‘GET YOUR KNEE OFF OUR NECKS’
STIRRING TRIBUTE AT MINNESOTA MEMORIAL FOR GEORGE FLOYD
Thousands gathered in and around George Floyd’s Minneapolis memorial service Thursday to celebrate the “great big giant” who gave powerful hugs — and vow that his death won’t be in vain.
“We can’t let this go. We can’t keep living like this,” the Rev. Al Sharpton said before leading the crowd in eight minutes and 46 seconds of silence, the length of time Floyd’s neck was under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer as his life slipped away May 25.
“That’s a long time,” Sharpton said as the silence concluded. “That’s how long he was laying there. There’s no excuse. They had enough time.
They had enough time. Now what will we do with the time we have?”
Floyd’s brothers Philonise and Rodney took the podium above his gold casket during the stirring service on the downtown campus of North Central University.
They recalled their 46-yearold sibling’s magnetic personality and deep love for their late mother, Larcenia Jones Floyd, the “mama” he called out for with his final breaths.
“We didn’t have much. Our mom did what she could. We would sleep in the same beds, play video games together, go outside and play catch,” Philonise Floyd said.
“We did a lot of things together, from like, talking with my mom, dancing with our mom, cooking with our mom,” he said. “We made banana mayonnaise sandwiches together. It was a family thing.”
He said George was “like a general.” When he walked outside, “people wanted to greet him, wanted to have fun with him.”
“I love my brother, man,” he said. “That’s amazing to me that he touched so many people’s hearts, you know, because he’s been touching our hearts.”
He said people back home in Houston’s Third Ward are “crying” over his loss, sharing stories about “how much they loved him.”
“Everybody wants justice. We want justice for George. He’s gonna get it. He’s gonna get it,” he said.
“It’s a beautiful thing this great love we’re receiving, and George Floyd is receiving, because he would love it,” Rodney Floyd said. “I wish he was here in the present, in the flesh, to see it. Because all this great unity, it would bring him to tears, like it’s bringing us.”
Cousin Shareeduh Tate said the thing she would “miss about him most is his hugs.”
“He was this great big giant,” she said, “and when he would wrap his arms around you, everything could just go away, any problems you had, concerns you had would go away.”
She asked the crowd to pray for Floyd’s five children, including his youngest, 6-yearold daughter Gianna Floyd, and his 3-year-old granddaughter.
“We are more concerned about his children and his grandchildren. So I ask that you pray for us as we go along this marathon to make sure that justice is served on George’s behalf,” Tate said.
In his powerful eulogy, Sharpton compared Floyd’s death to the 2014 police chokehold death of Eric Garner on Staten Island and so many before that.
“George Floyd’s story has been the story of black folks, because ever since 401 years ago, the reason we could never be who we wanted and dreamed of being is you kept your knee on our neck,” he said.
“We were smarter than the underfunded schools you put us in, but you had your knee on our neck,” he said.
“We could run corporations and not hustle in the street, but
you had your knee on our neck,” he said.
“We had creative skills. We could do whatever anybody else could do. But we couldn’t get your knee off our neck,” he said.
“What happened to Floyd happens every day in this country, in education and health services, and in every area of American life. It’s time for us to stand up in George’s name and say, ‘Get your knee off our necks,” he said.
Sharpton also called out President Trump for clearing demonstrators from an area outside the White House this week so he could stand alone outside a church and hold up a Bible for a photo op.
“We cannot use Bibles as a prop. And for those that have agendas that are not about justice, this family will not let you use George as a prop,” he said.
He called out Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who was seated in the sanctuary, to say people in power have a role to play when “some in the criminal justice system have a problem looking at a tape and knowing there’s probable cause.”
Walz stood up and applauded the remark at the service also attended by U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith of Minnesota.
Sharpton thanked celebrities Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish, Ludacris, Tyrese Gibson, Master P. and T.I. for traveling to the memorial to support Floyd’s family and called Haddish up to the stage for the moment of silence.
And Sharpton unveiled plans to hold a new March on Washington Aug. 28, the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
“We’re going back to Washington, Martin,” Sharpton said, referring to Martin Luther King III, seated in the audience.
Video of Floyd’s arrest shows him handcuffed and pinned to the ground with former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin pressing a knee to his neck until he became nonresponsive.
Chauvin, 44, is now facing a second-degree murder charge in addition to the third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges filed against him last week, prosecutors said Wednesday.
His former colleagues who assisted with the fatal arrest — J. Alexander Kueng, 26, Thomas Lane, 37, and Tou Thao, 34 — have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.
Floyd’s family was due to travel to North Carolina later Thursday to attend a private memorial in Raeford on Saturday, Hubert Peterkin, the sheriff of Hoke County, said on Facebook.
He’s due to be buried in Houston after a final funeral there.