‘We should be fed up’: Birmingham activists protest George Floyd’s death

Birmingham George Floyd protest

More than 100 demonstrators gathered in Birmingham’s Kelly Ingram Park on Thursday night to protest the death of George Floyd.

More than 100 demonstrators gathered in Birmingham’s Kelly Ingram Park on Thursday night to protest the death of George Floyd, the unarmed black man who died earlier this week in Minnesota after a police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck while handcuffed in an incident that was caught on video and sparked nationwide outrage.

Dubbed the Alabama Rally Against Injustice, protest organizers said Floyd’s death and those of other unarmed black men and women in police custody showed that more has to be done then just demonstrating after those incidents. Other than protesting, organizers called on participants to vote in elections and run for office themselves, contending that systemic racism is the issue.

Warning: This video contains profanity

“We didn’t come here to be nice tonight. We didn’t come here to play around tonight. Hopefully we are here because we are tired of what’s happening," said Carlos Chaverst, one of the organizers. "We should be fed up with seeing black men and women being killed in the street by police.”

Police were called to a Minneapolis grocery store on Monday after a worker alleged that the 46-year-old Floyd tried to pay with counterfeit currency. Video surfaced showing one of the officers pressing his knee into a handcuffed Floyd as Floyd complained that he could not breathe. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Karan Vance, who is black and spoke at the Birmingham demonstration, said protesting Floyd’s death was insufficient. Referencing Albert Einstein’s quote about the definition of insanity being doing the same thing over and over and expecting the same result, she said activists are “going crazy” by using the same tactics to voice anger over claims of police misconduct.

“Now we have to infiltrate,” she said, referring to running for office. “We got to get in the inside because that’s where the change is. The change is going to happen from the inside. Being on your keyboard is not enough.”

Jordan Giddens, who spoke about Floyd’s death from the perspective of a white person, said white America cannot excuse racist behavior as being a product of its environment.

“I could have been that cop with my knee on a black man’s throat because that’s how I was raised, that’s how society and my community taught me how to live,” the Cullman native said. “But also, I looked at myself and I said, ‘Is that truly who I want to be?’ Despite the fact that all my friends and family may be that way, when I look in the mirror at the end of the day, who am I looking at? Am I looking at me or am I looking at a reflection of that man with his knee on that man’s neck?”

Giddens said Floyd’s death was not about a single incident but a systemic problem.

"This is not an issue of one man with his knee on a neck. This is a societal and a cultural and a systematic issue that will not change until every single person in America takes a look at themselves in the mirror and says, ‘Who the f--- am I?’

Birmingham resident Majadi Baruti said he believed the culture in police departments cannot be reformed and suggested that departments be defunded.

“That money could be used to build housing for folks. That money can be used to feed folks,” he said, “but instead we’re giving these [officers] money to kill us.”

Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, who was videotaped pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck, and three other officers involved in Floyd’s arrest were fired on Tuesday. The incident is being investigated by the FBI and Minnesota law-enforcement authorities. Riots and looting have erupted in several American cities in response to Floyd’s death, including multiple fires set overnight in south Minneapolis.

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