Menaabolis – Sunday, five years after the killing of George Floyd, the Mennabolis Square named for him was overflowing.
Hundreds gathered, as they have, throughout the last days, with tears and renewed calls for justice for the man who died under the knees of the police officer while he appealed to a crowd to stop.
On Sunday, visitors dropped colored flowers – including many yellow roses – at the intersection where Floyd was killed, and a memorial dedicated to the city streets.
“The feeling that we are” former “owners are completely different this year,” said Bridge Stewart, an independent journalist and community activist who lives in Minneapolis.
Stewart said that her workplace is in George Floyd Square, so she is “every day.” Stewart said that the feeling of calm had returned to society, and people began to gather.
“This is our first year, in fact, as we did not have to enter internal security and do the entire bomb.”
Ximena Rayo, a 58 -year -old school principal in the city, said she does not live away from the place where Floyd was killed. I remembered the entire city that was driven by the killing.
“While we are where we need,” Rayo said. She said that new people were employed, and the city’s municipality and the city’s police “truly on better roads.”
“It seems that people feel safe,” said Rayo.
The fifth annual festival “Rise & Demear”, whose organizers say that Floyd and others “have lost injustice due to the effects of regular racism”, began on Friday. On Saturday, packages of colored flowers were to distinguish Floyd.
Billy Brigz, a live music photographer who lives from George Floyd Square, described the feeling of great anxiety that leads to the fifth anniversary of the death of Floyd, which led to the memories of that day. Briggs, who held the position of Acting Acts for a year, began filming as a way to deal with the shock.
“When I watch families a garden in front of my house, you walk there [the square]Sometimes this matter brings me some tears, because I know that they go to a difficult lesson, but they are important.
Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020, by the white police officer Derek Choufin, who used his knee to press the weight of his body on the Floyd neck for more than nine minutes, suffocating it.
Floyd’s death was “I cannot breathe.”
These words have become a massive cry of millions angry at his death, including politicians, institutions, companies and schools. The demonstrators around the country moved to the streets to call for change, calling for America to calculate its deep racist injustice and reform the police stations.
Choufin was sentenced to 21 years in prison for violating Floyd civil rights and 22 and a half years for second -degree murder. Menaabolis banned the sequence of the police, and companies pledged more than 66 billion dollars for racist stock initiatives.
Floyd’s life was also celebrated in other cities on Sunday – his family set up a special memorial service in Houston and his brother hosted a march in Brooklyn, New York, which led to the unveiling of a new societal painting honoring Floyd.
Nikima Levi Armstrong, a lawyer for civil and activist, was one of the first to learn Floyd five years ago. When she saw the footage that shows how he died, her heart was broken.
She said on Saturday: “I knew that I saw what I felt a coffin,” she said on Saturday. “Tears began to flow on my face, and I was terrified of what I saw.”
Armstrong said that the circumstances that led to the death of Floyd “still exists,” adding that “people in power positions would do the right thing and that they would take deliberate steps to change the laws and policies that led to the death of George Floyd.”
She said: “We got crumbs when we asked for a full feast, and for this reason we are in a state of stopping as a city now.”
Armstrong expressed her desire for a new leadership in Minneapolis, called for a new mayor who can control, reform the city police station and appoint a new police chief.
“Why are the accidents still occurring to the black population? Why are they still not getting justice? Why are they still afraid?” Armstrong asked. “This refers to one person, the leader of the Minneapolis Police Department, who appointed the president. The president is not equipped and is not polite to be the head of the police department on this date and a diverse city. He needs to go as well.”
The Minneapolis Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
City Council member Andrea Jenkins, who represents the 8th wing, where Floyd was killed, described the mood in the box during the weekend as a mixture of hateful reflection and delightful memory.
She said, “I think people feel mixed feelings of all these things.” “Certainly, George Floyd recalls, he remembers the shock that has been attached at that time, but she is also determined to continue the struggle for justice.”
Jenkins have noticed many important changes in the city since Floyd was killed, including the formation of the Public Safety Office, which integrates the Police, Fire Department and Emergency Administration. The city also created a team to respond to the behavioral crisis to respond to anyone with mental health challenges.
Jenkins said: “For a long time, I felt that the Minneapolis Police Administration was on an island on its own, and this was its manufacture, but now it seems that we have brought them back to the city institution and we hope they would make them feel more part of society and less than the United States,” Jenkins said.
Was politics changes sufficient? “No, but I think we are on the way to a big change,” Jenkins said.
“This, I think, the story of America,” she said. “Simple progress, then we back down.”
