06/10/2020 13:53
(Act. 10.06.2020 13:58)
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© Godofredo A. VASQUEZ / POOL / AFP
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“Everyone will remember him all over the world. He will change the world,” said his brother Rodney.
Farewell to George Floyd: At a moving funeral in Houston, survivors and guests of honor commemorated the African American who died in brutal police violence and recognized his legacy for the global fight against racism. Hundreds of mourners with respiratory masks crowded into the Baptist Church “Fountain of Praise” on Tuesday to pay his last respects. The speeches conjured up memories of “Big Floyd” as a father, brother, athlete and mentor, but also fiery appeals against the unequal treatment of people with dark skin tones.
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Floyd had spent most of his life in Houston. The funeral service in the Texas metropolis was the culmination of several days of public mourning in three cities.
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“His crime was to be born black”
“George Floyd was indispensable. That’s why we’re here,” Democratic Congressman Al Green told the mourning community. “His crime was to be born black. That was his only crime. George Floyd deserved the dignity and respect that we give everyone just because they are children of a common God.”
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Floyd’s brother
Floyd’s brother Rodney remembered George’s humble life in a social housing development in the Cuney Homes complex in Houston. “But everyone around the world will remember him. He will change the world,” said Rodney.
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Other victims of police violence mourned
Relatives of other victims of police violence, whose names became known during the protests, also attended the funeral service, including Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin.
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The guests of honor
Among the invited guests of honor were rapper Trae tha Truth, chief of police of Houston Art Acevedo and mayor Sylvester Turner. The latter made a promise that the crowd in the hall would spring up collectively: he would sign a decree prohibiting the use of strangleholders in the Houston police force, Turner said.
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Biden video message: “Why?”
A video message was shown by the democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. “No child should have to ask questions that so many black children have had for generations: Why?” Said the former vice president under Barack Obama. Now is the time for ethnic justice. “This is the answer we have to give our children when they ask why.”
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Attacks against Trump
Biden did not say a word about politics. But the other speakers handed out against President Donald Trump. He is accused of condemning Floyd’s death, but not resolutely taking a stand against racism in the country and instead demanding only consistent harshness in response to the latest unrest in the United States. Pastor William Lawson, who was active during the lifetime of the famous civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., said: “Obviously, the first thing we have to do is to clean out the White House.”
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Sharp criticism of Trump’s response to rioting after Floyd’s death also came from prominent civil rights activist Al Sharpton. “The president talks about getting the military, but he hasn’t said a word about the eight-minute and 46-second George Floyd police murder,” he said. Trump has buttoned up China on human rights. “But what about George Floyd’s human right?”
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Previously 6,000 people at the golden coffin
As early as Monday, around 6,000 people had come to the publicly laid-out, gold-colored Floyd’s coffin in Houston to say goodbye to him. After the funeral service on Tuesday, his body was brought to a cemetery in the suburb of Pearland by horse-drawn carriage with great sympathy from numerous onlookers, where George Floyd was to be buried next to his mother after a private funeral service for the family. A brass band played while Floyd’s coffin was carried into the mausoleum.
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Fired, arrested, charged
Floyd died in Minneapolis on May 25 after a white policeman had pressed his knee on his neck for several minutes, despite the man who was tied to the ground wheezing for breathlessness and pain. The officer never left when Floyd passed out. The 46-year-old was arrested for allegedly attempting to pay with a fake $ 20 bill.
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