George Floyd one year on: ‘We’re not where we should be’

As the world marks one year since Floyd’s death at the hands of the police, activists say change is slow to materialise.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, US – “It has been a long year. It has been a painful year. It has been very frustrating for me and my family, for your life to change within a blink of an eye,” Bridgett Floyd, the sister of George Floyd, said Sunday at a rally here before the first anniversary of her brother’s murder under the knee of ex-police officer Derek Chauvin. As activists prepare for a celebration of Floyd’s life at the intersection that now bears his name — George Floyd Square — where he took his last breath a year ago, on Tuesday, members of Floyd’s family will head to the White House to meet President Joe Biden. While moves to change the ways communities in Minneapolis and across the nation are policed, residents and activists say it has not been enough. After Chauvin was convicted of murder on April 20, Vice President Kamala Harris said, “We feel a sigh of relief. Still, it cannot take away the pain. A measure of justice isn’t the same as equal justice. This verdict brings us a step closer. And, the fact is, we still have work to do,” adding that “we must still reform the system.”