
Ximena Rayo, director of the 58 -year -old school in the city, said she does not live far from where Floyd was killed. He recalled that the entire city was moved by the murder.
While “we are nowhere where we must be,” Rayo said, there are signs of progress. That is, he said that new people have been hired and the mayor and the city police department are “really working in better ways.”
“It seems that people feel safe,” Rayo said.
The fifth “Rise & Remember Festival” Annual, which its organizers say that honor Flyd and others “unfairly lost the generalized impacts of systemic racism,” began Friday. On Saturday, colorful flower packages marked the Floyd monument.
Billy Briggs, a live music photographer who lives just a few steps from the George Floyd square, described feeling intense anxiety before the fifth anniversary of Floyd’s death, caused by memories of that day. Briggs, which served as a caretaker for the square for a year, began to photograph it as a way of dealing with trauma.
“When I see families parking in front of my house, walking there [the square]Sometimes it brings me a little crying, because I know they will go through a tough lesson, but important, “Briggs said.” And I’m glad that people still come and bring their families here to teach that lesson. “
Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020 by Blanco Police officer Derek Chauvin, who used his knee to press the weight of his body on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, suffocating.
Floyd’s morbundas words were “I can’t breathe.”
These words became a scream of meeting for millions outraged by their murder, including politicians, institutions, companies and schools. Protesters from all over the country took to the streets to ask for a change, demanding that the United States consider their deep racial injustices and reform their police departments.
Chauvin was sentenced to 21 years for violating Floyd’s civil rights and 22 1/2 years for second degree murder. Minneapolis prohibited the police strangulator, and the companies promised more than $ 66 billion for racial capital initiatives.
Floyd’s life was also held in other cities on Sunday: his family celebrated a private commemorative service in Houston and his brother organized a march in Brooklyn, New York, which led to the presentation of a new community plaque in honor of Floyd.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, lawyer and civil rights activist, was one of the first to find out about Floyd’s death five years ago. When she observed the images showing how she died, her heart was broken.
“I knew he witnessed what he felt like a lynching,” he said on Saturday. “The tears began to run down my face, and I was horrified by what I had seen.”
Armstrong said the conditions that led to the death of Floyd “are still in their place,” and added that he hoped that “people in authority positions did the right thing and that they would take intentional measures to change the laws and policies that led to the murder of George Floyd.”
“We receive crumbs when we ask for a complete party, and that is why we are standing as a city right now,” he said.
Armstrong expressed his desire for a new leadership in Minneapolis, asking a new mayor to take control, reform the City Police Department and appoint a new police chief.
“Why do incidents continue to happen to black residents? Why don’t they receive justice? Why are they still fearful?” Armstrong asked. “That points to a person, the leader on the Minneapolis Police Department, who appointed the boss. The boss is poorly equipped and is presented to be the head of a police department with this history and a diverse city. He needs to go too.”
The Minneapolis Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
The city council member, Andrea Jenkins, who represents Ward 8, where Floyd was killed, described the mood in the square during the weekend as a mixture of gloomy reflection and a cheerful memory.
“I think people feel mixed emotions of all those things,” he said. “And certainly remembering George Floyd, remembering the trauma that was inflicted at that time, but also recommended that resolution to continue the struggle for justice.”
Jenkins pointed out several significant changes in the city since Floyd was killed, including the training of the Public Security Office, which is part of the Police Department, the Fire Department and emergency management. The city also created an response team to the behavior crisis to respond to anyone who experiences mental health challenges.
“For a long time, I felt that the Minneapolis Police Department was on an island for itself and it was their own creation, but now we seem to take them back to the city’s company and, hopefully, making them feel more part of the community and less than the United States.
Has policy changes been enough? “No, but I think we are on the road to a significant change,” Jenkins said, adding that the current federal government is derailing part of the change for which she and others are fighting.
“What it is, I think, the history of the United States,” he said. “Little progress, and then we go back.”
