Memorial Held for George Floyd As Protests Continue

By Staff, Agencies

A memorial service was held Thursday for George Floyd, an African American who died after being pinned to the ground by a police officer holding his knee on his neck during a brutal arrest.

The service in Minneapolis was held by civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton, who said that Floyd's death marked the start of a moment of reckoning for the United States.

The event was attended by a number of dignitaries, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who began sobbing uncontrollably as he knelt before Floyd's golden coffin.

Elsewhere in the US, memorial events were also held as the protests sparked by Floyd's death were reported taking a more somber tone.

In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio was booed as he addressed the people at a memorial event in Brooklyn, where a police officer was stabbed and two more got gunshot wounds during a violent incident at a recent protest.

Later on, Thursday night saw fresh scuffles between the police and the protesters as curfew imposed in the city to curb the looting was defied once again.

Elsewhere in the US, more protests were held on the tenth night of the unrest, but some of the cities began to cancel the curfews.

Among those were Washington, DC, where a heavy military presence was reported Wednesday night, and Santa Monica, California.