On Sunday, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Minneapolis as tension escalated on the eve of the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin over the death of George Floyd.
Protesters displayed a white coffin with flowers and called for racial justice and to stop police brutality, a day before the jury selection in the volatile case began.
“We must remember that a man lost his life, a family lost a brother, a family lost a father, they lost a son, they lost an uncle,” Mohamed Ibrahim, deputy director of CAIR-MN, told Star Tribune .
The march remained peaceful and included music by Bob Marley, Prince and Sam Cooke. A prayer for clergy members followed with Pray for MN, an interfaith group formed after Floyd’s death on May 25 that now has 150 member churches.
“Maybe we should take the time to reflect on how often it happens,” protester Ilyas Wehelie told Tribune.
Protesters gathered outside the Hennepin County government center, the site of the upcoming trial that is set to begin with jury selection Monday morning, WCCO said in a report.
Chauvin, 44, is charged with second-degree homicide and second-degree homicide on Floyd’s death. The viral video of the incident shows the ex-policeman with his knee on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes while asking for air.
The incident sparked protests around the world condemning police brutality.
Minneapolis officials have bolstered the security of the trial, incorporating National Guard and state, county, and city police troops, and bolstering judicial and police neighborhoods with barricades, security fences, and barbed wire.