Silent vigil takes place to highlight racism issues
A SPECIAL vigil has been held in Queen’s Park where people stood, or took the knee in silence for eight minutes and 46 seconds - the length of time the late George Floyd was pinned down by a police officer in Minneapolis USA, before dying.
Around 20 people took part in the vigil was organised by Loughborough Council of Faiths.
And afterwards the group which brings together people of all different faiths from across the town released a special statement.
The statement reads: “As a Council of Faiths we have always looked for justice in our society, irrespective of one’s caste, colour or creed.
“We were therefore shocked to see the death of George Floyd, ironically by the very police force who are appointed to provide protection.
“Perhaps the worst aspect of it was that the police officers concerned assumed that what was done was acceptable to each other and to the public in the vicinity.
“Much police brutality has reportedly gone on behind closed doors in the USA and in the UK for many decades. But here we had an example of that brutality for all to see, as though it was the normal way to behave when making an arrest on someone, already cuffed and held down, and no longer a threat to the personal safety of the officers.
“Black lives matter.
It seems, even after all these years, that the colour of your skin makes you vulnerable to abuse and attack.
“Behind all that happened to George Floyd, and many others, is clearly an underlying racism which has been seen as the norm. It happens in many ways, in the use of language, in our expectations of someone’s ability, in the way we approach people, in our assumption that our way is right and everyone else should conform.
“The small things may not seem important to the perpetrator, but when a person is subjected to such actions day after day from a variety of people it undermines that person’s self- esteem.
“And when others see these attitudes, they see them as acceptable and the situation gets worse. These small incidents, going unchallenged, can lead to more serious attacks as we have seen.
“We need all of us to pledge to remove racism not only from our communities and places of work in the Borough of Charnwood but also from our hearts and minds.”