Agencies

Hundreds of mourners joined an emotional memorial service in Minneapolis Thursday for George Floyd, the black man killed by police last week, as civil rights leader Al Sharpton vowed mass protests will continue until “we change the whole system of justice.”

Largely peaceful demonstrations took place later in cities from coast to coast. In New York, thousands marched over Brooklyn Bridge, while in Washington and Los Angeles curfews were lifted and crowds reduced.

In Minneapolis, Floyd’s attorney told mourners he would find justice for the 46-year-old, who died during a May 25 arrest when a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

“It was not the coronavirus pandemic that killed George Floyd,” said Benjamin Crump, who is representing Floyd’s family. “It was that other pandemic. The pandemic of racism and discrimination.”

The crowd stood in silence for eight minutes and 46 seconds -- the same length of time that officer Derek Chauvin spent with his knee on Floyd’s neck, a scene captured on video.

Floyd’s death has reignited long-felt anger over police killings of African-Americans and unleashed a nationwide wave of civil unrest unlike any seen in the US since Martin Luther King Jr’s 1968 assassination.

With marches for racial justice stretching beyond the US and around the world, Sharpton said Floyd’s death would not be in vain.

“It’s time for us to stand up in George’s name and say get your knee off our necks,” said the 65-year-old Baptist minister.

“You changed the world, George,” he said. “We’re going to keep fighting, George.”

“We’re going to keep going until we change the whole system of justice.”

Protesters gather at Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn, New York on Thursday to condemn the killing of George Floyd. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 bill, died in Minneapolis on May 25 after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes.

photo:

AFP