Here’s what you need to know:
- A final goodbye to George Floyd is underway in Houston, where he will be buried.
- Houston’s mayor commits to banning police use of chokeholds.
- Trump promotes a conspiracy theory suggesting that an injured Buffalo protester was involved in a “set up.”
- A New York City officer who shoved a protester surrenders to face charges.
- George Floyd’s brother will testify on Wednesday at a congressional hearing.
- What people mean when they say, ‘Defund the police.’
- It’s not just big cities. Protests are reaching small towns across America.
A final goodbye to George Floyd is underway in Houston, where he will be buried.
After more than two weeks of demonstrations and anguished calls for racial justice, the man whose death gave rise to an international movement, and whose words — “I can’t breathe” — have become a rallying cry, is being laid to rest on Tuesday at a private funeral in Houston.
George Floyd, 46, will be buried in a grave next to his mother.
Hundreds of mourners filled the Fountain of Praise church as the service got underway on Tuesday, capping five days of public memorials in Minneapolis, North Carolina and Houston more than two weeks after his death powered sprawling protests across America.
Mr. Floyd, who was pinned under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer and died in custody on May 25, was remembered as a star student-athlete and father who, in death, became an emblem of national change. A singer, Dray Tate, gave a rendition of “A Change Is Gonna Come” as an artist onstage painted Mr. Floyd’s face in white paint on a black canvas. A reading from the Old Testament included a passage from the Book of Amos: “Wailing shall be in all the streets.”
In a video played at the funeral, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, offered his condolences to the family, saying he understood the weight of grieving in public.
“It is a burden,” he said, “a burden that is now your purpose, to change the world for the better.”
Mr. Biden has often connected with people through grief, after suffering deep losses in his own life, including the death of his first wife and a daughter in a car crash and the more recent loss of his son Beau to cancer. Speaking directly to Mr. Floyd’s youngest daughter, Gianna, he said: “You’re so brave. Daddy’s looking down on you.”
“No child should have to ask the question that too many black children have had to ask for generations: ‘Why? Why is Daddy gone?’” he added. “When there is justice for George Floyd, we will truly be on our way to racial justice in America.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton was expected to deliver the eulogy.
Mr. Floyd’s relatives took emotional turns at the microphone, remembering him as a “pesky rascal” who was endearing to an aunt and a big man beloved as “Superman” by his brothers.
Brooklyn Williams, a young niece, directly invoked the president. “Someone said ‘Make America great again,’ but when has America ever been great?” she asked. “America, it is time for a change.”
Houston’s mayor commits to banning police use of chokeholds.
Mayor Sylvester Turner of Houston announced at the funeral service for George Floyd that he would sign an executive order later on Tuesday to prohibit the city police from using chokeholds or strangleholds. The order would also require the police to give a warning before shooting, among other measures.
Mr. Turner, a Democrat, said he had spoken with business leaders about investing in underserved neighborhoods so that the city would not have to spend so much on policing there.
“We honor him today,” Mr. Turner said of Mr. Floyd, “because when he took his last breath, the rest of us will now be able to breathe.”
The announcement, a significant policy change for Mr. Floyd’s hometown, reflects a growing movement around the country to ban or limit the use of neck restraint, and to redirect money from police budgets to other purposes. In New York State, legislative leaders moved on Monday to ban chokeholds, in defiance of law enforcement groups, including police unions.
Growing up in one of Houston’s poorest neighborhoods, Mr. Floyd enjoyed a star turn as a basketball and football player, with three catches for 18 yards in a state championship game in his junior year.
He was the first of his siblings to go to college, and did so on an athletic scholarship. But when he returned to Texas after a couple of years, he lost nearly a decade to arrests and incarcerations, mostly on drug-related offenses. By the time he left Houston for good a few years ago, moving 1,200 miles to Minneapolis for work, he was ready for a fresh start.
After working as a security guard at a Salvation Army homeless and transitional housing shelter and as a bouncer at a restaurant, though, he had a fatal encounter with police officers who were investigating a complaint about a purchase made with a counterfeit $20 bill. Pinned to the ground by the officers, he pleaded that he could not breathe and cried out for his mother.
“His crime was that he was born black — that was his only crime,” said Representative Al Green, a Democrat who represents southwest Houston in Congress.
The congressional delegation at the funeral brought a flag from Speaker Nancy Pelosi and promised that the family would be receiving letters from former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, according to Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, Democrat of Texas, who brought mourners to their feet.
“I want to acknowledge those young marchers in the streets,” she said. “Many of them could not be in this place. They are black and brown. They are Asian. They are white. They are protesting and marching, and I’m saying, as a mama, I hear your cry.”
Trump promotes a conspiracy theory suggesting that an injured Buffalo protester was involved in a “set up.”
President Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday to go after a 75-year-old demonstrator who suffered a head wound when Buffalo police officers knocked him over. Mr. Trump advanced, without any evidence, a conspiracy theory that the incident could have been “a set up.”
“Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur,” Mr. Trump wrote. “75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than he was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?”
Mr. Trump evidently was watching the One America News Network, a channel aimed at viewers who think Fox News is not supportive enough of the president. The network aired a segment referring to the incident as “so-called police brutality” and suggesting without evidence that it was a “false flag” staged by antifa, a loose movement of anti-fascists.
The reporter who aired the segment on One America was Kristian Rouz, a Russian-born broadcaster who according to One America has also worked as a freelance contributor to Sputnik, a propaganda arm of the Russian government that produces English language content aimed at sowing doubt about the United States and the West.
Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, assailed Mr. Trump for relying on the report. “The story Trump is referencing was written by a Russian working for the Kremlin’s propaganda agency,” Mr. Murphy wrote on Twitter. “Get ready - this is the next 5 months. Russia and the Trump campaign openly collaborating to spread lies and manipulate the election.”
Two Buffalo officers were charged with felony assault after a widely viewed video taken by WBFO, a local radio station, showed them shoving Mr. Gugino, who fell to the pavement.
The president’s tweet drew immediate condemnation.
“He should apologize for that tweet,” said Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York. “Show some humanity.”
“You think the blood coming out of his head was staged?” he asked, incredulously.
Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, said of the president’s tweet, “It was a shocking thing to say, and I won’t dignify it with any further comment.”
Jeff Flake, a former Republican senator from Arizona and a Trump critic, wrote on Twitter: “Trafficking in conspiracy theories like this are beneath your office, Mr. President.”
Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said of Mr. Trump’s tweet, “It’s a serious accusation — which should only be made with facts and evidence — and I haven’t seen any.”
“Most of us up here would rather not be political commentators on the president’s tweets, because that’s a daily exercise,” he added.
Many Republicans on Capitol Hill were reluctant to address Mr. Trump’s claim at all, with several senators refusing to comment, claiming not to have seen the tweet, and demurring even after reporters showed it to them.
After reading a copy of the tweet, Senator Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota, said he did not want to comment because he had not seen the video of the protester being pushed by a police officer.
He said he had bigger worries than the president’s comments, adding, “I don’t think Donald Trump’s going to change his behavior.”
A New York City officer who shoved a protester surrenders to face charges.
A New York City police officer surrendered to face criminal charges on Tuesday, 11 days after he was recorded on video shoving a woman to the ground and cursing at her during a protest against police brutality, law enforcement officials said.
The Brooklyn district attorney’s office charged the officer, Vincent D’Andraia, with misdemeanor assault, criminal mischief, harassment and menacing over the May 29 incident, according to a statement.
The district attorney, Eric Gonzalez, said in announcing the charges that he could not tolerate the use of excessive force against people exercising their right to peacefully protest. “This is especially true of those who are sworn to protect us and uphold the law,” he added.
Cellphone video showed Officer D’Andraia, 28, knocking the victim, Dounya Zayer, 20, to the ground and swearing at her after she asked him why he told her to get out of the street. Ms. Zayer said she suffered a concussion and seizures.
The decision to charge Officer D’Andraia seemed to reflect the growing political pressure on the police and prosecutors to hold officers accountable for misconduct, including for actions at protests across the country, where bystander video has played a crucial role in documenting police aggression.
Two Buffalo police officers were charged with felony assault after a video showed officers shoving a 75-year-old activist to the ground. In Philadelphia, a police inspector who used his baton to strike a Temple University student in the head at a protest was charged with aggravated assault.
Ms. Zayer’s lawyer, Tahani Aboushi, said she was disappointed that prosecutors were not charging Officer D’Andraia with a felony, given the seriousness of her client’s injuries and the severity of the conduct captured on the video.
George Floyd’s brother will testify on Wednesday at a congressional hearing.
Philonise Floyd, a brother of George Floyd, will testify before Congress on Wednesday during a House hearing on police accountability and racial bias in law enforcement, according to a memo obtained by The New York Times.
Mr. Floyd will testify before the House Judiciary Committee, alongside more than half a dozen civil rights experts and activists, at a hearing designed to examine measures that Democrats unveiled on Monday, intended to reduce police misconduct and racial discrimination in law enforcement.
House Republicans invited Dan Bongino, the conservative political commentator and former Secret Service agent, to testify. They also invited Angela Underwood Jacobs, whose brother, Dave Patrick Underwood, a Federal Protective Services officer, was shot and killed late last month during a night of unrest in Oakland, Calif.
Ms. Underwood Jacobs recently was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for Congress.
What people mean when they say, ‘Defund the police.’
In Minneapolis, lawmakers vowed to dismantle the police department and create a new system of public safety. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged to cut the city’s police budget and spend more on social services. Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles said last week that he would cut as much as $150 million from a planned increase in the police department’s budget.
Calls to cut back funding to police have been spreading with new force around the country, as officials weigh a delicate balance between public concern about crime versus repulsion at police brutality. Here is a look at what defunding the police means.
Listen to ‘The Daily’: The Case for Defunding the Police
Protesters across the country are calling for the abolition of policing. But what would that actually look like?What does defunding the police mean?
Calls to defund police departments generally seek spending cuts to police forces that have consumed ever larger shares of local budgets in many cities and towns.
Minneapolis, for instance, is looking to cut $200 million from its $1.3 billion overall annual budget, said Lisa Bender, the City Council president. The police budget for 2020 is $189 million.
She says she hopes to shift money to other areas of need in the city.
If the money doesn’t go to policing, where will it be spent?
Many activists want money that is now spent on overtime for the police or on buying expensive equipment for police departments to be shifted to programs related to mental health, housing and education.
Activists say that putting sufficient money into these sectors could bring about societal change and reduce crime and violence.
Has this been done anywhere?
Some U.S. cities have already made changes to policing. In Austin, Texas, 911 calls are answered by operators who inquire whether the caller needs police, fire or mental health services — part of a major revamping of public safety that took place last year when the city budget added millions of dollars for mental health issues.
In Eugene, Ore., a team called CAHOOTS — Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets — deploys a medic and a crisis worker with mental health training to emergency calls.
Camden, N.J., revamped its policing in 2017 with officers handing out more warnings than tickets and undergoing training that emphasizes officers’ holding their fire.
It’s not just big cities. Protests are reaching small towns across America.
Rick Rojas reporting in Petal, Miss.
In what has become a morning routine, Lorraine Bates walks the seven-tenths of a mile to City Hall from her house in Petal, Miss. In the first days of demonstrations, she joined some 200 other protesters, many of them white, chanting and waving “Black Lives Matter” posters. But there were also times when it was just her and a groundskeeper who mowed around her.
She would keep coming, she said, until the mayor of Petal resigned, or at least exhibited something like genuine remorse for what he said about George Floyd after his fatal encounter with the Minneapolis police, including, “If you can say you can’t breathe, you’re breathing.”
“As long as I’ve got my health and my strength, I’ll be out here every day,” Ms. Bates, 70, said as she sat on her rolling walker on the front lawn of City Hall, recalling the stamina of the activists who had influenced her years earlier as a young black woman rooted in the Deep South.
As demonstrations over the death of Mr. Floyd grip major cities across America, the wave of fury and sorrow has also spread to small towns, including Petal, a city of about 10,000 where the population is 85 percent white.
The local protests began after the white mayor, Hal Marx, wrote on Twitter that he “didn’t see anything unreasonable” in the video showing Mr. Floyd pinned to the ground by a police officer’s knee. Soon, protesters were gathering outside the mayor’s house and calling attention to a local case of a black man killed by a white police officer in 2017.
The tensions in Petal illustrate how the protests have played out in many smaller communities across America, where demonstrations have by and large not been as explosive as those in big cities dominating the media’s attention. But the tension is still there, subtle and more concentrated as a national conversation over police brutality and systemic racism plays out in the confines of tight-knit communities.
Jacksonville, Fla., a possible host for the Republican National Convention, removes a Confederate monument.
Mayor Lenny Curry of Jacksonville ordered the removal overnight of a bronze Confederate soldier monument in Hemming Park and said other similar statutes would also come down.
Hundreds of protesters had marched in the city over the weekend demanding that the monuments go down. Mr. Curry, a Republican, walked with more demonstrators on Tuesday morning and pledged to bring legislation to the City Council to bring independent community voices into discussions about policing. “We hear your voices,” Mr. Curry said.
The city is considered a leading contender to host the Republican National Convention in August.
The order follows similar moves to remove symbols of the Confederacy in other cities in recent days, as the death of George Floyd and calls for racial justice reignited a movement that has been gaining traction — and meeting resistance — for years.
The mayor of Birmingham, Ala., ordered the removal of a contentious Confederate statue from a park last week on Jefferson Davis Day, the state holiday in Alabama honoring the Confederate leader.
In Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam ordered the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, a move that was temporarily blocked by a judge.
Reporting was contributed by Peter Baker, Katie Benner, Audra D.S. Burch, Alexander Burns, Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Catie Edmondson, John Eligon, Tess Felder, Luis Ferré-Sadurní, Manny Fernandez, Katie Glueck, Russell Goldman, Maggie Haberman, Astead W. Herndon, Thomas Kaplan, Annie Karni, Jonathan Martin, Jeffery C. Mays, Patricia Mazzei, Jesse McKinley, Sarah Mervosh, Richard Pérez-Peña, Rick Rojas, Giovanni Russonello, Marc Santora, Dionne Searcey, Ashley Southall and Farah Stockman.
Thanks for reading Watch Live: George Floyd Funeral in Houston Today - The New York Times. Please share...!
0 Comment for "Watch Live: George Floyd Funeral in Houston Today - The New York Times"