George Floyd protesters take to US streets for tenth night after hundreds attend memorial service

Largely peaceful demonstrations continue in cities from Los Angeles to New York as first of string of memorial ceremonies for Mr Floyd is held in Minneapolis
Mr Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25 after a white police officer had pinned him at the neck for nearly nine minutes
Reuters
David Child5 June 2020

Protesters returned to streets across the US for a 10th evening running just hours after George Floyd's memorial service heard he was killed by the "pandemic of racism and discrimination".

Thousands of demonstrators took part in protests on Thursday evening in cities including Atlanta, Washington D.C, Denver, Detroit, New York, Seattle and Los Angeles.

The gatherings, while boisterous at times, were largely orderly. Demonstrations on previous evenings had been mostly peaceful, but also punctuated by sporadic arson, looting and clashes between protesters and police.

The apparent change in mood reflected a determination voiced by many protesters and organisers in recent days to transform outrage over Mr Floyd’s death into a renewed civil rights movement and seek reforms to the US' criminal justice system.

George Floyd Memorial - In pictures

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Earlier on Thursday, mourners in Minneapolis held a sombre memorial for Mr Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died in police custody on May 25 after being pinned at the neck by a white police officer for nearly nine minutes.

Former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin has had his murder charge upscaled from third-degree to the more severe second-degree over the incident, while three other former officers have also now been charged with aiding and abetting the killing.

Addressing Thursday's memorial service, lawyer Benjamin Crump told those gathered at the ceremony it was "not the coronavirus pandemic that killed George Floyd".

"It was that other pandemic," Mr Crump said. "The pandemic of racism and discrimination."

Among those to attend the service were members of Mr Floyd's family, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

George Floyd's family call for justice

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Several hundred others also crowded in to the North Central University for the ceremony, and a crowd of hundreds more clustered outside under trees and in window sills, listening to the service, which was broadcast over loudspeakers.

Prominent civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton also spoke to those assembled, telling mourners Mr Floyd’s fatal encounter with police and the nationwide protests his death have ignited marked a reckoning for America over race and justice.

“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.’”

Reverend Sharpton also led mourners in eight minutes and 46 seconds of silence, the amount of time Mr Floyd suffered Mr Chauvin's knee being pressed into his neck.

George Floyd Protests - In pictures

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Mr Floyd's casket was covered in red roses for the ceremony, and a vibrant image was projected above the pulpit of a mural of him painted at the street corner where he was arrested by police on suspicion of attempting to pay with a counterfeit note.

The message on the mural reads: “I can breathe now”.

The Minneapolis service marked the first of a string of services planned for Mr Floyd which are expected to stretch across six days and three states, including memorials in North Carolina and Houston, his hometown.

He is set to be laid to rest on Tuesday.

The official post-mortem examination into his death resulted in it being declared a homicide.

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