The corner where George Floyd died has become a sanctuary at the crossroads of grief, outrage, and hope.
Brut went to listen to the many voices of those who gathered together to mourn and protest police brutality.
Brut went to listen to the many voices of those who gathered together to mourn and protest police brutality.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00I deserve to live. I deserve air. They don't get to decide if they get to give.
00:06Stepping on my brother's necks. We've been here since day one and I am not next.
00:13They might want to talk about the riot.
00:17They might want to talk about buildings burning.
00:22But we are going to talk about George Floyd.
00:24While the news has been flooded with scenes of violence and destruction,
00:32the site of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis has become a sanctuary,
00:37a place of peaceful gathering, reflection, and solidarity.
00:41For Brute, we went to the corner of 38th and Chicago
00:44to listen to the many voices of residents and organizers demanding an end to police brutality.
00:55We got things right here boarded up. My brother should be somewhere over here.
01:01He's guarding the perimeter and then we have a bus that's guarding down there.
01:05So nobody can come in and bulldoze or
01:08think they're going to come in and ruin the peaceful thing that we got going on here.
01:16We have had to, just because of some white supremacist groups
01:21that have been spotted and actually had to be escorted from
01:24our peaceful demonstration, we found it necessary.
01:34We want people to feel welcome. We want people to feel safe.
01:36We want them to know that we are inclusive of everyone.
01:39It reminds me of heaven because everyone is represented here and we are all here in love.
01:44We're here to help each other. You know, this devastation, it's horrible and we are coming
01:50together and we believe that this is a generation, this is the time that something is going to change.
02:05There's a big memorial as you can see right over there where most of the crowd is standing
02:09and I've honestly, me personally, I've never seen so many flowers in one memorial. It's beautiful.
02:14In the daytime, it's mostly peaceful. The nighttime is when the cops come and people
02:18start getting crowded because we don't know who's who. Right now, if somebody were to do
02:22something like break something, we would all be like, hey, that's not cool, that's not what we're here for.
02:26Come on, somebody grab a picture. You want international news, grab a picture. That sign is going down right now.
02:32We're not rocking that. We have no idea who put that up there and it's okay that it was there
02:36when things were going the way that they were going, but we are moving in a positive direction
02:40right now and that is why I am calling for the removal of that sign. Here's what we're doing
02:45with it. Somebody grab a picture of this.
02:54I used to work at this store when it was a 7-Eleven, 1981. I used to live across the street.
03:00You think I want to see this now? I don't want to see this. I want to see love.
03:05I want you to see what's going on with this. We got the children, we got the elderly.
03:08We don't want it to have mean words and kids don't need to see all that
03:17because they aren't supposed to be living in this type of world.
03:23It makes me feel really sad and angry that people have been treating
03:26my friends and family wrong and making them feel like they're not worthy
03:31and I don't want them to feel deprived and I don't want them to be hurt on the inside.
03:41Keep talking Scarlett, you're being very powerful right now.
03:48Say his name. George Floyd. Say his name. George Floyd. Say his name. George Floyd.
03:55Everybody's eyes still closed, yes? Yes.
03:58I want you to imagine your head underwater.
04:02I want you to imagine the H2O molecule surrounding your face and taking the oxygen out of your lungs
04:10and I want you to imagine someone having their hand over your head for 400 years.
04:17White people, I want you to imagine someone taking their hands and clamping it against
04:21your forehead and forcing you to stay underwater and not be able to breathe.
04:27I can't breathe. I want you to tell me what you're going to do. Say it again. I can't breathe.
04:34Very liberating because I feel like this is the only time that we can speak and yell and not look
04:39like a madman in society. It not only shines the light on George Floyd but it shines the light on
04:51everybody else as you can see their names in the back. It can happen to anyone of us, my brother,
04:55my uncle. That's the thing. That's why we're saying who's next? Am I next? I feel for my life
05:01every time I see a cop and now they're droning us as you can see up there. That's the police. I
05:07believe so. That's what the police have been doing a lot. Why are you killing us? We pay you. All
05:13taxes go to your pockets and you can't protect us? It's real easy to forget that we have the
05:21power. Where are those votes? Honestly my biggest hope is that well that's the thing I've lost hope.
05:30That's why it's hard to think about it honestly. I've lost hope to really think about it. I don't
05:35want to see people getting divided where we are right now. Everybody here is to protest. It's not
05:39about white. It's not about black. It's everybody that sees a problem. If you came here to protest
05:43and you came out of your day and I consider you a brother and a sister because you're here for
05:48the right reason. Their names of black people killed by police. A lot of them are from Minneapolis
05:58and St. Paul but also just from around the country. It looks different when you see it all
06:04laid out. You know you say their names and you talk about one person but seeing them all together
06:10it's a long list. It could go on for a really long time
06:18but I'll just I'll keep going. People keep telling me names of friends and family so I'll just keep going.
06:29I didn't read them all but I feel like I know some of these people
06:33that have been killed by multiple police officers. All the people that's been killed by the police
06:38like this this it's not gonna stop. Why do the color of my skin got to justify who I am or
06:43how I have to live? I got boys. They have to be afraid of growing up
06:48or the police officer. He always wanted to be a police officer. Nah I don't know you know so.
06:55Did you still want to be a police officer? No.
07:08The one thing because I'm Greek that we do when we love people is we cook so I was like I just
07:21need to go feed people. This is a block party that is celebrating Black life and Black joy.
07:27That's all we want is we just want to be able to be alive and be happy just like everybody else.
07:32What I strive for every day when I'm protesting is education. I want to help someone understand
07:38more. We're going to city council meetings. We are talking to the mayor. We're writing to people.
07:43We're doing the things that people don't see that are like you should be protesting this way
07:47or that way or this way. It's like we have been doing that and no one's been listening to us
07:51so if people have to start setting something on fire to say hey look at me yeah it's people over
07:58property. All lives do matter. We completely agree. We completely want it to be like that
08:02but we want to matter as well. We want to feel like we're matter. It's not Black versus white.
08:06It's Black versus the white system that was not designed with us in mind to begin with.
08:12So until we can dismantle that then we're going to keep having these issues over and over and over.
08:21Athena is a longtime activist who's protested police brutality in the past.
08:26Since the start of the demonstrations she's been devoting her time and money to cook free
08:31meals for the community. Our reporter spent the day with her preparing for her volunteer work
08:36but she had a change of plans due to an uncomfortable interaction with a supermarket
08:40worker the previous day. They were asking us what we needed food for. We said we're getting
08:46a lot of food for the protesters because we cook for them every day. He goes well don't you don't
08:49you mean the looters? And I was excuse me you mean the protesters who's like fighting for us and
08:54our rights as people and all that. He was like oh I didn't mean to say that. I was like oh you sure
08:59didn't mean to say that. Yeah so that is why we're not going there. I'll come help. Awesome. I got
09:04white money to donate. Yes. I got white money to give to everybody. That's awesome. Yeah so I um
09:12yeah put your number on my phone and then I can send you all the all the good stuff. Nice to meet
09:17you. I really appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Yeah. When I got arrested I was protesting
09:23with a group I had created called AR14 for Justice and that was for the Philando Castile
09:31murder that happened and we had decided that we wanted to do a peaceful protest.
09:35Black lives matter. Black lives matter. Black lives matter. We were arrived by riot squads
09:46and they pushed me to the ground and they handcuffed me from behind
09:50and for the next 14 hours I did not have my handcuffs removed.
09:58When I'm normally working like when we have normal jobs and normal life I put aside money
10:03every single paycheck to feed the homeless. So no different than doing it for protesters.
10:14We got more over here if you guys want to do those guys. We got pizza and tacos over here.
10:20Oh we have them now. No we don't. We were like yesterday we brought some and instead we
10:26can we have some? Yeah. Can I grab it? Because then we can help you more.
10:30It's important for us to engage with communities and to take a stance in which we as white people
10:37are accomplices more than allies. We are able to use our privilege and our bodies
10:43to help aid these movements in a way and not make it about ourselves by no means.
10:49It takes a woman to understand what's going on. You know me like Marvin Gaye. Marvin Gaye.
10:56What's going on? You feel me? Now Queens it's your time. It's your time.
11:05I fled my country Oremia about 20 years ago and I was rescued just because of who I was
11:12and I came here to the free land and I thought America was home. I'm fleeing home and now I have
11:20three black boys that I'm raising. I am terrified. My oldest is 15. He's about to be 16. He's gonna
11:27be driving soon and I'm scared. I'm scared they're gonna go out there and they'll never come back again.
11:41This is a big movement. This is going down in history so this better
11:44be a big change. This is way different like coming in real life like seeing what's happening.
11:49People only are focused on the bad things that we do. Literally today we were cleaning up a Wendy's
11:53that got burned down that was not even started by black people and the media just wants to
11:58focus on the bad things just for the views just for the money. If you see something get your ass over here right now.
12:05They don't show this in the media don't worry. The media lies. This is what they're not going to
12:10cover. If you look at the news you can go do your own personal research you'll find riots and rants
12:15and how people are harming the police and how targets getting harmed and they won't show you
12:19the love of the community. Truth! Tell it! Truth! Tell it! Truth! Tell it! You will not discourage our work. You know why? Why?
12:27Because you're gonna put that black fist up for a reminder. I feel like anytime this happens we get
12:33loud and then it just goes back to silence and then the war and then it just continues
12:37and it's just an endless cycle so we need to do something to break the cycle. We're way more
12:40powerful and that's why they fear us because we are way more powerful than social media. We have
12:44cameras going around exposing them. Every single one of us is a camera. We're just dying and we're
12:48just tired of dying. George Floyd! George Floyd! George Floyd! It is time for us to lead ourselves. We can lead ourselves into salvation.
13:03Protests end here at night and they tell their stories. They may be loud but they're peaceful.
13:09There has been some scares but it's supposed to be off limits from the police.
13:13This corner has seen lots of death, not just by police, just by crime. It's a bad corner.
13:21So the store's history, the cop's history, the race relations in Minnesota's history,
13:27everything has culminated on that corner when that knee was in his neck.
13:33Culminated on that corner when that knee was in his neck.
13:44This neighborhood has particular significance to the African-American community in Minneapolis.
13:49That's because historically it was one of the few areas Black people could really call home.
13:53Though not unique to the city, the practice of redlining established by the government in the 30s
13:58excluded people of color from buying property in certain neighborhoods,
14:02resulting in racial segregation that continues to this day.
14:08So 38th and Chicago is a historically African-American community. This was one of the
14:14first areas where Blacks could purchase property and so this became a commercial district for Black
14:21and brown businesses. I'm on the city council so I'm in city council meetings. I've been trying to
14:26tell them that this intersection is sacrosanct. It is not to be invaded by militaristic forces.
14:36As a Black transgender woman, you know, sometimes my voice is not heard either.
14:44We've been protesting. We've been angry for days. Now we're just celebrating,
14:59bringing the community back together.
15:03You see, now the community is happy. They don't want us to be happy. The community,
15:07the community is happy. This just brings us close together.
15:10This district is where Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-American lawmaker, was elected to Congress.
15:17While her team was filming on 30th and Chicago, she was recognized in a crowd.
15:22I've been here almost every night and I really did not intend for any of you to recognize me
15:30because I show up every night so I can get the opportunity just to be in community with you.
15:36I want my brothers up there to not have the conversations that their fathers and mothers
15:44had with them with their sons. That's right. That's right. No other community here in the
15:51United States goes through a process in which they tell their children how not to get themselves
15:59killed by the police officers that are entrusted to protect and serve them. Because what we want
16:07is the ability to not just breathe, but to live and thrive.
16:17I'm human. I deserve to live. I deserve air. They don't get to decide if they get to give.
16:24I'm stepping on my brothers necks. What am I next? I don't really know. I can die from a simple text.
16:32It's a scan of my color. This is thinking out the text. But I ain't really know if I'm next.
16:38All I'm telling is that my black people blessed. We've been here since day one and I am not next.