George Floyd's cousins join Spring Valley community in mourning, and planning for a brighter future

Nancy Cutler
Rockland/Westchester Journal News

SPRING VALLEY - Reverends, performers, and George Floyd's cousins who live in this village kept a crowd of hundreds rapt with prayer, call-and-response messages and emotional reflections about the black man who was killed after a Minneapolis police officer kept his knee to the 46-year-old father's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds.

They talked about the cycle of police brutality, suspicion and fear that targets black Americans. They asked for unity, and support, and equity. And they pleaded with the residents gathered in the village's Memorial Park on Thursday night: Vote.

When about 10 family members of Floyd came up on stage, several spoke about their faith, their loss, and their hope for the future. 

Will Floyd of Spring Valley attends a vigil for his cousin, George Floyd, at Memorial Park in Spring Valley June 4, 2020.

"The Jewish community has been through the Holocaust, and look what they have done together," said Conrad Floyd, who grew up with his cousin George Floyd. That community, he said, came so far after that attack on their very existence by unifying, and by voting. He looked out at the diverse crowd: "We can do it."

Family members said they planned to leave their Spring Valley homes Friday to travel to a private memorial service Monday and funeral Tuesday in Houston. A memorial service was held Thursday in Minneapolis. 

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, an author who grew up in Spring Valley, told the crowd he was in college in 2012 when Trayvon Martin was fatally shot in Florida; Martin was trailed by a member of the Neighborhood Watch as he walked through a gated community. 

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Later, when Adjei-Brenyah saw his book, "Friday Black," become a New York Times bestseller, he said it "meant the pain I was feeling was not only me." The book, which includes stories from the village and the Palisades Center in West Nyack, won the 2018 Book of the Year by PEN America; Adjei-Brenyah, a Ramapo High School graduate, was one of the National Book Foundation's "5 under 35" honorees. 

"Today I am a professor," Adjei-Brenyah told the crowd. Cheers resounded.

"I say, 'defund the police,'" Adjei-Brenyah said.

He added: "Please vote!"

Elizabeth Seward, 10, attends a vigil for her relative, George Floyd, at Memorial Park in Spring Valley June 4, 2020.

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Elections matter

Calvin Demetrius, who leads the Youth Council that coordinated the vigil, was among those to remind vigil attendees that they need to follow up and vote. That includes in federal, state, local and school board elections.

The village is the heart of the East Ramapo school district, where the overwhelming majority of public school students are children of color, but the school board has been dominated for more than a decade by white, Orthodox Jewish men.

A vigil was held to mourn George Floyd and demand action against racism at Memorial Park in Spring Valley June 4, 2020. It was organized by the Spring Valley NAACP Youth Committee.

Last month, a federal judge sided with the Spring Valley NAACP against the East Ramapo Central School District and demanded that the district institute a ward system for school board votes, which would have neighborhoods vote for a specific member, rather than districtwide voting for all members.

The vigil, organized by the Spring Valley NAACP Youth Committee, filled the northern area of the downtown park, which was large enough to allow social distancing. Speakers and attendees wore face coverings.

A vigil was held to mourn George Floyd and demand action against racism at Memorial Park in Spring Valley June 4, 2020. It was organized by the Spring Valley NAACP Youth Committee.

The Rev. Brandon McLauchlin of St. Charles AME Zion Church in Sparkill referred to posts on Facebook saying there were threats of violence at demonstrations in Rockland. Among them were Rockland County Executive Ed Day, who later edited the post and said it was meant to reassure, not alarm residents.

In the posts, McLauchlin said, people said they were afraid that angry people were going "to come invade their homes" in the suburbs.

"For just a small moment, they had to think about what it is to be black in America," McLauchlin said. "We're not safe in our own neighborhood."

An upset woman talks with a police officer during a vigil to mourn George Floyd and demand action against racism at Memorial Park in Spring Valley June 4, 2020. It was organized by the Spring Valley NAACP Youth Committee.

Spring Valley NAACP President Willie Trotman said he had invited members of Spring Valley's police department to speak. The small police department is among the most diverse in the county and serves Rockland's most diverse community.

Police officers from the village came to the microphone to make a statement for unity and against police brutality in Spanish, Haitian Creole, Polish and Yiddish.

'End up killing us'

While the police drew applause, speakers didn't shy away from addressing the tensions over the state of policing in the U.S. and black people's safety.

Imani Thompson of Spring Valley was one of several spoken word performers. "Police who claim they want to serve and protect us end up killing us again and again and again," she said.

During his turn at the microphone, Adjei-Brenyah had invoked the names of police brutality victims from around the United States throughout the years. 

He added the name of Tina Davis.

Davis died after a Spring Valley police officer used a Taser during an incident during the early morning of Jan. 4.

The New York State Attorney General continues an independent investigation into the police-involved death.

Nancy Cutler writes about People & Policy. Click here for her latest stories. Follow her on Twitter at @nancyrockland. Support local journalism; go to lohud.com/specialoffer to find out how.