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Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on MSNBC's PoliticsNation with Rev.Al Sharpton.

AUDIOis availablehere.

A rush transcript of the Governor's interview is available below:

Al Sharpton:I'm joined now by theGovernor of theState ofNewYork,AndrewCuomo. GovernorCuomo, thank you for being with us. First of all, tell people nationwide, and you andIhave debated and we've known each other 35 years since both of us were toddlers - no, we were grown but we've known each other that long- whyI've said this is some bedrock stuff. Alot of groups for many years have been pushing for some of these things. You andIhave talked about it for years, even some of the progressive groups for the last several years. But now you've signed it into law. Explain what those bills are and thenIwant to go into your executive order which raised the bar as far asI'm concerned thatIdid not even expect to hear when I went to the bill signing.

Governor Cuomo:Thanks,Reverend.Good to be with you. We have known each other 35 years andIunderstand that you're more fit than you were 35 years ago. I just don't know how we started out the same age and you became younger than me after 35 years. Look,God bless you. You have been arguing this case for a long time. RodneyKing was 30 years ago. AbnerLouimainNewYork, 23 years ago he was brutalized. MikeMcAlarywon thePulitzer, your friend and mine.

Why did it take so long? I don't knowbut we're here nowandIbelieve you making that argument, you standing up every time there was an injustice, we hit a critical mass and the nation rose up withMr. Floyd. We now have to seize the momentbecause you're exactly right. It's demonstration, legislation,reconciliation. The point of the demonstration is for change and the change comes when you change the lawsand this is the moment we're inandIwant to make sure we capitalize on the moment andNewYork can be the laboratory for this.We have that energy. People want change. What is the change? Let's show them inNewYork.

We passed what's calledrepeal 50-A. It's a new transparency for the disclosure of complaints against policeso you'll get the full file of a police officer when he's accused or she's accused of doing something wrong. Now that can either exonerate or it can implicate. If there were no other charges that would work to the police officer's benefit. If there was a pattern of charges we'd know that also.

We legislated that theAttorneyGeneral is a special prosecutorif there's a police killing and you knowI had done that by executive order five years ago but now that is part of the law. So we're making dramatic legal changes that should have been made frankly 30 years ago. No chokeholds. I mean,Eric garner, we went through that tragedy six years ago. Why did it take so long? I don't know. But we're here now. Capitalize on the moment. Carpe diem, seize the day, seize the moment. Carpe momentum. And we've done that by changing the laws inNewYork and we signed that into law this week. You were kind enough to be there.

Al Sharpton:Now the thing that also impressed me and you're right, we've dealt with these laws whileIwas with you when you announced the giving theAttorneyGeneral by executive order special prosecutor five years ago, but now it's law. It's not just an executive order. I rememberJonathanMoore the attorney,DonnaLieberman,attorney, MikeHardy and others dealing with you for a long time about 50-A, and a lot of other groups that have come in. One of the things that strikes me is on theLeft you're going to have people arguing about who should get credit rather than making sure we're monitoring in force, and on theRight you're going to have unions that are going to be angry at you or thinking you went too far. But it's getting the job done. But you went a step further. You said you want every mayor of every city and police chief to come up with a plan on how to work with the community around these issues or you'd withholdState moneyandIthink this is something other of the governors, 49 others to be exact, ought to really look at. Explain that executive order becauseIthink this is something totally different and it's backed up with money.

Governor Cuomo:Reverend,I'm excited by this moment. As I saidI'm sorry it took so long to come. I'm sorry so many had to suffer and so many had to die. I applaud you for your continued advocacy over all these years. But now we're here. Let's seize the moment. You askedMartin, and good to see him, by the way, even ifon this video,where do we go from here?I think the point about the Kerner Commission - take a fundamental look at society. Justice only works if we have full justice, social justice, economic justice and racial justice. I think that's right, but short term in this moment what can we get done? Reform the police. Reform the police. The outrage has been expressed. People are ready to change. Government is ready to change. But the art form is and do what? What we're saying in New York is every local government, you have to reinvent your police department. You have to sit down at a table and redesign it in a collaborative. Bring in those protesters, bring in those activists, bring in those civil rights people, sit there with the police department, bring the mayor, bring the city council and redesign the police department now in this moment. Take into consideration everything we've heard. We want to demilitarize the police. How do you do that? Use of force policy, how do you do that? End bias of policing, how do you do that? More diversity. Okay, how do you do that? That's the art form, turning the energy into action and what we said in New York is every local community has to do that. The city has to do that. The mayor has to be at the table. The city council president. You have nine months. You then have to pass a law instituting that plan and if you don't do it then you're not going to get any State funds. Because why? If you don't have an incentive sanction they're not going to do it. This is a hot potato. The politicians don't really want to deal with it. They'd rather do these press releases, stop tear gas, stop rubber bullets. It's a more fundamental issue than that. You want a different police force for the year 2020. Design it and design it now so we don't lose this moment which has been too long in coming.

Reverend Al Sharpton:The President and others in the Republican Party have yet to really address this. I understand Senator Tim Scott is supposed to do it and Martin III just said we need to have bipartisan focus on this. Here's Tim Scott, Senator from South Carolina, this morning on Meet The Press signaling the Trump Administration's response to this moment. Watch this.

Senator Tim Scott:The executive order that will come out I think on Tuesday really does reference a national database, strengthening a national data base, police misconduct from my understanding. It also talks about the importance of co-responders from a mental health perspective.

Reverend Al Sharpton:Shouldn't he look at the blueprint that you've just done with these four bills and executive orders to go further than just having a database? We know there's the problem, to just certify and put the numbers to the problem is not moving toward government solving the problem.

Governor Cuomo:Reverend, we know what they're going to do. There's no secrets left with this administration. We saw the President's response when he staged that photo op and he had the military kick out the protesters so it didn't get in the way of the camera lens. They're not going to do anything. I don't even know what that means, a national database of bad cops. What is a bad cop? What are the rules? What do you want the police to do? What is the use of force policy? How do you demilitarize the police? That'swhat we have to find out first and we have to do it now. This moment is so precious, right? When do we actually make change in society? When the planets line up. When did we get gun control in the state of New York? After the Sandy Hook massacre because people stood up and said enough is enough. That's when change comes. People are standing up and saying enough is enough now. Great, seize the moment and make the change. But literally redesign the police department community by community. Because the New York City police department is one type of police department. Suffolk County will have other issues. Erie County will have other issues. Buffalo, Mayor Brown, God bless him, he'll have other issues to address. But make them do it now while we have the moment and we have the energy. And that's how change comes.

Reverend Al Sharpton:All right, Governor Andrew Cuomo, again, thank you for being with us. And again, we've known each other for years, I won't tell everybody that your father, Governor Mario Cuomo, told me Chris was his favorite son and that your oldest daughter said to Chris that I'm her favorite TV show. Good to be with you, Governor.

Read more:
Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo is a Guest on MSNBC's PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton - ny.gov

Last last week it was announced that a big march on Washington is scheduled for August to commemorate the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.s historic march and help further the cause of addressing police brutality and injustice in law enforcement.

All of which sounds like a very good idea.

The march is being organized by Al Shaprton.

This Al Sharpton.

Which sounds like a very, very bad idea.

Podcast June 12 2020

On Today's Bulwark Podcast, Andrew Sullivan from New York Magazine joins Charlie Sykes to discuss woke culture, the GOP ...

It is never wise to speculate about the condition of another mans soul, so Im happy to stipulate that the Reverend Sharpton may be a fine human being and a good man. My friend Matt Labash thinks so and if youre only ever going to read one profile of Sharpton, it should be his. (Among other glories, it reveals that Sharptons entourage had their own catchphrase for the boss: Rev gotta eat. Which functioned nicely in all circumstances.)

Sharpton is in his autumnal years now and perhaps hes no longer the hotheaded agitator and hustler he was in his youth. People change.

Then again, if you were going to put together a list of public figures most likely to transform the George Floyd protests from a nonpartisan, broad-based movement to another front in the culture war, Sharpton would have to be near the very top.

Conversely, it would be easy to identify inspiring black leaders across the political spectrum better suited to expanding the movement: Cory Booker, Colin Powell, Michelle Obama, Van Jones, Oprah, Denzel Washington, John Lewis, Don Cheadle, James Clyburn, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Michael Steele, Skip Gates, Chris Rock, Cornell West, Shaq . . . we could go on for quite some time before we got to the Rev.

Social movements, like political coalitions, are exercises in addition. You do not achieve change unless you can add enough people to your cause, who then apply ballot-box pressure at all levels of government over a sustained period of time.

What has made these protests different from all of the protests of the last 20 yearsthe anti-war protests of the Bush years, the Occupy movement of 2011-12, the Ferguson protests of six years ago, the Womens marches since 2017is that they have attracted a broad array of support: blacks, Hispanics, whites, city-dwellers, suburbanites. The polling shift over just the last two weeks is shocking. Heres Tim Alberta explaining the magnitude:

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday found that Americans by a 2-to-1 margin are more troubled by the actions of police in the killing of George Floyd than by violence at some protest. A survey for USA Today last week showed white Americans favorable impressions of police declining by double-digits week over the week. Most notably, a Monmouth poll released June 2conducted in the days after Floyds killingshowed, for the first time, that a majority of Americans (57 percent) and a plurality of whites (49 percent) believe police are more likely to use excessive force against African Americans. This represents a tectonic shift in public opinion: After Eric Garner was killed by New York City police in the summer of 2014, Monmouth found that 33 percent of Americans believed the black community was more likely to be abused by police; among whites, that number was just 26 percent.

Its almost a sea change, said Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina, one of three black members of the U.S. Senate. For years, Scott explained, the response from so many well-intended people was to overlook the brutality brought to African Americans at the hands of the police. . . . But I look at the publics response to this situation and it feels like the first time in my lifetime that Ive heard law enforcement agencies coming out with strong rebukes and condemnation of the officers in Minneapolis.

The senator added, Without question, this is different. It feels different. It sounds different. The protesters are different. . . . I look out my window in Washington and see 10 protesters. Seven of them are white, and three of them are black.

From where we stand right now, the current movement shows a great deal of promise. But change is hard even in the best of circumstances. Because inertia is a bitch.

Going forward there are two dangers for the movement. The first is apathy. If the movement were to peter out, or be moved to the back-burner of peoples minds, then it will be difficult to exert enough democratic power to produce change.

This isnt to say that protesters need to stay in the streets forever. At some point, everyone goes back to normalor whatever normal is these dayswith the protests having (hopefully) established a beachhead on the political priorities of a majority of Americans.

The reason a march in August is a good idea is because its the perfect moment to re-energize this coalition going into the November elections. And its important to note that were not primarily talking about national politics here: The fate of Donald Trump bears a mostly symbolic relationship to the cause of police reform. Notwithstanding House Democrats announcement of a reform bill on Monday, the federal government will have a relatively small role solving the problems that the protesters are upset about. The real heavy lifting is going to be done by state and local governments, which would have to adopt specific reforms targeted at correcting the problems within their own law enforcement organs.

The August march might be able to help amplify and channel the present energy.

The second danger for this movement is the possibility that it will be transformed in the public consciousness into something elsesomething more divisive, something that will cause some people to leave and prevent others from joining. In short: that it will become another front in the culture war.

Which is why Al Sharpton is unlikely to be helpful.

Just for the sake of argument, lets assume that Sharptons heart is in the right place and that he wants to lead this march for purely altruistic reasons. Even so: Every high-level person who agrees to participate will be asked, Do you endorse the entire career of Rev. Sharpton?

Of all the people who could plausibly become the face of this movement, Sharpton is one of the least likely to help it grow and the most likely to regress it to the pre-2020 battle lines.

Its enough to make you think, Well crap. Why dont they stop him?

And the answer is: There is no they.

The advantage of an unorganized, distributed movement is that it can grow organically, attracting people from all different points on the ideological and socioeconomic spectrumsbecause there is no central face of it to cause negative polarity. If you are, say, a libertarian, or a Christian, you are every bit as likely to be drawn to the Floyd protests as you are if youre an African American or a Democrat.

A distributed movement lowers the political and psychological barriers to entry in important ways.

But precisely because its distributed, the movement is vulnerable to hijacking. Because if someone steps forward to say This is what were all about, theres no organizational authority to push back against it.

You saw that happen over the last week when defund the police went from a fringe Twitter slogan to a semi-serious position that was being ascribed to much of the protest movement. In just a few days, anyone who was supportive of the movement was being asked to answer for it, as if defunding (or abolishing) the police was somehow an official position of the protests.

This same dynamic will set in when someone eventually steps up to become the public face of the organized version of the movement.

Which is precisely what Sharpton is doing.

And just as there was no organization positioned to say, No, these protests do not endorse the specific policy of abolishing police forces there will be no one who can say, These protests are not an endorsement of Al Sharpton and his entire public history.

If youve studied Al Sharptons public history, then his play to take over this movement makes a great deal of sense. He is a man who has always been looking for angles.

If youd like to be charitable, you can say that he was in it for the greater good. And yet, it would not be unreasonable to take a less charitable view.

But in this case, the stakes are larger than they have ever been for any movement which Sharpton sought to be a part of. There is a chancea very real chancefor Americans to reform law enforcement. To professionalize a category of government that has often been egregiously unjust and to exercise a proper degree of civilian control over the institutions to which we delegate the legal use of force against our neighbors and ourselves.

Theres no one to tell Al Sharpton that he has to step back and let someone else lead this movement.

But if he really does have his heart in the right place, hell do it on his own.

Read the original here:
Al Sharpton Should Not Become the Public Face of the Protests - The Bulwark

On June 9th, George Floyds funeral was held in Houston, Texas. One of the speakers was Rev. Al Sharpton but why did the Baptist minister wear black gloves?

The death of George Floyd on May 25th has been one of the defining moments of 2020.

His death has sparked international outrage and has seen protest movements emerge the world over.

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the focus has turned to the age-old struggle for equality after clashes with police did little to de-escalate tensions.

As the tragic catalyst for the renewed Black Lives Matter movement, it comes as no surprise that George Floyds funeral on June 9th was a must-watch occasion.

The over four-hour-long service took place at the Fountain of Praise church in Houston, Texas and saw crowds amass outside and the service live-streamed across the world to allow people pay their respects to the late George Floyd.

However, those watching were left with a bizarre question about the Reverand Al Sharpton after he was seen wearing black gloves at the funeral service as well as in the days beforehand.

George Floyds funeral took place at the Fountain of Praise church in Houston, Texas on June 9th.

The service saw a number of people pay their respects to Floyd through eulogies, songs and prayer.

Al Sharpton was one of the main figures who spoke at George Floyds funeral.

Sharpton has long been a public figure in the US. As well as being a Baptist minister, he grew in notoriety through activism during the 1960s, 70s and beyond.

During Barack Obamas presidency, Sharpton was described as an adviser to the president and was reportedly Obamas go-to man on racial issues similar to the death of George Floyd.

The Baptist minister spoke for around 40 minutes at George Floyds funeral service and detailed the struggle that black people have gone through ever since being brought to the US and took aim at Donald Trumps response to the death of George Floyd.

Like many at George Floyds funeral, Al Sharpton wore gloves as part of the social distancing measures put in place at the service.

According to Distractify, measures taken to promote social distancing at the funeral included the wearing of masks, gloves and the use of blue dots on the ground to try and keep people a safe distance apart.

In images in and around the Fountain of Praise church, Rev. Sharpton could also be seen wearing a face mask, just as others were at the service but removed it when it was his time to speak.

In other news, TikTok: The 'Know That You Are Good Enough' song explained - emotional Lewis Capaldi remix goes viral!

Read more:
Why does Al Sharpton wear black gloves? The Baptist minister wore gloves for a good reason at George Floyds funeral - HITC - Football, Gaming, Movies,...

The area around Seattle's 12th and Pine is known as the "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" - or CHAZ - and CHOP, for "Capitol Hill Organized Protest."

SEATTLE Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood remains in the national spotlight as demonstrations continue across Puget Sound, the country, and around the world.

The area around 12th and Pine is now known as the "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" or CHAZ, and there's no timeline for when it might change or return to how it was before. Some are now calling the area CHOP, which stands for "Capitol Hill Organized Protest."

The Seattle Police Department's East Police Precinct is covered in graffiti, and just down the street artists have spelled out "Black Lives Matter" over close to an entire city block.

Inside Cal Anderson Park, numerous tents have been set up, and the voice of the Reverend Al Sharpton echoed blasted over a loudspeaker. It was, and is, at least during the day a festival-like atmosphere.

But the images emanating from the six-block area have sparked a national political discussion.

"We're not going to allow Seattle to be occupied by anarchists," bellowed President Donald Trump in an interview with Fox News this week.

"This is no different than ISIS taking over cities in the Middle East," argued Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in another Fox News interview.

"I think it may be a little bit of an exaggeration, but I will say having been on four combat tours in Afghanistan I saw a lot of parallels with the shadow government in those countries," said Jesse Jensen, a Seattle tech employee who is running as a Republican in the 8th Congressional District.

Jensen toured the area Friday, stopping and talking with people along the way. He acknowledged seeing peaceful protesters and troublemakers, as well.

"I saw a little bit of both, it's unfortunate," said the candidate for a district outside the city. "What's to prevent criminal elements from coming into those cities? The purpose of government is to provide life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, you can't do that if you're being extorted by armed gunmen."

Washington GOP Party Chair Caleb Heimlich also said he was concerned that Seattle's police chief was concerned about response time, and there was no plan for a resolution.

"There is, it is clearly not a beatnik festival or a farmers market. I mean, there are people erecting barricades, physically assaulting a reporter, video evidence of people with bats confronting someone saying you stole something," said Heimlich. "But I would not say they are ISIS level terrorists by any stretch. So, I think there's still a need to have some law and order in the city." He continued, "I think it's a national story because look if this were right-wing militia that had taken over six-wing blocks, the government response would have been entirely different."

Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best, in an interview with KING 5, expressed visible frustration over the vague future of the East Precinct.

"My goal is to have the officers back in the facility," said Best. She said a few officers had already made their way back inside, but for the most part, continue to operate outside of the CHAZ.

Mayor Durkan didn't provide any clues about what may be next, although as one person said he was "glad" the mayor saw the area first hand.

'J.D.,' as he called himself, stood in fatigues near the Black Lives Matter mural and said he was one of a handful of people who spoke with the mayor.

Shortly after the meeting, the city agreed to turn over a fire station in the Central District, for community use. It had been one of the demands made by CHAZ organizers, and other protestors.

"What I'm seeing right now, a lot of people witnessing a spectacle," J.D. said, pointing out the artwork, and the pop-up medical aid tents. "Don't ever forget this is a Black Lives Matter movement and protest."

"It's a day by day thing, it's a book that we're kind of all partaking in, and things aren't know what's on the next page, but even in the next paragraph," said J.D. when asked if the 'CHAZ' and the East Precinct could co-exist at some point, he replied, "Good question. Can it co-exist? I don't know."

Read more from the original source:
Seattle's 'Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone' makes national headlines amid differing views and names - KING5.com

Reverend Al Sharpton and Joe Biden eulogized George Floyd as his family and friends gathered for his Houston funeral. USA TODAY

HOUSTON With the world watching, George Floyd's hometown said goodbye Tuesday in an emotional service that celebrated Floyd's life and rang with calls to ensure that death will not bring an end of his story.

The Fountain of Praise church also rang with passionate gospel music that repeatedly brought those gathered to their feet.

And passion poured from family, friends and politicians who proclaimed their love and appreciation for Floyd, a 46-year-old whose death 15 days earlier spurred outrage, activism and a growing call for reforms aimed at police brutality and treatment toward minority citizens.

God always uses unlikely people to do his will, the Rev. Al Sharpton said.

God took an ordinary brother from the Third Ward, from the housing project, that nobody thought much about but those who knew him and loved him, Sharpton said. God took the rejected stone and made him the cornerstone of a movement that is going to change the whole wide world.

That movement, he vowed, will continue when the last TV truck is gone.

Fountain of Praise pastors Remus and Mia Wright delivered on their promise to host a foot-stomping, toe-tapping, praising God remembrance of Floyd.

In the tradition of the African American church, this will be a home-going celebration of brother Georges life, Mia Wright told more than 500 invited guests in her southwest Houston church. We may weep, we may mourn, we'll be comforted and we will ride home. That is for sure.

Pallbearers bring the casket of George Floyd into the church for his funeral on June 9, 2020, at The Fountain of Praise church in Houston. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis Police officers on May 25.(Photo: Pool photo by Godofredo A. Vsquez)

Speaker after speaker said Floyds death launched a global movement, and Tuesdays funeral was widely broadcast and streamed online.

Floyd's casket, placed at the front of the church, was greeted by saluting Houston police officers as it was wheeled inside Tuesday morning.

In the pews, invited guests included political leaders and celebrities who mixed with many who knew the man called Big Floyd in Houston's Third Ward.

The death of George Floyd: What the criminal complaints say

Family members recalled an exuberant man a personal Superman, friend and mentor who frequently came to his family's rescue without being asked and they vowed, sometimes tearfully, to fight for the legacy of a man whose name became a rallying cry for justice.

Right now, I want justice for my brother, for my big brother, that's Big Floyd, Rodney Floyd said. Everyone is going to remember him around the world. He's going to change the world.

We must not turn away, said former Vice President Joe Biden, speaking to the church on video after having privately met with Floyd's family the day before.

We cannot leave this moment thinking we can once again turn away from racism that stings at our very soul, Biden said. Why in this nation do too many black Americans wake up knowing they could lose their life in the course of living their life?

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U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, said we have a duty, responsibility and obligation not to allow this to be like the other times black lives were unjustly taken.

We have a responsibility to each one of them to make sure that we do not walk away today after having celebrated his life and not taken the next step to ... assure the future generations that this won't happen again, Green said.

Sharpton closed his eulogy by telling Floyd to go on and get your rest now, were going to fight on.

All over the world, George, they are marching in your name. Even in a pandemic, people are out walking in the streets, Sharpton said. As we lay you to rest today, the movement won't rest until we get justice, until we have one standard of justice. Your family's going to miss you, George, but your nation is always going to remember your name.

Quincy Mason Floyd, son, of George Floyd pauses at the casket and speake with the Rev. Al Sharpton, left, during a funeral service for Floyd at The Fountain of Praise church, June 9, 2020, in Houston. (Photo: Pool photo by David J. Phillip)

After the almost four-hour service, Tiffany Cofield, 35, was near tears, overwhelmed by the knowledge that Floyd was gone but happy that the service had helped inform the world about a man who always had a sense of destiny.

He used to tell me all the time he was going to change the world, she said. I taught at Hope Academy in the Third Ward and the kids told me, You got to know Big Floyd.

He mentored a lot of the kids I taught, Cofield said. He was an icon for the Third Ward. He was just such a loving, protective person. You have to know him. He was just wonderful. I cant believe hes gone.

Floyd was taken to Houston Memorial Gardens in Pearland to be buried alongside his mother, who he called out for as he gasped for breath, lying handcuffed on a Minneapolis street on Memorial Day with a Minneapolis police officers knee on his neck, a scene captured in 8 minutes and 46 seconds of video.

Many along the routeraised a fist in salute to the hearse bearing Floyd and family members.

'George Floyd changed the world': Public viewing in Houston honors the man behind the social justice movement

For the final mile of his journey, Floyd was carried by horse-drawn carriage, his casket visible through glass walls.

Despite the heat, crowds had begun lining the procession route well before funeral services began, including Audrieka Jones, 24, who walked more than a mile from her parking spot to be near the cemetery entrance, where she was heartened to see white faces in the crowd.

Im seeing more Caucasians standing up than I ever had before, said Jones, who is black. This is a good thing. It is definitely a good thing.

Jones said she hoped the activism inspired by Floyds death signals a lasting change. His death was so unfair. It was definitely not right, she said. But I dont think he died in vain. This time, its not going to be swept under the rug.

Tinker Stewart described how it feels to be disrespected on sight.

I was a captain in the Air Force. I served in Desert Storm and Operation Just Cause, Stewart recalled. And one day I was sitting in the officers club in my civilian clothes and a lady came up to me and asked me to bring her some butter. She didnt see me as a fellow officer, she saw me as somebody whose job it was to bring her butter.

Stewart said Floyds death exposed not only the overt racism that she and others live with every day, it exposed the more subtle, but equally humiliating and infuriating, prejudice that persists.

Tuesdays funeral came one day after more than 6,000 people streamed into Fountain of Praise to view Floyd as he lay in a gold casket.

New charges in George Floyd's death: Derek Chauvin faces second-degree murder; 3 other officers charged

Afterward, as nightfall brought some relief from the beating sun of a still sweltering day, hundreds of mourners Monday lit the gathering darkness with candles and cellphones on the Jack Yates High School football field where George Floyd was a star tight end on a team that played for the 1992 state championship.

Ben Crump, the attorney representing the Floyd family, addressed the candlelight vigil.

People ask me all over the world, attorney Crump, why is this different from all the other times when they kill unarmed black people unjustifiably and senselessly? Crump said. And I tell them, George Floyd is different from anything weve ever seen because not only was it a documentary of his death, it was a documentary where he narrated his death and said, `I cant breathe, I cant breathe, I cant breathe, I cant breathe, I cant breathe, I cant breathe, I cant breathe, I cant breathe.

At 8:46, the vigil, which had been put together by the Yates High School Alumni Association, fell silent.

More than 60,000 people marched in Houston in a peaceful demonstration last Tuesday.

But you should know theyre protesting for George in Paris, France, Crump said. Theyre protesting for George in London, England. Theyre protesting for George in Toronto, Canada. Theyre protesting for George in Berlin, Germany. Theyre protesting for George in Australia. Theyre protesting for George in Ghana. Theyre protesting for George all over Africa. Theyre protesting for George all over the world. For your homeboy.

On the ride over to the memorial service Monday, Jace Brown, 8, of Houston, asked his grandmother, Charlotte Moman, if George Floyd is going to be history, when we get older is he going to be there?

She said he would be, like Emmett Till.

Moman was the same age Jace is now in 1955, growing up in rural Mississippi, when Till, a black 14-year-old from Chicago who was visiting family in Money, Miss., was kidnapped, tortured and killed his body wrapped in barbed wire, tied to a 75-pound cotton gin fan and thrown in the Tallahatchie River supposedly for whistling at a white womanoutside a country store.

His murder, and the funeral in Chicago, sent shock waves across America, galvanizing the civil rights movement

Its like we repeat doing the same thing all over again, and repeating and repeating and it doesnt stop, Jace said. So like we get too fed up, like its too much.

Additional material from USA Today Network reporter John Moritz.

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Houston gives George Floyd a rousing, tearful farewell - El Paso Times