MINNEAPOLIS (AP) 鈥 Police reform and civil-rights activists joined thousands of ordinary people Sunday to mark the fifth anniversary of George Floyd鈥檚 murder and decry the Trump administration for actions they say set their efforts back decades.
said at a graveside service with the dead man's family in Houston that Floyd, 46, represented all of those 鈥渨ho are defenseless against people who thought they could put their knee on our neck.鈥
He compared Floyd's killing to that of , a 14-year-old Black child who was abducted, mutilated and slain in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of offending a white woman.
鈥淲hat Emmett Till was in his time, George Floyd has been for this time in history,鈥 Sharpton said.
Site of his death
Events in Minneapolis centered around George Floyd Square, the intersection where police Officer Derek Chauvin used his knee to pin Floyd鈥檚 neck to the pavement for 9 1/2 minutes, even as Floyd cried 鈥淚 can鈥檛 breathe.鈥
By midday Sunday, a steady stream of people were paying their respects at a memorial in front of Cup Foods, where he was killed. Across the street, activists had set up a feeding area at an old gas station that has often served as a staging area since Floyd鈥檚 death. In the middle of the street, a fake pig's head was mounted on a stick. The head wore a police cap.
Events started Friday with music, a street festival and a 鈥渟elf-care fair.鈥 It culminated Sunday evening when hundreds gathered at the square for a candlelit vigil that included a worship service, a gospel concert and speeches calling for racial justice. A brass band then led the crowd on a short march through city streets.
Even with Minneapolis officials鈥 promises to , some activists contend the progress has come at a glacial pace.
鈥淲e understand that change takes time,鈥 Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality, said in a statement last week. 鈥淗owever, the progress being claimed by the city is not being felt in the streets.鈥
Slow pace of change
Activists had hoped that the that followed Floyd's murder on May 25, 2020, would lead to national police reform and focus on racial justice.
Under President Joe Biden, the U.S. Justice Department had aggressively pushed for oversight of local police it had accused of widespread abuses. But the Trump administration with Minneapolis and Louisville that called for an overhaul of their police departments following Floyd鈥檚 murder and the killing of
Trump also has declared within the federal government, and his administration is using federal funds as leverage to force local governments, universities and public school districts to do the same. And Republican-led states have to stamp out DEI initiatives.
In Houston, Sharpton castigated the administration鈥檚 settlement cancellations, saying they were 鈥渢antamount to the Department of Justice and the president spitting on the grave of George Floyd.鈥
鈥淭o wait to the anniversary and announce this, knowing this family was going to be brought back to the brokenheartedness of what happened shows the disregard and insensitivity of this administration,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ut the reason that we will not be deterred is that Trump was president when George Floyd happened and he didn鈥檛 do anything then. We made things happen. And we鈥檙e going to make them happen again.鈥
The future?
Detrius Smith of Dallas, who was visiting the Floyd memorial site with her three daughters and five grandchildren, told one granddaughter about how people globally united to decry racial injustice after Floyd's murder.
鈥淚t just really feels good, just really to see everybody out here celebrating the life, and the memories of George Floyd and just really remembering what happened,鈥 Smith said. 鈥淲e want to do everything we can to work together so everybody can have the same equal rights and everybody can move forward and not have something like that to continue to happen in this nation.鈥
Gail Ferguson of Minneapolis visited the site of Floyd's death on Sunday, as she has done every year on the anniversary of his death. Ferguson, who is a professor at the University of Minnesota's Institute of Child Development leading an anti-racist parenting intervention program for white parents of young white children, said Floyd's murder brought attention to what she calls a racism pandemic.
鈥淚t exposed white supremacy, and it exposed the fragility and the passivity that can be part of the culture of whiteness,鈥 she said.
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LaFleur contributed from Houston.
