A message of peace rises above violence
A LARGE ring of flowers marked the spot where George Floyd met his end, gasping for breath as a white police officer pinned him down in the Southside neighbourhood of Minneapolis.
Since his death last week, the area had become a focal point for a tightknit community reeling from the death of yet another black man at the hands of the police.
Each day, hundreds of people made the pilgrimage along the blocked-off streets leading to the Cup Foods shop near where Mr Floyd was restrained, and ultimately killed. Along the way, trestle tables were laid out by locals offering free food, water and medicine to those affected by the looting that had swept through the city since the protests began.
A mural of Mr Floyd now adorned one wall of the Cup Foods building. The makeshift memorial was covered with “rest in power” signs and chalk messages left by thousands of people who had come to pay their respects.
The violence that took place in this spot may have triggered the unrest that spread across the US this week, but the local community was determined to reclaim it as a peaceful area, to honour Mr Floyd’s memory.
It was here that Mr Floyd’s younger brother, Terrence, called for an end to the violent clashes that had played out on America’s TV screens. “We’re sending a message to people all over this country to stop looting and throw up the peace sign,” he said during a visit to the area on Monday.
“The power is in the numbers. Don’t stop protesting, but throw up the peace sign... I’m not over here blowing up stuff,” he said, growing emotional. “What are y’all doing? You’re doing nothing. That’s not going to bring my brother back.”
Behind the headlines of looting and destruction, countless examples of a growing camaraderie between officers and demonstrators could be found.
In Long Beach, California, members of the National Guard helped community members clean up the city on Monday following a night of unrest.
In Washington DC, protesters tackled a white man as he hammered the pavement to get stones to throw and handed him over to police. Photographs in several cities showed officers kneeling on the ground in solidarity with the protesters they had been sent to police.
Outside the Minnesota State Capitol building in St Paul, one officer was seen shedding tears as he kept watch over the large crowds that had gathered to chant, “George Floyd, say his name!”
Back in Minneapolis’s Southside neighbourhood, the tight-knit community was eager to show that the arson attacks and looting did not represent the majority. Will Robinson, a local artist and protest organiser, said the community had been working hard to identify and weed out the small handful who had been inciting violence.
“They are not part of these communities,” he said yesterday. “Our main motive right now is to exude the image of peace.”