The death that sparked the outrage
GEORGE Perry Floyd jr, known as George Floyd, is the man whose death sparked unrest across the US and internationally.
According to wikipedia.com, Floyd, 46, was born on October 14, 1973 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and grew up in Houston, Texas.
In 2014, he moved to the state of Minnesota, where he worked as a truck driver and provided security at a restaurant. He had five children.
On May 25, Floyd was arrested by the police outside a shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on a charge of using a counterfeit $20 (R335) note.
Footage showed a white officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on Floyd’s neck for several minutes, while he was handcuffed face-down on the street.
Two other officers further restrained Floyd, and a fourth prevented onlookers from intervening.
Floyd was heard saying repeatedly, “I can’t breathe”, and was later pronounced dead in hospital.
BBC.com reported that the following day, the four officers involved in his arrest were fired, and protests began as the video of Floyd’s arrest was shared on social media.
It reported that hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Minneapolis and vandalised police cars and the police station.
Protests spread to other cities, including Memphis and Los Angeles, while in other cities such as Portland, protesters lay in the road, chanting “I can’t breathe”.
Demonstrators again gathered around the police station in Minneapolis, where the officers involved in Floyd’s arrest had been based, and set fire to it.
The building was evacuated and police retreated. A total of 75 cities are reported to have had protests.
In a series of tweets on May 28, President Donald Trump blamed the violence on a lack of leadership in Minneapolis and threatened to send in the National Guard.
He followed it up with a warning: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts”.
The tweet was hidden by Twitter for “glorifying violence”.
It was further stated that Trump said if cities and states failed to control the protests there and “defend their residents”, he would deploy the army and “quickly solve the problem for them”.
Meanwhile, the violence spread across the US, with at least five people reportedly killed in protests from Indianapolis to Chicago.
On May 29, officer Chauvin, 44, was charged with murder and manslaughter. The charges carry a combined maximum 35-year jail sentence.
According to edition.cnn.com, Chauvin made his appearance in the Hennepin County District Court on Monday afternoon.
The other three officers were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
A report made public last week by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office, indicated that Floyd had tested positive for Covid-19.
However, the infection was not listed as the cause of death; he was said to have died from cardiopulmonary arrest.
On June 4, a memorial service for
Floyd was held in Minneapolis, where mourners gathered and stood in silence for eight minutes, 46 seconds. This is the amount of time Floyd was said to have been on the ground.
Floyd’s funeral was held on Tuesday at a church in Houston, his home town.
A hearse carrying his golden casket was carried into the church by six men wearing masks.
They walked past a row of police officers who stood to attention.
After the service, Floyd’s body was escorted by the Houston Police Department to the Houston Memorial Garden where he was buried next to his mother.
With presidential elections later this year, the two leading contenders took different approaches.
President Donald Trump met police on Monday and praised the work they had done.
“Our police have been letting us live in peace, and we want to make sure we don’t have any bad actors in there, and sometimes we’ll see some horrible things like we witnessed recently, but I say 99.9% – let’s go with 99% of them – great, great people, and they’ve done jobs that are record-setting.”
Joe Biden, the Democratic Party hopeful, visited Floyd’s family and demanded police accountability. According to edition.cnn. com, Chauvin made his first court appearance in the Hennepin County District Court on Monday.
His bail was set at $1.25 million (R21m). Chauvin is being held at the Minnesota State Prison in Oak Park Heights. His next court appearance is set for June 29.