George Floyd casket arrives in North Carolina hometown as thousands expected to mourn at second memorial service
GEORGE Floyd’s casket has arrived in North Carolina as tens of thousands are expected to gather and honor the family man near his birthplace.
The 46-year-old black dad was memorialized on Saturday inside a church in Raeford, 10 miles north of Fayetteville, with a public viewing scheduled from 11am to 1pm before a private funeral service.
Hoke County Sheriff Hubert A. Peterkin asked mourners to wear a mask and banned protesters out of respect for Floyd’s grieving family.
“I’m asking on behalf of the Floyd family for those who plan on attending the viewing to be respectful to the sensitivity of the family’s time of grief,” he said in a Facebook post announcing details for the memorial service.
“The memorial is about the life that Mr George Floyd lived and this is a time to embrace the family with expressions of love and kindness.”
The sheriff’s office is expecting between 30,000 and 40,000 people to pay tribute to Floyd at the Caper Fear Conference B Headquarters, according to WTVD.
WSOC reported flags in North Carolina were lowered to half-staff to honor Floyd, who was killed in police custody in Minnesota on May 25.
State Gov Roy Cooper urged residents, business, schools, and other government agencies to fly the flag at half-staff from sunrise to sunset.
“The unjust killing of George Floyd combined with many other recent and distant events broke open painful wounds,” Cooper said at a press conference on Friday, as reported by the news station.
“Racism. Excessive use of police force. Health disparities. Poverty. White supremacy. These are wrong. They are ugly, but they are present. We must deal with them.”
The governor added: “George Floyd’s sister, Bridgette, lives in Hoke County, North Carolina. While I cannot bring her brother back, I can work for justice in his name. I assured her that’s what we would do.”
Floyd’s devastated family, activists, politicians, and Hollywood celebrities paid their respects and demanded justice for Floyd during his funeral in Minneapolis.
Minnesota Gov Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Rev Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King III, and actors Tiffany Haddish and Kevin Hart were among the many others who honored his life on Thursday.
King and Jackson both said prayers for Floyd at his coffin moments before the funeral.
Civil rights leader Rev Al Sharpton eulogized the family man on Thursday and called on black people to demand America “Get your knee off our necks!”
“George Floyd should not be among the deceased. He did not die of common health conditions – he died of a common American criminal justice malfunction,” he said.
“It does not matter whether you wear blue jeans or a blue uniform, you must pay for the crime you commit.”
Sharpton added: “George Floyd’s story has been the story of black folks.”
“The reason we could never be who we wanted – and dreamed of being – is you kept your knee on our neck.”
Philonise Floyd remembered his brother as someone “everybody loved”, explaining that people always “wanted to greet him and wanted to have fun with him.”
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Protests kicked off in Washington DC on Saturday morning as the memorial service was underway.
The memorial service in Floyd’s hometown comes a day after thousands of peaceful protesters rallied against police brutality across the country.
The demonstrations seem to be working in Minneapolis – the city agreed to ban police chokeholds on Friday and will require officers to intervene whenever they witness excessive force by another cop.
