All four former Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd’s murder are scheduled to appear in court on Monday. According to CNN, Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Tou Thao and Thomas Lane will go before a judge sometime midday, though no cameras will be allowed in the courtroom.

Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder in Floyd’s death, which came after he knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest on May 25. Kueng, Thao, and Lane are all charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. All four men were fired from the Minneapolis Police Department. Chauvin will appear vie video (ITV), but the other three will appear in person. Chauvin’s bail was set at $1.25 million, and bail for Kueng, Thao and Lane was set at $1 million each. Notably, Kueng and Lane have been released released on conditional bond, but Chauvin and Thao remain behind bars.

Floyd’s funeral was held on June 9, and was attended by a number of high-profile mourners, such as Jamie Foxx, Channing Tatum, and Houston Texans player J.J. Watt. While he could not attend, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden sent a pre-recorded video that was played for those who were in attendance in person. “As I’ve said to you privately, we know. We know you will never feel the same again,” Biden said. “Unlike most, you must grieve in public, and it’s a burden. A burden that is now your purpose to change the world for the better, in the name of George Floyd.”

Biden went on to say, “Ladies and gentlemen, we can’t turn away. We must not turn away. America can do better. America has no choice but to do better. We can heal this nation’s wounds. Today, now, is the time. The purpose, the season, to listen and heal.”

Floyd’s eulogy was delivered by long time civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton. He praised Floyd’s family for showing strength at such a tragic time, and assured them that they even when the “last TV truck is gone,” they will continue to have support from the community. “We must commit to this family that until these people pay for what they did, that we’re going to be with them because lives like George’s will not matter until someone pays the cost for taking their lives,” he said. Concluding his message, Sharpton said, “Your family is going to miss you, George, but your nation is always going to remember your name. We’re going to fight on.”

“He was always towering over everybody, as a child through adulthood, but his character has always been the same,” said high school friend Coach Chuck. “He really was a gentle giant. He really was about fairness and goodness for everybody, even at the expense of his own hurt, he still stood for that. He said, ‘That’s what means something.'”

In the 1990s, Floyd became a known rapper under the name Big Floyd, alongside DJ Screw and the hip hop group Screwed Up Click.

He ran into trouble with the law in his 20s and 30s, including theft in 1998 and drug charges in 2002 and 2005. He was charged in 2007 with armed robbery in a home invasion in Houston and was sentenced to five years in prison as part of a plea deal, according to court documents.

Friends said after serving time, he became an anti-violence advocate and decided to get a fresh start by moving to Minnesota in 2014.

“He was changing his life. He went to Minnesota. He was driving trucks,” Stephen Jackson, NBA champion basketball player and longtime friend of Floyd, said in an Instagram post. “Floyd was my brother, man. We called each other ‘twin.'”

Floyd’s roommate in St. Louis Park, Alvin Manago, said he became a man of faith and mostly kept to himself.

“God-fearing, things like that,” said Manago. “He just would read his little scriptures every once in a while. He had them by his bed.”

 Floyd worked several jobs in the Twin Cities, most recently as a security guard at Conga Latin Bistro in Minneapolis.

“He’s that type of person that if you need help, you can count on him,” said his former boss Jovanni Thunstrom. “Very nice guy. My employees loved him. My customers loved him. He was very respectful and a hard worker.”

Floyd was also a father of five, according to speakers at his memorial service Thursday.

His son, Quincy Mason, spoke in Minneapolis earlier this week, saying, “We deserve justice. That’s all I have to say.”

In an interview with ABC News, Floyd’s 6-year-old daughter Gianna said she wants the world to know “that I miss him.”

“My heart is broke for my baby. It’s broke,” said Gianna’s mother Roxie Washington. “I mean that was his baby. He loved his little girl.”

Floyd found love while living in Minneapolis. He met girlfriend Courteney Ross about three years ago. She said it was “love at first sight” and described him as funny, talkative and kind.

“He believed everyone in this world should get a chance. There’s no throwaway people. There’s nobody that doesn’t deserve love. He always showed that,” Ross said through tears.

Floyd’s six siblings said he stood for peace and unity.

“He always saw the lighter, the brighter side of things, and he made you feel like you could just do anything, like you could rule the world even if you’re going through something. That’s just how he spoke to you,” said brother Terrence Floyd. “That’s how I could just sum it up. He was a motivator, peaceful motivator.”

They hope his legacy will be one of change.

Floyd died at the age of 46 while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers.

HOUSTON — Years before a bystander’s video of George Floyd’s last moments turned his name into a global cry for justice, Floyd trained a camera on himself.

“I just want to speak to you all real quick,” Floyd says in one video, addressing the young men in his neighborhood who looked up to him. His 6-foot-7 frame crowds the picture.

“I’ve got my shortcomings and my flaws and I ain’t better than nobody else,” he says. “But, man, the shootings that’s going on, I don’t care what ‘hood you’re from, where you’re at, man. I love you and God loves you. Put them guns down.”

At the time, Floyd was respected as a man who spoke from hard, but hardly extraordinary, experience. He had nothing remotely like the stature he has gained in death, embraced as a universal symbol of the need to overhaul policing and held up as a heroic everyman.

But the reality of his 46 years on Earth, including sharp edges and setbacks Floyd himself acknowledged, was both much fuller and more complicated.

Once a star athlete with dreams of turning pro and enough talent to win a partial scholarship, Floyd returned home only to bounce between jobs before serving nearly five years in prison. Intensely proud of his roots in Houston’s Third Ward and admired as a mentor in a public housing project beset by poverty, he decided the only way forward was to leave it behind.

“He had made some mistakes that cost him some years of his life,” said Ronnie Lillard, a friend and rapper who performs under the name Reconcile. “And when he got out of that, I think the Lord greatly impacted his heart.”

___

Floyd was born in North Carolina. But his mother, a single parent, moved the family to Houston when he was 2, so she could search for work. They settled in the Cuney Homes, a low-slung warren of more than 500 apartments south of downtown nicknamed “The Bricks.”

The neighborhood, for decades a cornerstone of Houston’s black community, has gentrified in recent years. Texas Southern University, a historically black campus directly across the street from the projects, has long held itself out as a launchpad for those willing to strive. But many residents struggle, with incomes about half the city average and unemployment nearly four times higher, even before the recent economic collapse.

Yeura Hall, who grew up next door to Floyd, said even in the Third Ward other kids looked down on those who lived in public housing. To deflect the teasing, he, Floyd and other boys made up a song about themselves: “I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Cuney Homes kid. They got so many rats and roaches I can play with.”

Larcenia Floyd invested her hopes in her son, who as a second-grader wrote that he dreamed of being a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

“She thought that he would be the one that would bring them out of poverty and struggle,” said Travis Cains, a longtime friend.

Floyd was a star tight end for the football team at Jack Yates High School, playing for the losing side in the 1992 state championship game at Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin.

He was an atypical football player. “We used to call him ‘Big Friendly,'” said Cervaanz Williams, a former teammate.

“If you said something to him, his head would drop,” said Maurice McGowan, his football coach. “He just wasn’t going to ball up and act like he wanted to fight you.”

On the basketball court, Floyd’s height and strength won attention from George Walker, a former assistant coach at the University of Houston hired for the head job at what is now South Florida State College. The school was a 17-hour drive away, in a small town, but high school administrators and Floyd’s mother urged him to go, Walker said.

“They wanted George to really get out of the neighborhood, to do something, be something,” Walker said.

In Avon Park, Florida, Floyd and a few other players from Houston stood out for their size, accents and city cool. They lived in the Jacaranda Hotel, a historic lodge used as a dormitory, and were known as the “Jac Boys.”

“He was always telling me about the Third Ward of Houston, how rough it was, but how much he loved it,” said Robert Caldwell, a friend and fellow student who frequently traveled with the basketball team. “He said people know how to grind, as hard as it is, people know how to love.”

After two years in Avon Park, Floyd spent a year at Texas A&M University in Kingsville before returning to Houston and his mother’s apartment to find jobs in construction and security.

Larcenia Floyd, known throughout the neighborhood as Ms. Cissy, welcomed her son’s friends from childhood, offering their apartment as refuge when their lives grew stressful. When a neighbor went to prison on drug charges, Ms. Cissy took in the woman’s pre-teen son, Cal Wayne, deputizing George to play older brother for the next 2½ years.

“We would steal his jerseys and put his jerseys on and run around the house, go outside, jerseys all the way down to our ankles because he was so big and we were little,” said Wayne, now a well-known rapper who credits Floyd with encouraging him to pursue music.

George Floyd, he said, “was like a superhero.”

___

Floyd, too, dabbled in music, occasionally invited to rap with Robert Earl Davis Jr. — better known as DJ Screw, whose mixtapes have since been recognized as influential in charting Houston’s place as a hotbed of hip-hop.

But then, the man known throughout Cuney as “Big Floyd,” started finding trouble.

Between 1997 and 2005, Floyd was arrested several times on drug and theft charges, spending months in jail. Around that time, Wayne’s mother, Sheila Masters, recalled running into Floyd in the street and learning he was homeless.

“He’s so tall he’d pat me on my head … and say, ‘Mama you know it’s going to be all right,'” Masters said.

In August 2007, Floyd was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. Investigators said he and five other men barged into a woman’s apartment, and Floyd pushed a pistol into her abdomen before searching for items to steal. Floyd pleaded guilty in 2009 and was sentenced to five years in prison. By the time he was paroled, in January 2013, he was nearing 40.

“He came home with his head on right,” said friend Travis Cains.

At a Christian rap concert in the Third Ward, Floyd met Lillard and pastor Patrick “PT” Ngwolo, whose ministry was looking for ways to reach residents in Cuney Homes. Floyd, who seemed to know everyone in the project, volunteered to be their guide.

Soon Floyd was setting up a washtub on the Cuney basketball courts for baptisms by Ngwolo’s newly formed Resurrection Houston congregation. He joined three-on-three basketball tournaments and barbecues, organized by the ministry. He knocked on doors with Ngwolo, introducing residents as candidates for grocery deliveries or Bible study.

Another pastor, Christopher Johnson, recalled Floyd stopping by his office while Johnson’s mother was visiting. Decades had passed since Johnson’s mother had been a teacher at Floyd’s high school. It didn’t matter. He wrapped her in a bear hug.

“I don’t think he ever thought of himself as being big,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot of big dudes here, but he was a gentleman and a diplomat and I’m not putting any sauce on it.”

On the streets of Cuney, Floyd was increasingly embraced as an O.G. — literally “original gangster,” but bestowed as a title of respect for a mentor who’d learned from life experience.

In Tiffany Cofield’s classroom at a neighborhood charter school, some of her male students — many of whom had already had brushes with the law — told her to talk to “Big Floyd” if she wanted to understand.

Floyd would listen patiently as she voiced her frustrations with students’ bad behavior, she said. And he would try to explain the life of a young man in the projects.

After school, Floyd often met up with her students outside a corner store.

“How’s school going?” he’d ask. “Are you being respectful? How’s your mom? How’s your grandma?”

___

In 2014, Floyd began exploring the possibility of leaving the neighborhood.

As the father of five children from several relationships, he had bills to pay. And despite his stature in Cuney, everyday life could be trying. More than once, Floyd ended up in handcuffs when police came through the projects and detained a large number of men, Cofield said.

“He would show by example: ‘Yes, officer. No, officer.’ Very respectful. Very calm tone,” she said.

A friend of Floyd’s had already moved to the Twin Cities as part of a church discipleship program that offered men a route to self-sufficiency by changing their environment and helping them find jobs.

“He was looking to start over fresh, a new beginning,” said Christopher Harris, who preceded Floyd to Minneapolis. Friends provided Floyd with money and clothing to ease the transition.

In Minneapolis, Floyd found a job as a security guard at the Salvation Army’s Harbor Light Center — the city’s largest homeless shelter.

“He would regularly walk a couple of female co-workers out … at night and make sure they got to their cars safely and securely,” said Brian Molohon, director of development for the Army’s Minnesota office. “Just a big strong guy, but with a very tender side.”

Floyd left after a little over a year, training to drive trucks while working as a bouncer at a club called Conga Latin Bistro.

“He would dance badly to make people laugh,” said the owner, Jovanni Thunstrom. “I tried to teach him how to dance because he loved Latin music, but I couldn’t because he was too tall for me.”

Floyd kept his connection to Houston, regularly returning to Cuney.

When Houston hosted the Super Bowl in 2017, Floyd was back in town, hosting a party at the church with music and free AIDS testing. He came back again for his mother’s funeral the next year. And when Cains spoke with him last, a few weeks ago, Floyd was planning another trip for this summer.

By then, Floyd was out of work. Early this spring, Thunstrom cut Floyd’s job when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the club to close.

On the evening of Memorial Day, Floyd was with two others when convenience store employees accused him of paying for cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill, then called the police. Less than an hour later, Floyd breathed his last.

Those who knew him search for meaning in his death.

“I’ve come to the belief that he was chosen,” said Cofield, the teacher. “Only this could have happened to him because of who he was and the amount of love that he had for people, people had for him.”

It’s a small comfort, she admits. But, then, in Big Floyd’s neighborhood, people have long made do with less.

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“,”duration”:”01:51″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/world/2020/06/13/stephanie-busari-daughter-nigeria-george-floyd-pkg-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”world/2020/06/13/stephanie-busari-daughter-nigeria-george-floyd-pkg-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200613073425-stephanie-busari-and-daughter-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/world/2020/06/13/stephanie-busari-daughter-nigeria-george-floyd-pkg-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”CNN Supervising Producer Stephanie Busari relays speaking to her daughter in Nigeria about George Floyd and race privilege. “,”descriptionText”:”CNN Supervising Producer Stephanie Busari relays speaking to her daughter in Nigeria about George Floyd and race privilege. “,”title”:”Black Lives Matter supporters gather across globe”,”duration”:”02:24″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/world/2020/06/07/black-lives-matter-global-gatherings-protests-nic-robertson-pkg-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”world/2020/06/07/black-lives-matter-global-gatherings-protests-nic-robertson-pkg-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200607051111-black-lives-matter-global-gatherings-protests-nic-robertson-pkg-vpx-00020712-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/world/2020/06/07/black-lives-matter-global-gatherings-protests-nic-robertson-pkg-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”Thousands of peaceful protesters have gathered in London, across Europe, Africa and Asia, protesting the death of George Floyd and systemic racism in the United States and around the world.”,”descriptionText”:”Thousands of peaceful protesters have gathered in London, across Europe, Africa and Asia, protesting the death of George Floyd and systemic racism in the United States and around the world.”,”title”:”Former rookie police officers seek to blame Chauvin in Floyd death”,”duration”:”02:28″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/us/2020/06/05/police-officers-charged-george-floyd-death-court-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”us/2020/06/05/police-officers-charged-george-floyd-death-court-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200604174750-04-court-sketches-charged-officers-george-floyd-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/us/2020/06/05/police-officers-charged-george-floyd-death-court-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”The defense strategies of two of the former police officers who were charged in the death of George Floyd are emerging following a preliminary hearing. CNN’s Josh Campbell reports.”,”descriptionText”:”The defense strategies of two of the former police officers who were charged in the death of George Floyd are emerging following a preliminary hearing. CNN’s Josh Campbell reports.”,”title”:”See tributes to George Floyd painted on walls worldwide “,”duration”:”01:30″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/world/2020/06/05/street-artists-murals-george-floyd-death-nr-intl-ldn-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”world/2020/06/05/street-artists-murals-george-floyd-death-nr-intl-ldn-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200605115921-floyd-mural-manchester-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/world/2020/06/05/street-artists-murals-george-floyd-death-nr-intl-ldn-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”Street artists from Manchester, England, to Syria are honoring George Floyd in their own colorful ways by painting murals to express solidarity with the African-American community in the US.”,”descriptionText”:”Street artists from Manchester, England, to Syria are honoring George Floyd in their own colorful ways by painting murals to express solidarity with the African-American community in the US.”,”title”:”Al Sharpton is more hopeful today than ever. Here’s why. “,”duration”:”02:54″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/us/2020/06/04/al-sharpton-george-floyd-memorial-protests-hopeful-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”us/2020/06/04/al-sharpton-george-floyd-memorial-protests-hopeful-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200604152506-16-floyd-memorial-0604-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/us/2020/06/04/al-sharpton-george-floyd-memorial-protests-hopeful-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”Reverend Al Sharpton, who has a long history of civil rights activism, speaks at the memorial service for George Floyd about why he’s more hopeful today than ever. “,”descriptionText”:”Reverend Al Sharpton, who has a long history of civil rights activism, speaks at the memorial service for George Floyd about why he’s more hopeful today than ever. “,”title”:”Floyd’s brother shares what it was like growing up with George”,”duration”:”04:10″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/us/2020/06/04/memorial-service-george-floyd-brother-minneapolis-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”us/2020/06/04/memorial-service-george-floyd-brother-minneapolis-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200604153310-george-floyd-brother-memorial-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/us/2020/06/04/memorial-service-george-floyd-brother-minneapolis-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, shares some of his childhood memories at his brother’s memorial service in Minneapolis. “,”descriptionText”:”Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, shares some of his childhood memories at his brother’s memorial service in Minneapolis. “,”title”:”All four ex-officers charged in Floyd’s death amid protests”,”duration”:”02:50″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”us.cnn.com”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/us/2020/06/04/george-floyd-four-police-officers-charged-minneapolis-marquez-pkg-ldn-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”us/2020/06/04/george-floyd-four-police-officers-charged-minneapolis-marquez-pkg-ldn-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200604084009-officers-charged-minneapolis-george-floyd-death-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/us/2020/06/04/george-floyd-four-police-officers-charged-minneapolis-marquez-pkg-ldn-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”Former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin and three other former officers on scene during George Floyd’s death are now in custody as protests continue across the US. CNN’s Miguel Marquez reports.”,”descriptionText”:”Former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin and three other former officers on scene during George Floyd’s death are now in custody as protests continue across the US. CNN’s Miguel Marquez reports.”,”title”:”Family attorney reacts to upgraded charges: This should be 1st-degree murder “,”duration”:”02:50″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/?refresh=1″,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/us/2020/06/03/george-floyd-son-quincy-mason-crump-charges-sidner-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”us/2020/06/03/george-floyd-son-quincy-mason-crump-charges-sidner-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200603153547-crump-sidner-vpx-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/us/2020/06/03/george-floyd-son-quincy-mason-crump-charges-sidner-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is increasing charges against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to second-degree murder in George Floyd’s killing and also charging the other three officers involved in the incident, according to court documents. CNN’s Sara Sidner speaks with Floyd’s son and the family’s attorney, Ben Crump. “,”descriptionText”:”Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is increasing charges against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to second-degree murder in George Floyd’s killing and also charging the other three officers involved in the incident, according to court documents. CNN’s Sara Sidner speaks with Floyd’s son and the family’s attorney, Ben Crump. “,”title”:”Stallworth: Trump is throwing gas on the fire”,”duration”:”01:56″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/politics/2020/06/03/george-floyd-protests-donald-trump-donte-stallworth-se-cupp-sot-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”politics/2020/06/03/george-floyd-protests-donald-trump-donte-stallworth-se-cupp-sot-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200603161142-donte-se-cupp-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/politics/2020/06/03/george-floyd-protests-donald-trump-donte-stallworth-se-cupp-sot-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”CNN’s u003ca href=”http://www.cnn.com/profiles/s-e-cupp-profile” target=”_blank”>SE Cuppu003c/a> turns this week’s ‘Unfiltered from Home’ over to her friend Donté Stallworth. The former NFL star criticizes President Donald Trump’s response to protesters across the US who have gathered in response to the death of unarmed black man George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. u003ca href=”http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2020/06/04/george-floyd-protests-donald-trump-donte-stallworth-se-cupp-full-vpx.cnn.html” target=”_blank”>Watch the full interview here.u003c/a>”,”descriptionText”:”CNN’s u003ca href=”http://www.cnn.com/profiles/s-e-cupp-profile” target=”_blank”>SE Cuppu003c/a> turns this week’s ‘Unfiltered from Home’ over to her friend Donté Stallworth. 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CNN.VIDEOCLIENT.FeaturedVideoCollectionHandler(configObj.markupId,”cn-featured-1c6ypq5″,’js-video_description-featured-1c6ypq5′,[“title”:”Family of black man who died in police custody demands justice”,”duration”:”02:53″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/us/2020/05/26/george-floyd-family-intv-ctn-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”us/2020/05/26/george-floyd-family-intv-ctn-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200526235416-george-floyd-family-intv-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/us/2020/05/26/george-floyd-family-intv-ctn-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”The family of George Floyd, a black man who was u003ca href=”https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/26/us/minneapolis-police-encounter-death-trnd/index.html” target=”_blank”>held down with a kneeu003c/a> as he protested that he couldn’t breathe and later died in police custody, speaks with CNN’s u003ca href=”https://www.cnn.com/profiles/don-lemon-profile” target=”_blank”>Don Lemonu003c/a>.”,”descriptionText”:”The family of George Floyd, a black man who was u003ca href=”https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/26/us/minneapolis-police-encounter-death-trnd/index.html” target=”_blank”>held down with a kneeu003c/a> as he protested that he couldn’t breathe and later died in police custody, speaks with CNN’s u003ca href=”https://www.cnn.com/profiles/don-lemon-profile” target=”_blank”>Don Lemonu003c/a>.”,”title”:”Minneapolis police chief vows to reform police department”,”duration”:”05:09″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/us/2020/06/13/minneapolis-police-chief-reform-george-floyd-sidner-pkg-nr-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”us/2020/06/13/minneapolis-police-chief-reform-george-floyd-sidner-pkg-nr-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200613195951-minneapolis-police-chief-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/us/2020/06/13/minneapolis-police-chief-reform-george-floyd-sidner-pkg-nr-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”CNN’s u003ca href=”/profiles/sara-sidner-profile” target=”_blank”>Sara Sidneru003c/a> speaks to Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo about his resolve to reform the police department following the death of an unarmed African American man, George Floyd, who died while in police custody.”,”descriptionText”:”CNN’s u003ca href=”/profiles/sara-sidner-profile” target=”_blank”>Sara Sidneru003c/a> speaks to Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo about his resolve to reform the police department following the death of an unarmed African American man, George Floyd, who died while in police custody.”,”title”:”See the Seattle area overtaken by protesters”,”duration”:”02:39″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/us/2020/06/13/seattle-protests-simon-sot-nr-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”us/2020/06/13/seattle-protests-simon-sot-nr-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200613163919-seattle-protests-simon-vpx-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/us/2020/06/13/seattle-protests-simon-sot-nr-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”CNN’s u003ca href=”http://www.cnn.com/profiles/dan-simon” target=”_blank”>Dan Simonu003c/a> reports from Seattle where part of the city has been overtaken by protesters. u003ca href=”http://www.cnn.com/2020/06/11/us/seattle-police-autonomous-zone/index.html” target=”_blank”>Police vacated a downtown precinctu003c/a> during protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.”,”descriptionText”:”CNN’s u003ca href=”http://www.cnn.com/profiles/dan-simon” target=”_blank”>Dan Simonu003c/a> reports from Seattle where part of the city has been overtaken by protesters. u003ca href=”http://www.cnn.com/2020/06/11/us/seattle-police-autonomous-zone/index.html” target=”_blank”>Police vacated a downtown precinctu003c/a> during protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.”,”title”:”Hear Philonise Floyd’s opening statement to House committee “,”duration”:”05:36″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/politics/2020/06/10/philonise-floyd-opening-statement-house-testimony-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”politics/2020/06/10/philonise-floyd-opening-statement-house-testimony-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200610112239-philonise-floyd-house-judiciary-hearing-vpx-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/politics/2020/06/10/philonise-floyd-opening-statement-house-testimony-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”Philonise Floyd, George Floyd’s brother, gives an opening statement to the House Judiciary Committee during a hearing to examine the crisis of racial profiling, police brutality and lost trust between police departments and the communities they serve. “,”descriptionText”:”Philonise Floyd, George Floyd’s brother, gives an opening statement to the House Judiciary Committee during a hearing to examine the crisis of racial profiling, police brutality and lost trust between police departments and the communities they serve. “,”title”:”Friends and family pay last respects to George Floyd”,”duration”:”02:36″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”http://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/us/2020/06/09/george-floyd-memorial-houston-jimenez-pkg-lead-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”us/2020/06/09/george-floyd-memorial-houston-jimenez-pkg-lead-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200609141746-19-floyd-funeral-houston-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/us/2020/06/09/george-floyd-memorial-houston-jimenez-pkg-lead-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”Family, friends and prominent figures gathered for George Floyd’s funeral at The Fountain of Praise Church in Houston to celebrate his life and issue a call for justice. CNN’s Omar Jimenez reports.”,”descriptionText”:”Family, friends and prominent figures gathered for George Floyd’s funeral at The Fountain of Praise Church in Houston to celebrate his life and issue a call for justice. CNN’s Omar Jimenez reports.”,”title”:”Minneapolis mayor responds after being booed out of rally”,”duration”:”01:32″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/us/2020/06/09/mayor-jacob-frey-minneapolis-response-booed-rally-police-reform-cpt-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”us/2020/06/09/mayor-jacob-frey-minneapolis-response-booed-rally-police-reform-cpt-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200606221242-minneapolis-mayor-police-abolition-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/us/2020/06/09/mayor-jacob-frey-minneapolis-response-booed-rally-police-reform-cpt-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey tells CNN’s u003ca href=”https://www.cnn.com/profiles/chris-cuomo-profile” target=”_blank”>Chris Cuomou003c/a> that he hasn’t changed his stance after being booed by protesters after expressing that he is not on board for abolishing the city’s police department “,”descriptionText”:”Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey tells CNN’s u003ca href=”https://www.cnn.com/profiles/chris-cuomo-profile” target=”_blank”>Chris Cuomou003c/a> that he hasn’t changed his stance after being booed by protesters after expressing that he is not on board for abolishing the city’s police department “,”title”:”Thousands mourn George Floyd at Houston memorial “,”duration”:”02:28″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/us/2020/06/08/george-floyd-texas-memorial-sidner-pkg-lead-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”us/2020/06/08/george-floyd-texas-memorial-sidner-pkg-lead-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200608162047-08-floyd-memorial-houston-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/us/2020/06/08/george-floyd-texas-memorial-sidner-pkg-lead-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”CNN’s u003ca href=”/profiles/sara-sidner-profile” target=”_blank”>Sara Sidner u003c/a>reports on the Houston, Texas, memorial for George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was killed by Minneapolis police, prompting nationwide protests denouncing police brutality. “,”descriptionText”:”CNN’s u003ca href=”/profiles/sara-sidner-profile” target=”_blank”>Sara Sidner u003c/a>reports on the Houston, Texas, memorial for George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was killed by Minneapolis police, prompting nationwide protests denouncing police brutality. “,”title”:”Op-Ed: What speaking to my daughter about George Floyd taught me “,”duration”:”01:51″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/world/2020/06/13/stephanie-busari-daughter-nigeria-george-floyd-pkg-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”world/2020/06/13/stephanie-busari-daughter-nigeria-george-floyd-pkg-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200613073425-stephanie-busari-and-daughter-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/world/2020/06/13/stephanie-busari-daughter-nigeria-george-floyd-pkg-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”CNN Supervising Producer Stephanie Busari relays speaking to her daughter in Nigeria about George Floyd and race privilege. “,”descriptionText”:”CNN Supervising Producer Stephanie Busari relays speaking to her daughter in Nigeria about George Floyd and race privilege. “,”title”:”Black Lives Matter supporters gather across globe”,”duration”:”02:24″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/world/2020/06/07/black-lives-matter-global-gatherings-protests-nic-robertson-pkg-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”world/2020/06/07/black-lives-matter-global-gatherings-protests-nic-robertson-pkg-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200607051111-black-lives-matter-global-gatherings-protests-nic-robertson-pkg-vpx-00020712-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/world/2020/06/07/black-lives-matter-global-gatherings-protests-nic-robertson-pkg-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”Thousands of peaceful protesters have gathered in London, across Europe, Africa and Asia, protesting the death of George Floyd and systemic racism in the United States and around the world.”,”descriptionText”:”Thousands of peaceful protesters have gathered in London, across Europe, Africa and Asia, protesting the death of George Floyd and systemic racism in the United States and around the world.”,”title”:”Former rookie police officers seek to blame Chauvin in Floyd death”,”duration”:”02:28″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/us/2020/06/05/police-officers-charged-george-floyd-death-court-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”us/2020/06/05/police-officers-charged-george-floyd-death-court-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200604174750-04-court-sketches-charged-officers-george-floyd-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/us/2020/06/05/police-officers-charged-george-floyd-death-court-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”The defense strategies of two of the former police officers who were charged in the death of George Floyd are emerging following a preliminary hearing. CNN’s Josh Campbell reports.”,”descriptionText”:”The defense strategies of two of the former police officers who were charged in the death of George Floyd are emerging following a preliminary hearing. CNN’s Josh Campbell reports.”,”title”:”See tributes to George Floyd painted on walls worldwide “,”duration”:”01:30″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/world/2020/06/05/street-artists-murals-george-floyd-death-nr-intl-ldn-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”world/2020/06/05/street-artists-murals-george-floyd-death-nr-intl-ldn-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200605115921-floyd-mural-manchester-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/world/2020/06/05/street-artists-murals-george-floyd-death-nr-intl-ldn-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”Street artists from Manchester, England, to Syria are honoring George Floyd in their own colorful ways by painting murals to express solidarity with the African-American community in the US.”,”descriptionText”:”Street artists from Manchester, England, to Syria are honoring George Floyd in their own colorful ways by painting murals to express solidarity with the African-American community in the US.”,”title”:”Al Sharpton is more hopeful today than ever. Here’s why. “,”duration”:”02:54″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/us/2020/06/04/al-sharpton-george-floyd-memorial-protests-hopeful-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”us/2020/06/04/al-sharpton-george-floyd-memorial-protests-hopeful-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200604152506-16-floyd-memorial-0604-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/us/2020/06/04/al-sharpton-george-floyd-memorial-protests-hopeful-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”Reverend Al Sharpton, who has a long history of civil rights activism, speaks at the memorial service for George Floyd about why he’s more hopeful today than ever. “,”descriptionText”:”Reverend Al Sharpton, who has a long history of civil rights activism, speaks at the memorial service for George Floyd about why he’s more hopeful today than ever. “,”title”:”Floyd’s brother shares what it was like growing up with George”,”duration”:”04:10″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/us/2020/06/04/memorial-service-george-floyd-brother-minneapolis-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”us/2020/06/04/memorial-service-george-floyd-brother-minneapolis-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200604153310-george-floyd-brother-memorial-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/us/2020/06/04/memorial-service-george-floyd-brother-minneapolis-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, shares some of his childhood memories at his brother’s memorial service in Minneapolis. “,”descriptionText”:”Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, shares some of his childhood memories at his brother’s memorial service in Minneapolis. “,”title”:”All four ex-officers charged in Floyd’s death amid protests”,”duration”:”02:50″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”us.cnn.com”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/us/2020/06/04/george-floyd-four-police-officers-charged-minneapolis-marquez-pkg-ldn-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”us/2020/06/04/george-floyd-four-police-officers-charged-minneapolis-marquez-pkg-ldn-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200604084009-officers-charged-minneapolis-george-floyd-death-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/us/2020/06/04/george-floyd-four-police-officers-charged-minneapolis-marquez-pkg-ldn-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”Former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin and three other former officers on scene during George Floyd’s death are now in custody as protests continue across the US. CNN’s Miguel Marquez reports.”,”descriptionText”:”Former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin and three other former officers on scene during George Floyd’s death are now in custody as protests continue across the US. CNN’s Miguel Marquez reports.”,”title”:”Family attorney reacts to upgraded charges: This should be 1st-degree murder “,”duration”:”02:50″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/?refresh=1″,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/us/2020/06/03/george-floyd-son-quincy-mason-crump-charges-sidner-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”us/2020/06/03/george-floyd-son-quincy-mason-crump-charges-sidner-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200603153547-crump-sidner-vpx-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/us/2020/06/03/george-floyd-son-quincy-mason-crump-charges-sidner-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is increasing charges against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to second-degree murder in George Floyd’s killing and also charging the other three officers involved in the incident, according to court documents. CNN’s Sara Sidner speaks with Floyd’s son and the family’s attorney, Ben Crump. “,”descriptionText”:”Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is increasing charges against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to second-degree murder in George Floyd’s killing and also charging the other three officers involved in the incident, according to court documents. CNN’s Sara Sidner speaks with Floyd’s son and the family’s attorney, Ben Crump. “,”title”:”Stallworth: Trump is throwing gas on the fire”,”duration”:”01:56″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/politics/2020/06/03/george-floyd-protests-donald-trump-donte-stallworth-se-cupp-sot-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”politics/2020/06/03/george-floyd-protests-donald-trump-donte-stallworth-se-cupp-sot-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200603161142-donte-se-cupp-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/politics/2020/06/03/george-floyd-protests-donald-trump-donte-stallworth-se-cupp-sot-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/george-floyd-death-protests-minneapolis/”,”description”:”CNN’s u003ca href=”http://www.cnn.com/profiles/s-e-cupp-profile” target=”_blank”>SE Cuppu003c/a> turns this week’s ‘Unfiltered from Home’ over to her friend Donté Stallworth. 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Contact sports writer Wesley Dotson at 864-943-2530 or follow him on Twitter @WesleyPDotson.

When Orlando Bowen, the former CFL player, watches the video of George Floyd pleading for air, he holds his own breath and relives his own nightmare with police.

“It was a flashback of sorts, because I am him,” Bowen said.

“It’s only by God’s grace or universal design why my life didn’t end, like that.”

Bowen, who is Black, is referring to a dark night in his life in the spring of 2004. At the the time, he was a successful linebacker, having three years under his belt with the Toronto Argos and a season with the Hamilton Tiger Cats.

His heart, he also says, was in community service — speaking in schools and even partnering with Peel Regional Police as a liaison for the Black community.

But life was about to take a drastic turn.

While waiting for his teammates in a Mississauga parking lot to celebrate a new extension he had just signed with the Ti-Cats, Bowen says he was approached by two men.

“One guy says, ‘Hey man, what you got? Got any drugs?’” Bowen remembers. After saying ‘no’, Bowen returned to the phone call he’d been having. But the men, who turned out to be plainclothes Peel police officers, weren’t so easily dissuaded and asked to search him.

Bowen said he complied and when nothing was found, in one surreal moment, everything escalated.

“They ended up grabbing me, punching me, delivering knee strikes,” Bowen recalls, punching his hand. “I’m saying, ‘Oh my gosh! What did I do? I didn’t do anything!…Talk to me! Like, what’s happening?’”

They never responded to him verbally, he said. They just kept punching.

“All I could think was, ‘God! Don’t let me die like this man, I got so much in me to give!” said Bowen.

His life was spared that night, but forever changed. The brutal injuries he suffered ended his CFL career, with a concussion meaning his days on the gridiron were over.

But when Bowen looks back, the now 44-year-old says the heaviest part is watching a similar scene of police brutality play out in the video of 46-year-old Floyd, dying–16 years later.

“As much as I knew it wasn’t me on the ground … I saw myself, like it was me,” Bowen said.

“It was taking me back to the moment where I was pleading to the universe and to God to intervene.”

It’s the reliving of these kinds of trauma and repeated viewing of high-profile incidents of racism and police brutality that can be deeply traumatic for Black people, says Monnica Williams, Canada Research Chair for Mental Health Disparities at the University of Ottawa.

“It’s been a huge drain on everyone that I know who is part of that community,” says Williams.

“We’re seeing people who look like us, our children, our brothers, our uncles, our fathers, laying dead on the road like roadkill, with no minimal amount of dignity.

“It’s unspeakable…it dehumanizes us, it makes us feel like we’re not worth anything, like our lives don’t matter.”

As for Bowen, he, who had before done racial sensitivity training for Peel police, was eventually arrested by the cops that night and taken to jail on assault and drug possession.

Stunned by the charges, Bowen said the drugs were planted on him by police and that they had assaulted him.

A year later, he was acquitted of all charges after one of the arresting officers was charged and later convicted of drug trafficking. An Ontario court judge ruled the testimony of police to be “incredible” and unworthy of belief.

But for Bowen, months of court battles, torment and what he felt was ultimately racial discrimination had left its scars.

“I remember having a hard time sleeping, probably averaging about 20 minutes of sleep per night,” said Bowen.

“It made me hyper-aware. I always went to bed last in my house. I often slept in between the two entrances to our house — front door entrance and the back door, just in case they came to, you know, finish.”

Williams says for Black people, especially Black men, navigating a world where your body is perceived as a threat can be incredibly taxing on Black mental health.

“Any encounter with law enforcement if you’re a Black person is potentially a life-threatening event,” Williams explained.

“You’re constantly having contact with law enforcement, and each time you have that contact, that’s a moment of anxiety, a moment where you have to look a certain way, talk a certain way, work really hard to alleviate white suspicion, fears, that you’re doing something wrong–and to be under that kind of stress, that pressure cooker all the time? It becomes unbearable.”

William says the psychological effects of these encounters and racism ripple.

“Everyday discrimination, major discrimination, covert discrimination, microagressions — all of these are tied to mental health problems that include anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use and even suicide,” said Williams.

“Every condition out there where we’ve looked at this, racism has either caused this or made it worse.”

Bowen said he has seen some of that pain first hand now, working with youth in the community. Pain, that often goes untreated.

“Feelings of anger…feelings of insignificance, insecurity, feeling like you don’t belong, feeling like you don’t matter, feeling like it doesn’t matter what you do, you have very little control over what’s possible for you,” Bowen lists them off.

“When people get to those states of being or feeling…people act out of those beliefs, and then they become somewhat self-fulfilling, that you end up going down a path.”

Williams whose research focus at the university is in mental health and disparities and cultural competence in research and healthcare, says Black people often have no where to turn for help with handling these emotions, with culturally sensitive mental health supports and services, meager.

“Black Canadians are incredibly underserved, our mental health needs are not being met,” said Williams.  “This is a province-wide, nation-wide problem. The clinicians who provide the care for the public, they’re not trained in how to work with people of colour in general, much less Black people. Those resources are very few, very thin.”

That gap is what fuels Bowen and his charity, ”One Voice, One Team”, where he works with and shares his experience with thousands of young people–turning his pain into hope.

“We have opportunities and I think an obligation to do something to protect people’s mental health,” Bowen said. “To try to create positive outlets and opportunities for them to be connected, their voice to be heard, for them to have safe and brave spaces…”

Bowen not only inspires with his words and story, but with his actions.

A few years ago, he wrote a public letter of forgiveness to the two officers he said who wronged him.

He “wasn’t angry,” Bowen said, reflecting on the decision. Rather, he chose to see the officers as people who needed help, who are hurting and broken “in a system that is also hurting, that needs help”.

More importantly, he says, the decision to forgive was for him to move on and flourish.

“What I realized was the forgiveness wasn’t even necessarily for them, but it was for us, for me, for my family who perhaps may have been in a position to hold on to some things, to the emotion of the moment where we can’t get to what we’ve been designed to do if we did that,” said Bowen.

“There’s a bigger purpose and a bigger plan, I’m convinced of that.”

David J. Phillip | AP

In this Sunday, photo, the sun shines above a mural honoring George Floyd in Houston’s Third Ward. Floyd, who grew up in the Third Ward, died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on Memorial Day.

Luis Andres Henao, Nomann Merchant, Juan Lozano and Adam Geller, The Associated Press •
June 10, 2020 8:27 am

HOUSTON — Years before a bystander’s video of George Floyd’s last moments turned his name into a global cry for justice, Floyd trained a camera on himself.

“I just want to speak to you all real quick,” Floyd says in one video, addressing the young men in his neighborhood who looked up to him. His 6-foot-7 frame crowds the picture.

“I’ve got my shortcomings and my flaws and I ain’t better than nobody else,” he says. “But, man, the shootings that’s going on, I don’t care what ‘hood you’re from, where you’re at, man. I love you and God loves you. Put them guns down.”

At the time, Floyd was respected as a man who spoke from hard, but hardly extraordinary, experience. He had nothing remotely like the stature he has gained in death, embraced as a universal symbol of the need to overhaul policing and held up as a heroic everyman.

But the reality of his 46 years on Earth, including sharp edges and setbacks Floyd himself acknowledged, was both much fuller and more complicated.

Once a star athlete with dreams of turning pro and enough talent to win a partial scholarship, Floyd returned home only to bounce between jobs before serving nearly five years in prison. Intensely proud of his roots in Houston’s Third Ward and admired as a mentor in a public housing project beset by poverty, he decided the only way forward was to leave it behind.

“He had made some mistakes that cost him some years of his life,” said Ronnie Lillard, a friend and rapper who performs under the name Reconcile. “And when he got out of that, I think the Lord greatly impacted his heart.”

‘Big Friendly’

Floyd was born in North Carolina. But his mother, a single parent, moved the family to Houston when he was 2, so she could search for work. They settled in the Cuney Homes, a low-slung warren of more than 500 apartments south of downtown nicknamed “The Bricks.”

The neighborhood, for decades a cornerstone of Houston’s black community, has gentrified in recent years. Texas Southern University, a historically black campus directly across the street from the projects, has long held itself out as a launchpad for those willing to strive. But many residents struggle, with incomes about half the city average and unemployment nearly four times higher, even before the recent economic collapse.

Watch: Hundreds march through downtown to protest racial inequality

Yeura Hall, who grew up next door to Floyd, said even in the Third Ward other kids looked down on those who lived in public housing. To deflect the teasing, he, Floyd and other boys made up a song about themselves: “I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Cuney Homes kid. They got so many rats and roaches I can play with.”

Larcenia Floyd invested her hopes in her son, who as a second-grader wrote that he dreamed of being a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

“She thought that he would be the one that would bring them out of poverty and struggle,” said Travis Cains, a longtime friend.

Floyd was a star tight end for the football team at Jack Yates High School, playing for the losing side in the 1992 state championship game at the Houston Astrodome.

He was an atypical football player. “We used to call him ‘Big Friendly,’” said Cervaanz Williams, a former teammate.

“If you said something to him, his head would drop,” said Maurice McGowan, his football coach. “He just wasn’t going to ball up and act like he wanted to fight you.”

Watch: Protesters chant “Black Lives Matter” in front of the capitol

On the basketball court, Floyd’s height and strength won attention from George Walker, a former assistant coach at the University of Houston hired for the head job at what is now South Florida State College. The school was a 17-hour drive away, in a small town, but high school administrators and Floyd’s mother urged him to go, Walker said.

“They wanted George to really get out of the neighborhood, to do something, be something,” Walker said.

In Avon Park, Florida, Floyd and a few other players from Houston stood out for their size, accents and city cool. They lived in the Jacaranda Hotel, a historic lodge used as a dormitory, and were known as the “Jac Boys.”

“He was always telling me about the Third Ward of Houston, how rough it was, but how much he loved it,” said Robert Caldwell, a friend and fellow student who frequently traveled with the basketball team. “He said people know how to grind, as hard as it is, people know how to love.”

After two years in Avon Park, Floyd spent a year at Texas A&M University in Kingsville before returning to Houston and his mother’s apartment to find jobs in construction and security.

Larcenia Floyd, known throughout the neighborhood as Ms. Cissy, welcomed her son’s friends from childhood, offering their apartment as refuge when their lives grew stressful. When a neighbor went to prison on drug charges, Ms. Cissy took in the woman’s pre-teen son, Cal Wayne, deputizing George to play older brother for the next 2½ years.

“We would steal his jerseys and put his jerseys on and run around the house, go outside, jerseys all the way down to our ankles because he was so big and we were little,” said Wayne, now a well-known rapper who credits Floyd with encouraging him to pursue music.

George Floyd, he said, “was like a superhero.”

Brushes with the law

Floyd, too, dabbled in music, occasionally invited to rap with Robert Earl Davis Jr. — better known as DJ Screw, whose mixtapes have since been recognized as influential in charting Houston’s place as a hotbed of hip-hop.

But then, the man known throughout Cuney as “Big Floyd,” started finding trouble.

Between 1997 and 2005, Floyd was arrested several times on drug and theft charges, spending months in jail. Around that time, Wayne’s mother, Sheila Masters, recalled running into Floyd in the street and learning he was homeless.

“He’s so tall he’d pat me on my head … and say, ‘Mama you know it’s going to be all right,’” Masters said.

Watch: Protesters gather outside Bangor Police Department

In August 2007, Floyd was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. Investigators said he and five other men barged into a woman’s apartment, and Floyd pushed a pistol into her abdomen before searching for items to steal. Floyd pleaded guilty in 2009 and was sentenced to five years in prison. By the time he was paroled, in January 2013, he was nearing 40.

“He came home with his head on right,” his friend Travis Cains said.

At a Christian rap concert in the Third Ward, Floyd met Lillard and pastor Patrick “PT” Ngwolo, whose ministry was looking for ways to reach residents in Cuney Homes. Floyd, who seemed to know everyone in the project, volunteered to be their guide.

Soon Floyd was setting up a washtub on the Cuney basketball courts for baptisms by Ngwolo’s newly formed Resurrection Houston congregation. He joined three-on-three basketball tournaments and barbecues, organized by the ministry. He knocked on doors with Ngwolo, introducing residents as candidates for grocery deliveries or Bible study.

Another pastor, Christopher Johnson, recalled Floyd stopping by his office while Johnson’s mother was visiting. Decades had passed since Johnson’s mother had been a teacher at Floyd’s high school. It didn’t matter. He wrapped her in a bear hug.

“I don’t think he ever thought of himself as being big,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot of big dudes here, but he was a gentleman and a diplomat and I’m not putting any sauce on it.”

On the streets of Cuney, Floyd was increasingly embraced as an O.G. — literally “original gangster,” but bestowed as a title of respect for a mentor who’d learned from life experience.

In Tiffany Cofield’s classroom at a neighborhood charter school, some of her male students — many of whom had already had brushes with the law — told her to talk to “Big Floyd” if she wanted to understand.

Floyd would listen patiently as she voiced her frustrations with students’ bad behavior, she said. And he would try to explain the life of a young man in the projects.

After school, Floyd often met up with her students outside a corner store.

“How’s school going?” he’d ask. “Are you being respectful? How’s your mom? How’s your grandma?”

Strong but tender

In 2014, Floyd began exploring the possibility of leaving the neighborhood.

As the father of five children from several relationships, he had bills to pay. And despite his stature in Cuney, everyday life could be trying. More than once, Floyd ended up in handcuffs when police came through the projects and detained a large number of men, Cofield said.

“He would show by example: ‘Yes, officer. No, officer.’ Very respectful. Very calm tone,” she said.

Watch: Portland sees Maine’s largest rally over George Floyd

A friend of Floyd’s had already moved to the Twin Cities as part of a church discipleship program that offered men a route to self-sufficiency by changing their environment and helping them find jobs.

“He was looking to start over fresh, a new beginning,” said Christopher Harris, who preceded Floyd to Minneapolis. Friends provided Floyd with money and clothing to ease the transition.

In Minneapolis, Floyd found a job as a security guard at the Salvation Army’s Harbor Light Center — the city’s largest homeless shelter.

“He would regularly walk a couple of female co-workers out … at night and make sure they got to their cars safely and securely,” said Brian Molohon, director of development for the Army’s Minnesota office. “Just a big strong guy, but with a very tender side.”

Floyd left after a little over a year, training to drive trucks while working as a bouncer at a club called Conga Latin Bistro.

“He would dance badly to make people laugh,” said the owner, Jovanni Thunstrom. “I tried to teach him how to dance because he loved Latin music, but I couldn’t because he was too tall for me.”

Floyd kept his connection to Houston, regularly returning to Cuney.

When Houston hosted the Super Bowl in 2017, Floyd was back in town, hosting a party at the church with music and free AIDS testing. He came back again for his mother’s funeral the next year. And when Cains spoke with him last, a few weeks ago, Floyd was planning another trip for this summer.

By then, Floyd was out of work. Early this spring, Thunstrom cut Floyd’s job when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the club to close.

On the evening of Memorial Day, Floyd was with two others when convenience store employees accused him of paying for cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill, then called the police. Less than an hour later, Floyd breathed his last.

Those who knew him search for meaning in his death.

“I’ve come to the belief that he was chosen,” said Cofield, the teacher. “Only this could have happened to him because of who he was and the amount of love that he had for people, people had for him.”

It’s a small comfort, she admits. But, then, in Big Floyd’s neighborhood, people have long made do with less.

Associated Press writer Aaron Morrison and videographer John Mone contributed to this report.

Watch: Police departments speak on recent Portland protests

 

…

---

AGUSTIN PAULLIER/AFP via Getty ImagesBy JON HAWORTH, EMILY SHAPIRO, MEREDITH DELISO and MARC NATHANSON, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — The death of George Floyd, a black man who died on Memorial Day after he was pinned down by a white Minnesota police officer, has sparked outrage, protests and calls for police reform in Minneapolis, across the United States and around the world.

Second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter charges have been filed against Derek Chauvin, the ex-officer who prosecutors say held his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. The three other officers have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting manslaughter. All four officers have been fired.

Here is how the news unfolded on Monday. All times Eastern:

9:44 p.m.: Los Angeles will not prosecute peaceful curfew breakers

Demonstrators in Los Angeles who broke curfew during recent protests will not be prosecuted, officials said.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey announced that curfew violators and those who failed to disperse when ordered by police will not be prosecuted, and City of Los Angeles officials likewise said they will not prosecute those who were arrested “for nonviolent offenses during the protests.”

“Powerful, peaceful, passionate protest is inseparable from the American identity, and I am proud of the thousands of Angelenos who have filled our streets to call for justice, cry out for change, and demand racial equality for Black Angelenos and all communities of color,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement. “I fully support City Attorney Mike Feuer’s decision not to prosecute or seek any punishment for those who broke curfew or failed to disperse during the recent protests, unless those cases involve violence, vandalism or looting.”

City officials, however, said that those arrested will have to take part in a menu of programs or forums involving the “exchange of ideas,” instead of going to court.

7:32 p.m.: Minneapolis looking at ‘year of engagement’ in police plan

The Minneapolis City Council said that it is committed to a year of public engagement in its intent to disband the city’s police department in favor of a more community-oriented agency.

“I know that we have committed ourselves to a year of engagement. If we move faster than that, that’s awesome,” Councilman Jeremiah Ellison said Monday in a Zoom call with press hosted by the Justice Collaborative. “You also have to understand that the Minneapolis Police Department has been around for 150 years. So developing an entirely new apparatus for public safety, we’ve got to do our due diligence and communicate with the public about that.”

Councilwoman Alondra Cano, the council’s public safety chair, said she wants to get input from the police department in addition to the community.

The City Council said it plans to redirect funds from the police department to other community safety strategies. The council was set to receive an amended city budget from Mayor Jacob Frey on June 12 and make its final determination on June 30, though that timeline may have shifted, Cano said.

“I believe that we should and can redirect funds from MPD into other community safety strategies that can help inform and bring life to that new public safety system that we all want to create,” Cano said. “I do want to redirect funds from MPD when we get the chance to take that vote. I’m hoping that happens within the next 30 days.”

City Council President Lisa Bender noted that the city’s budget is in a “very different place” than it was a few months ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’ll be budgeting in a very different environment starting very soon in July,” she said, adding that that might impact the City Council’s priorities.

With the police union’s contract currently up for negotiation, Ellison said it’s unclear at this time if the council would move forward with the bargaining agreement.

6 p.m.: Attorney for accused officer says rookie cop committed no crime

An attorney for one of the former police officers accused in the death of George Floyd tells ABC News that his client did not commit a crime and will not be pleading guilty in the case.

Earl Gray, the attorney for former officer Thomas Lane, tells ABC News’ Alex Perez that Lane had been on the job for only four days at the time of the incident and that he relied heavily on the advice and training of 20-year veteran officer Derek Chauvin, who was seen on video holding Floyd down with his knee on Floyd’s neck.

Lane was “concerned about the guy,” and after medics arrived he “jumped in the ambulance” to perform CPR, Gray said.

Gray said that Lane asked three times, “Shall we roll him over?” but Chauvin refused.

“My client did exactly what he was supposed to do — followed the experienced officer’s advice,” Gray said. “He had no knowledge that Chauvin was killing this guy.”

Gray said that Lane would not be accepting a plea deal in the case.

5:25 p.m.: Portland police chief to resign

The chief of the Portland Police Bureau in Oregon says she’s stepping aside for new leadership following protests that have rippled through the city.

Jami Resch, who is white, is resigning as chief of the bureau and will be replaced with Lt. Chuck Lovell, who is black, the bureau announced Monday.

“Over the last 10 days I’ve watched our city, I’ve listened and I hear you,” Resch said at a press briefing.

Lovell said he’s heard concerns from the black community that “we don’t feel like you treat us the same.”

“I’m going to listen, I’m going to care about the community and I’m going to care about the people in the organization,” he said.

Resch, who was sworn in as chief in late December, said she will remain with the bureau in some capacity.

“When Chief Resch told me that she believed our community needed new voices to lead the conversation around community safety, I agreed,” Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said at the briefing. “Together, we’re going to work on meaningful and bold reforms within the Portland Police Bureau.”

Last week, Resch asked the city to “come together to stop those who are holding our city with violence” after some protests resulted in vandalism, the Associated Press reported.

4:15 p.m.: France bans police chokeholds

France’s government on Monday announced a new ban on chokeholds by police.

“The French police are not the American police,” Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said, “but legitimate questions arose … I decided to take measures because no one should risk their life during an arrest.”

Castaner said the neck grips will be abandoned and no longer be taught in police schools, calling it a “dangerous method. “

Also, if a police officer “has to maintain someone on the ground during their arrest, it will now be forbidden to lean on their neck or back of neck,” Castaner said.

3:30 p.m.: Alleged KKK leader arrested for driving into protesters, prosecutor says

A Virginia prosecutor says she’s considering hate crime charges against a man who was arrested for allegedly driving into protesters Sunday night.

The suspect, “by his own admission and by a cursory glance at his social media, is an admitted leader of the Ku Klux Klan and a propagandist for Confederate ideology,” Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor said in a statement Monday.

Taylor said her office is “investigating whether hate crime charges are appropriate.”

At this time the suspect is charged with assault and battery, attempted malicious wounding and felony vandalism, prosecutors said. It doesn’t appear anyone was seriously injured Sunday night.

Taylor said, “Protesters acting peaceably, well within their constitutional rights of assembly, should not have to fear violence. We lived through this in Charlottesville in 2017. I promise Henricoans that this egregious criminal act will not go unpunished.”

2:50 p.m.: DC considering emergency police reform legislation

On Tuesday, the city council in Washington, D.C. will consider emergency legislation to ban chokeholds, speed up release of body camera video and increase funding for alternative measures to reduce and respond to crime.

City Council Chairman Phil Mendelson told reporters Monday that he believes the bill will pass and said that the council might also look at transferring funds from the police department to pay for alternative means of policing.

Mayor Muriel Bowser said she expects to support the bill, adding, “we want to make sure we understand the technicalities.”

This announcement comes amid a rallying cry to “defund the police,” a message seen on signs and streets during protests.

Tens of thousands of people gathered in D.C. to protest Saturday, the city’s largest protest in the wake of Floyd’s death.

D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said no arrests were made in connection to Saturday’s demonstration.

“I heard the protests described as largely without violence,” said Newsham. “I would correct that statement and say exclusively without violence.”

1:30 p.m.: Public viewing begins in Houston for George Floyd

A six-hour public viewing is underway for George Floyd at a church in Houston, his hometown.

Mourners in masks have lined up in the blazing heat to show their respects.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was among those in attendance.

Floyd’s funeral will be in Houston on Tuesday.

12:57 p.m.: Confederate monument taken down in Louisville

A monument of Confederate Officer John Breckenridge Castleman was taken down in Louisville, Kentucky, Monday morning after a judge ruled on Friday that the city had the right to do so.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer tweeted, “We have much more to do to dismantle the structures that got us here. This is just one step, & I promise to do everything needed so that African Americans in our city are afforded the justice, opportunity & equity they deserve.”

The statue will go to a storage facility where it’ll be cleaned. It’ll later be taken to the cemetery where Castleman is buried, city officials said.

This comes just days after officials announced the removal of Confederate-era monuments in Virginia and Indiana.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on Thursday said Richmond’s statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee would be taken down.

Northam said the statue’s size and prominence in the city “sends a message” to young children who visit Richmond and ask about the towering monument.

“We can no longer honor a system that was based on the buying and selling of enslaved people,” he said.

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett on Thursday said a monument dedicated to Confederate soldiers who died at a prison camp in the city will be removed from a local park.

The monument, initially in a cemetery, was put in the park in 1928 after “efforts by public officials, active in the KKK, who sought to ‘make the monument more visible to the public,’” Hogsett tweeted.

“Whatever original purpose this grave marker might once have had, for far too long it has served as nothing more than a painful reminder of our state’s horrific embrace of the Ku Klux Klan a century ago,” Hogsett said. “Time is up, and this grave marker will come down.”

12:07 p.m.: Cuomo says he’ll sign police reform bills ‘as soon as they are passed’

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday said he’ll sign new policing and criminal justice reform bills “as soon as they are passed.”

He said proposals in new state legislation include: disciplinary record transparency; banning chokeholds; and appointing the state attorney general as a special prosecutor in police shooting cases to promote objectivity.

“How many times do you have to see the same situation before you act? And we are going to act in the state of New York,” Cuomo said.

“We worked with the legislature over the weekend — I think we have an agreement on the bills that are going to be introduced,” Cuomo said. “If they pass the bills that we have discussed, I will sign the bills and I will sign them as soon as they are passed.”

11:26 a.m.: Mom speaks out after son shot dead by officers during protests

The mother of David McAtee, a black man shot dead by officers during protests, said Monday, “the only thing I want for my son is peace and justice.”

At about 12:15 a.m. on June 1, members of the Louisville, Kentucky, police and Kentucky National Guard were trying to disperse a crowd when they “were fired upon,” Gov. Andy Beshear said last week.

The local police and National Guard returned fire, resulting in McAtee’s death, officials said.

McAtee then appeared to fire a gun outside his restaurant, toward the officers, police said.

Officers took cover and returned fire, police said.

McAtee’s mother, Odessa Riley, said at a news conference Monday that McAtee “had nothing in his hand” in the video and did not fire the first shot.

Steve Romines, an attorney for McAtee’s family, said police claim McAtee fired first in an effort “to steer public opinion against the victim.”

If the officers’ body cameras were on, a lot of questions could be answered right now, the attorneys for the family said.

Romines said he does not believe McAtee fired a weapon at all — especially if the restaurant owner knew it was law enforcement there.

“David loved law enforcement,” he said.

After McAtee was shot, Riley said that “no ambulance showed up — my son laid in there for 12 long hours.”

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer last week said “it was outrageous his body was left at the scene.”

Fischer said this case did not have as many investigators as usual because of the protests. Homicide investigators had to interview hundreds of National Guard members before the body could be removed, he said.

Louisville Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad was fired after it was announced that no body camera footage was available of McAtee’s shooting.

Conrad previously said he would retire at the end of June after facing immense pressure following the March death of Breonna Taylor, a young black woman who was shot dead by police while in her home.

No charges have been filed in connection with Taylor’s death.

Congressional Democrats took a knee inside the Capitol Monday morning to observe a moment of silence in honor of George Floyd.

The moment of silence lasted 8 minutes and 46 seconds — the length of time Chauvin allegedly pinned Floyd to the ground.

Those participating included Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and California Sen. Kamala Harris.

The moment of silence came just before House and Senate Democrats held a news conference to unveil the Justice In Policing Act of 2020.

Goals of the legislation include: removing the barrier of prosecuting police misconduct; demilitarizing the police; and combating police brutality by requiring body cameras and dashboard cameras.

“This has never been done before at the federal level,” Schumer said at the news conference.

“We cannot settle for anything less than transformative, structural change,” Pelosi said.

Schumer called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring the bill to the floor of the Senate before July.

“A divided nation cannot wait for healing, for solutions,” Schumer said.

7:14 a.m.: Minneapolis mayor: ‘Am I for completely abolishing the police department? No I am not’

Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, spoke with ABC News’ Good Morning America Monday about addressing the Minneapolis City Council’s intent to move toward dismantling the city’s police department and police reform.

In the interview, Frey doubled down on his opposition to abolishing the police department.

“Let me be clear, I am for massive structural and transformational reform to an entire system that has not for generations worked for black and brown people.” Frey said. ” We have failed them and we need to entirely reshape the system. We need a full on cultural shift in how our police department and departments throughout the country function. Am I for entirely abolishing the police department? No, I’m not.”

Frey said he is looking forward to working with the Minneapolis City Council on coming up with a solution and that he would be working with them directly on coming up with a compromise and clarified the kinds of reforms he will be pushing for in the coming days.

“There are so many areas where both mayors and chiefs, elected officials and otherwise, have been hamstrung for generations because we can’t get that necessary culture shift because we have difficulty both terminating and disciplining officers and then getting that termination or discipline to stick,” Frey continued. “And so let me be very clear, we’re going after the police union, the police union contract, the arbitration provisions that mandate that we have arbitration at the end of the process and oftentimes that reverts the officer right back to where they were to begin with. We need to be able to have the culture shift and if we’re going to do that it also means we need to have the ability to discipline officers to begin with.”

Frey also reiterated the importance of using the momentum that has been building toward fundamental and structural reforms of the existing system.

But his opinion has not been a popular one within his own community.

On Saturday the mayor was booed out of a protest after he said he did not support abolishing the police department.

A protester asked Frey if he supported defunding the police department, however, he did not answer that question and instead said he “did not support the full abolition of the police.”

Boos quickly permeated through the crowd and protesters chanted, “Go home Jacob! Go home!”

Activists have called for defunding police departments in the U.S., often meaning taking money out of the police budget and putting it toward the community. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced such a measure earlier this week.

Said Frey: “I support people expressing their first amendment rights even when it means that they’re calling me out. So is it difficult? Yes, of course, it’s difficult. But let’s remember this is not about me. This is about the tragic murder of George Floyd by a police officer. We need to be grounded in that as we move forward.”

6:41 a.m.: Family of George Floyd appeals to UN to intervene in case

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, the legal team, and the family of George Floyd have submitted an Urgent Appeal to the United Nations to intervene in the case of Floyd’s death and make recommendations for systemic police reform in the U.S., according to a statement released by Crump.

In a June 3 letter, Crump and George Floyd’s family urged the UN to investigate the circumstances around the death of Floyd at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers and sent recommendations for systemic police reform.

“Among the reforms requested were deescalating techniques, independent prosecutions and autopsies for every extrajudicial police killing in an effort to stop further human rights abuses including torture and extrajudicial killings of African Americans to protect their inherent and fundamental human right to life,” the statement read.

Said Crump: “The United States of America has a long pattern and practice of depriving Black citizens of the fundamental human right to life … The United States government has consistently failed to hold police accountable and did not bring Federal criminal charges even in cases with irrefutable video evidence. When a group of people of any nation have been systemically deprived of their universal human right to life by its government for decades, it must appeal to the international community for its support and to the United Nations for its intervention.”

1:35 a.m.: Trump reignites NFL feud with tweet aimed at football commissioner

President Donald Trump reopened the national anthem debate with the NFL after tweeting a response late Sunday night to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s video.

The video, released on June 5, said the NFL erred in how it dealt with player protests of police brutality and systemic racism.

Trump’s tweet read: “Could it be even remotely possible that in Roger Goodell’s rather interesting statement of peace and reconciliation, he was intimating that it would now be O.K. for the players to KNEEL, or not to stand, for the National Anthem, thereby disrespecting our Country & our Flag?”

Trump seems to have taken issue with Goodell’s statement on Friday.

Goodell had said in a June 5 video, “We, the National Football League, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of black people. We, the National Football League, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest.”

“We, the National Football League, believe black lives matter. I personally protest with you and want to be part of the much-needed change in this country,” Goodell said.

An NFL spokesman told ABC News on Sunday that Goodell’s statement was a direct response to a plea from a group of NFL players who directly addressed the league in a message posted on Friday and called on the NFL to “listen to your players.”

Goodell’s message did not address the national anthem, the American flag or kneeling.

In September 2017, Trump, while speaking in Alabama, encouraged team owners to release players who knelt during the anthem.

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a b—- off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired,’” Trump said at the time.

In a video titled “I am George Floyd” and posted on the NFL’s Twitter page, a group of NFL players including Deshaun Watson, DeAndre Hopkins and Tyrann Mathieu, delivered this message: “How many times do we need to ask you to listen to your players? What will it take? For one of us to be murdered by police brutality?”

“We will not be silent. We reserve our rights to peacefully protest,” the players said.

12:41 a.m.: Seattle police chief and mayor announce new policies

Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best announced that in an attempt to de-escalate tensions between police and protesters, there will be a reduction of officers outside the East precinct where clashes have happened, and the officers will remove some of their protective gear.

It’s of “paramount importance that we meet peace with peace,” she said.

Best also said that her family is out protesting.

Meanwhile, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said she’ll examine the budget of the police department to reprioritize spending and will look for $100 million in the city budget to redirect to a new community commission of Seattle’s black community.

She also announced an emergency order requiring police to turn on their body cameras during demonstrations.

10:56 p.m.: Hollywood march draws upwards of 20,000
Sunday’s protest march in Hollywood drew an estimated 20,000 demonstrators, according to aerial footage from Los Angeles ABC station KABC-TV.

As part of the protest, a Black Lives Matter flag flew atop Hollywood’s iconic Capitol Records building.

In New York City, demonstrations extended into the evening after authorities lifted the curfew that had been in effect.

Largely peaceful protests occurred in Manhattan’s Union Square, Washington Square Park and Columbus Circle, as well as locations throughout Brooklyn.

Protests continued in Boston, Chicago, Miami and Pittsburgh, among other cities.

ABC News’ Dee Carden, Deena Zaru, Marilyn Heck, Ibtissem Guenfoud, Bonnie Mclean and Kirit Radia contributed to this report.

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