Denver hosts memorial for Floyd
Four young women, who grew up together in Arvada, dressed in black and carried white roses Thursday morning to Denver’s Civic Center to honor the life of George Floyd, whose death last week after a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes sparked a wave of protests and calls for police reform across the country.
The four had not attended nighttime protests because of jobs and some concern over their safety after earlier demonstrations turned violent, so they decided to join the memorial sponsored by the city.
The hour-long gathering featured songs, prayer and speeches by Mayor Michael Hancock, some members of his staff and ministers. A couple hundred people sat in the Greek Theater under an intense sun to watch.
Michael Sapp, a government affairs liaison for the city, not only acknowledged racism against black people but took time to recognize indigenous people, who originally lived on the ground where the memorial was being held.
“I also want to proclaim we’ve lost a lot of indigenous people to race and social justice,” Sapp said.
Denver safety director Murphy Robinson named some of the black people killed nationally by police but did not include any local names. Hancock spoke of how racism is suffocating, saying he and others felt it as they watched videos of Floyd literally suffocate as a police officer knelt on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. And he pledged to support city residents as they fight for change.
The crowd then stopped for an eight-minute, 46-second moment of silence.
Joe Medlock, 36, stood with his fist in the air for the entire time. He carried a tattered copy of the book “Police Brutality,” written in 2000, to provide a history of police violence in America. This moment has been building for years, and he hopes politicians are not just paying lip service to the cause.
He cited the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Ga., by two vigilantes and the police shooting of Breanna Miller in Louisville, Ky., as contributors to the moment.
“Ahmaud Arbery was the bullet. Breanna Miller was the click of the gun,” Medlock said. “George Floyd was the trigger being pulled. It was such a flashpoint.”
Demonstrations began in Denver, centered on the Capitol with marchers fanning out into downtown, on the evening of May 28, and have continued for seven straight days. More demonstrations are expected Thursday night.