New Delhi: The date May 25, 2020, is one of those instances in the 21st century which triggered a massive upheaval almost all over the world and gave a new boost to a particular discourse which aims to eradicate racism from society. On that day in the United States, George Perry Floyd Jr. was murdered, which started worldwide protests against racism towards Black people. The protests quickly spread across the US and other countries and the last words of Floyd, “I can’t breathe”, became a rallying slogan.
The death of George Floyd
George Floyd was born in North Carolina and he grew up in Texas. He used to play basketball and basketball in high school and college and was convicted of eight crimes between 1997 and 2005. He served four years in prison after he accepted a plea bargain for an aggravated robbery in a home invasion that occurred in 2007. In 2013, he came out on parole, served as a mentor in his religious community and posted anti-violence videos to social media. In 2014, he moved to the Minneapolis area and worked as a truck driver and bouncer. In 2020, he lost both jobs.
On May 25, 2020, an employee, suspecting that Floyd had used a counterfeit $20 bill, called the police. Floyd was sitting in a car with other passengers when he was forcibly removed by the officers and handcuffed. Then, in a horrible turn of events, Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer, pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds while the latter was in handcuffs, face down in the street. Two other police officers restrained Floyd and a fourth prevented onlookers from intervening. Floyd, gasping for air, repeatedly pleaded that he could not breathe, but his request fell on deaf ears. Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck and back even as the emergency medical team arrived, but by then, the man was gone.
The death of George Floyd triggered protests accorss the world against police brutality and racism against Black people. On the day after his murder, protests started in Minneapolis and spread to every corner of the US and also to other countries. Protests quickly spread to over 2,000 cities and towns in more than 60 nations in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. According to several polls, between 15 million and 26 million people took part at some point in the demonstrations in the US, making the protests the largest in the history of the country. George Floyd was murdered, but his death did not go in vain as it renewed the fight against racism all over the globe.
On May 25, 2020, an employee, suspecting that Floyd had used a counterfeit $20 bill, called the police. Floyd was sitting in a car with other passengers when he was forcibly removed by the officers and handcuffed. knowledge Knowledge News, Photos and Videos on General Knowledge
