‘A great day for George’
Trump invokes dead man’s memory to hail rise in job figures
PRESIDENT Donald Trump invoked George Floyd’s name as he delivered remarks trumpeting the latest unemployment numbers, which showed the US economy unexpectedly adding 2.5 million jobs last month.
Mr Trump said that equal justice under the law means everyone needs to receive fair treatment. He referenced Mr Floyd, whose death in police custody has sparked protests across the world.
“Hopefully George is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing that’s happening for our country,” he said, adding: “This is a great day for him. It’s a great day for everybody.”
Joe Biden, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, said Mr Trump’s comments about Mr Floyd were “despicable.”
Meanwhile, prosecutors were investigating yesterday after a video captured police in Buffalo shoving a 75-yearold man who then fell and cracked his head. The officers were suspended.
It shows a man identified as Martin Gugino approaching a line of helmeted officers holding batons as they clear demonstrators for the 8pm curfew. Two officers push Gugino backward, and blood spills as his head hits the pavement.
Elsewhere, a man who was with Mr Floyd says his friend didn’t resist arrest and tried to defuse the situation when officers began screaming at Mr Floyd.
Maurice Lester Hall, a longtime friend, who was a passenger in the dead man’s car when police approached him on May 25 said Mr Floyd was trying in his “humblest form to show he was not resisting arrest in no form or way”.
The city of Minneapolis has agreed with the state to ban the use of chokeholds by police, and to require police to report and intervene any time they see an unauthorised use of force by another officer.
Top US cardinal in Vatican slams brutal policing and divisive language
The agreement, which will be enforceable in court, would require any officer to immediately report the use of any neck restraint or chokehold from the scene to their commander or their commander’s superiors and to try to intervene verbally and even physically.
Yesterday, the highest-ranking American cardinal at the Vatican, Kevin Farrell, said the killing of Mr Floyd has laid bare that the Christian principles of the US Constitution aren’t being applied to black people and is evidence that divisive language can kill.