Source: WCCO News 4 / WCCO News 4
George Floyd’s death has sparked a manner of protest I’ve yet to see or even hear about, as the result of police murdering an innocent Black man. There have been uprisings in major cities like New York and Los Angeles. But what’s happening in Minneapolis is different. In addition to the stores being toppled, pillaged and burned, protesters have also set fire to the Minneapolis police station where the four former officers who presided over Floyd’s death worked.
Minnesota’s mayor has since called the National Guard.
While many are celebrating the disruptive protests, George Floyd’s fiancée Courteney Ross came forward to say that she is heartbroken by all of the unrest.
Ross told the Star Tribune, “Floyd would not want people to get hurt…He lived his life protecting people. That is the truth.”
Floyd’s family thanked protestors for standing with them at this difficult time but called for peace, through their attorney Benjamin Crump.
According to The Daily Beast, in a statement, the family wrote, “They know that Black people want peace in their souls and that until we get #JusticeForFloyd there will be no peace.” Later, he added that looting and violence distracted from the “strength of our collective voice.”
In a televised interview with WCCO, Ross said, “You can’t fight fire with fire. You know? Everything just burns. I’ve seen it all day today. People hate. They’re hating. They’re hating, they’re hating. They’re mad and he would not want that. He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t. He would give grace. He would! I stand on that. Today he would still give grace to those people.”
I’m so sorry for Ross’ loss. She’s in a level of pain those of us who didn’t know Floyd intimately can’t comprehend.
Still, the protests in Minneapolis and those in other states are a result of centuries of pain. Years of peaceful protests and activism that has fallen on deaf ears. The people have every right to be mad and hate the systems of racism that contributed to Floyd’s death. Perhaps law enforcement and other people in power will begin to not only recognize the anger but respond to it with changed action by way of convictions for officers who kill innocent Black citizens.
