San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Largest rallies yet for Floyd most peaceful
Demonstrators filled the streets in cities around the world Saturday, staging some of the largest and most peaceful protests against racism since George Floyd was killed on Memorial Day after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck.
People marched in Washington, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Paris, Sydney and elsewhere, with turnout reaching the tens of thousands in some cities. Washington alone hosted a dozen rallies. In Chicago, there were at least five. And in New York City, protesters turned out to dozens of events in all five boroughs.
Even as demonstrators mourned Floyd and other blacks killed by police in recent years, Floyd’s family held a public viewing of his body and a private memorial service in tiny Raeford, N.C., the state where he was born.
The daytime weekend protests were huge but almost entirely peaceful. They lacked the tension between police and protesters that ignited violent nighttime clashes after Floyd’s death and continued sporadically over the past 12 days.
Chicago police reported that they made no arrests as an estimated 30,000 people thronged the streets there Saturday afternoon.
The marches attracted more children and families than the events of recent days. In Atlanta, a band played for people on the street. In Philadelphia, the mayor and police chief knelt in solidarity with demonstrators. Even Vidor, a town in southeastern Texas known for a history of Ku Klux Klan rallies and excluding blacks after sundown, held a small rally.
At marches in London and Berlin, demonstrators emphasized that racism targeting blacks is not uniquely American. Maike Leifeld, a 28-year-old white German, came with her black partner, Abdoloulie Jarju, 39.
“We feel racism every day,” she said, their baby strapped to her chest. “I feel it in the politics, in the society and the family. People judge us.”
Jarju was hopeful. “When you see something happening in America, and thousands of people are on the streets in Berlin fighting for justice,” he said, “it feels like something might change.”
In Chicago, Jessica Cruz, 29, said she was attending her first march ever. “I want to be part of change,” she said. “I was raised to believe everyone is equal, and I want the government to see that, too.”
Cruz said she brought her 4year-old daughter, who is of mixed race. “I needed her to see that her life matters, too,” she said.
In Washington
In Washington, Mayor Muriel Bowser doubled down Saturday on her condemnations of federal police actions and out-of-state National Guard presence in the District of Columbia, declaring victory in a battle for control amid mass protests.
“Today, we pushed the army away from our city,” she told thousands gathered on the road in front of the White House, which she has renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza.
Bowser continues to clash with President Donald Trump over the local response to demonstrations against police brutality. Days after peaceful protesters were dispersed from an area in front of the White House using tear gas, the Pentagon told guardsmen deployed to the district not to use firearms or ammunition, and it has issued orders to send home active-duty troops.
“If you’re like me, on Monday you saw something you hoped to never see in the United States of America: federal police moving on American people protesting peacefully in front of the people’s house,” Bowser said Saturday.
Trump was relatively silent most of the day. Around 6:45 p.m., he tweeted, without elaboration, “LAW & ORDER!”
Legions of demonstrators streamed from the Lincoln Memorial, bearing flags, angry hand-lettered signs and their children for one of the biggest local protests so far.
A bespectacled black man named Roger Campbell, 30, asked to address a crowd assembled there.
He began to tell them how often this week white colleagues and friends had asked: “How can I help?”
“I feel that is a loaded question, due to the various answers I can and would like to give,” he said.
“You all should try to understand where we as black and brown humans are coming from.”
He spoke of the job interview when he was asked about his hair, the time he cut his dreads for a job, “the talk” his father gave him.
“It is explained to us that no matter what we do or how far we go in life, we will always be viewed as a black or brown person first,” he said. “And with that comes a perception of danger.”
He begged the white people around him — who made up around half the crowd — to ask their black friends instead about their experiences.
“Ask them,” he said, “to see the world through their eyes.”
When he finished, his voice was cracking and his hands were shaking. A woman with tears soaking her cheeks ran up to hug him.
Nearby, 10-year-old Dakotah Sileshi Mitchell posed as her grandmother snapped a photo on her phone.
Behind her were about 20 protesters standing silently with signs, yards away from a half dozen military men posted by the monument’s pillars.
“You’re going to appreciate this when you tell your children you were here,” Lisa Wood Mitchell, her 61-year-old grandmother, told her.
Service for Floyd
Several hundred celebrants were in attendance at the Floyd memorial in Raeford, a town of 5,000 just over 20 miles from Floyd’s birthplace of Fayetteville. Worshippers sang along with a choir as a large photo of Floyd and a portrait of him adorned with an angel’s wings and halo sat at the front of the chapel.
In contrast to Thursday’s memorial in Minneapolis, where mourners demanded sweeping change for African-Americans, Floyd’s family said it would make Saturday’s service a remembrance of his life and the things he loved.
Among those who addressed mourners was Hoke County Sheriff Hubert Peterkin, who used his remarks to strongly criticize some of his peers in law enforcement.
“We walk around with all this power, and there needs to be some housecleaning,” Peterkin said. “I didn’t say ‘spring cleaning.’ Spring cleaning means you dusting and spraying. You need to take out the trash!”
Applause erupted inside the service, which was livestreamed by several television outlets.
Floyd died May 25 in police custody after a white officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Video of the death sparked the unrest that has followed.
Derek Chauvin, the officer who pinned a handcuffed Floyd to the street with his knee, has been charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Three other police officers involved have been charged with abetting murder and manslaughter.