Houston: George Floyd, a black man whose death under the knee of a white police officer roused worldwide protests against racial injustice, was memorialized at his funeral on Tuesday as an ordinary brother transformed by fate into the cornerstone of a movement.
During a four-hour service broadcast live on every major US television network from a church in Floydâs boyhood home of Houston, family members, clergy and politicians exhorted Americans to turn grief and outrage at his death into a moment of reckoning for the nation.
The funeral followed two weeks of protests ignited by graphic video footage of Floyd, 46, handcuffed and lying face down on a Minneapolis street while an officer kneels into the back of his neck for nearly nine minutes. The video shows Floyd gasping for air as he cries out, Mama, and groans, Please, I canât breathe, before falling silent and still.
The officer, Derek Chauvin, 44, has since been charged with second-degree murder and three other officers with aiding and abetting Floydâs May 25 death. All were dismissed from the department a day after the incident.
Floydâs dying words have become a rallying cry for tens of thousands of protesters around the globe who have since taken to the streets, undaunted by the coronavirus pandemic, demanding justice for Floyd and an end to mistreatment of minorities by US law enforcement.
I can breathe. And as long as Iâm breathing, justice will be served, Floydâs niece Brooklyn Williams declared in a eulogy that drew applause from mourners inside the Fountain of Praise Church in Houston. “This is not just a murder but a hate crime.”