Americans remember George Floyd on the fifth anniversary of his death

Americans across the country remember George Floyd five years after he was killed by police, with special gatherings in the city where he grew up, and the one where he died.

The murder of Floyd, a black man, in Minneapolis by police officer Derek Chavin, led to national protests against racism and police brutality.

On Sunday, Floyd’s family gathered in his hometown of Houston near Floyd’s grave for an event led by Reverend Al Sharpton as Minneapolis held several memory.

What many welcomed as national “considered” with racism after Floyd’s death seems to be fading when President Donald Trump began to spin police reforms in Minneapolis and other cities.

In Minneapolis, the members of the Community planned a morning church service, a vigil at candles and an evening gospel concert on Sunday to remember Floyd.

The events were part of the annual erection festival and remember that it is being held on George Floyd Square, the intersection where Floyd was killed and that was baptized since then to honor him.

“Now is the time for people to rise and continue the good work we have started,” said Angela Harrelson, Aunt and Co -Chair of Floyd for a non -profit purpose, “said in a statement about the festival.

In Houston, where Floyd grew up and where he was buried, local organizations planned poetry sessions, music performances and speeches by local pastors.

Floyd was killed in 2020 during a police arrest in Minneapolis when Chavin, a white policeman, stood at his neck for more than nine minutes.

The murder – captured on the beholder’s telephone camera – caused global outrage and wave of demonstrations against racial injustice and police use of force.

Chavin serves a 22-year sentence after being convicted of killing the 46-year-old. Other employees were convicted of not interfering with the murder.

In a post of X, Rev Sharpton said Floyd’s death “had forced a long overdue reading of systemic racism and galvanic millions to take to the streets in protest.”

“The sentence of the responsible employee was a rare step towards justice, but our work is far from over,” he said.

As a result of Floyd’s death, former President Joe Biden, the Ministry of Justice, has opened civil investigations into several local law enforcement, including Minneapolis, Louisville, Phoenix and Lexington, Mississippi, where investigators have found evidence of a systematic police offense.

The department reached agreements with both the Louisville police departments and the Minneapolis, which include supervision measures such as increased training, accountability and improved collection of police data.

But last Wednesday, the Trump administration said these findings rely on “insufficient methodologies and incomplete data”.

Administration officials said the Local Police Departments agreement with handcuffs.

However, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said this week that his city would still “obey every sentence from each paragraph with a 169 -page consent decree we signed this year.”

Upon his return to service, Trump also strives for justice measures and the inclusion of diversity (DEI) designed to reduce racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination. At the beginning of his term, Trump signed an executive order to eliminate Dei policies in the federal government, some of which were the result of protests during what is often called the Black Lives Matter Summer, held after Floyd’s death and others,

Critics, including Trump, say such programs can be discriminatory themselves. Turning to West Point on Saturday, he said that with the end of the day in the military administration, he “got rid of distraction” and “focusing our military on its main mission”.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, eliminated the Black Lives Matter Plaza, a strip of road that was decorated with the phrase near the White House. This week, a well -known Floyd mural in Houston has been destroyed as part of the building’s destruction, according to public media in Houston.

Recent studies suggest that Americans believe there are few improvements to the lives of blacks in the United States five years after Floyd passed, including May exploration Pew Research Center, in which 72% of participants said there were no significant changes.

The number of Americans expressing support for the Black Lives Matter movement has also dropped by 15% since June 2020, implies the same study.