Pain mingled with hope at the funeral of George Floyd at the Fountain of Praise Church in Houston, Texas on Tuesday, June 9. The day before, hundreds of people had braved the sweltering heat to pay a last tribute to this African-American who became the symbol of police violence, died suffocated by the knee of a policeman from Minneapolis (Minnesota) while he was lying on the ground , handcuffed.
Tuesday’s ceremony was reserved for the family, whose members were mostly dressed in white. The latter had invited personalities from the Texan metropolis where George Floyd had lived for a long time, including Mayor Sylvester Turner and the police chief, Art Acevedo, as well as figures of African American militancy, lawyer Ben Crump and the pastor. Al Sharpton. Actors Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum were also present.
The commemoration was vibrant and punctuated, punctuated by dance steps in the bays and loud applause. During the ceremony, an artist created a large upside-down portrait of the deceased before the assembly, which he installed in a good way on an easel once his performance was completed. Songs, laughter and voices muffled by emotion followed one another to retrace the life of “Big Floyd”, the “Sweet giant”, the “Superman” who excelled in American football and basketball, able, as one of his relatives said, to snap baskets with both hands.
In a video message, November’s Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden let his empathy speak before talking about the need for reform. “Why in this country too many black Americans get up in the morning knowing that they risk dying just by living their lives? “, he asked himself. “The time for racial justice has come. This is the answer we have to give our children when they ask: Why? “ this violence, he added.
Trump’s inaction in the face of blasted police violence
A collage of videos and personal photos of George Floyd was broadcast during the ceremony, interspersed with images of demonstrations and slogans that recalled his paradoxical fate: that of an unknown who became a world icon due to the conditions of his death , and whose funeral mobilized the armada of the American media, deployed in one of the large parking lots of the Fountain of Praise church.
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