Protesters took the streets nationwide for a 10th consecutive night—some clashing with police—and demanded sweeping change to the American justice system as some cities moved to curtail funding for police departments.
Earlier Thursday, thousands of mourners gathered in and around the chapel at North Central University in Minneapolis to memorialize George Floyd, and the Rev. Al Sharpton called in his eulogy for protesters to “keep going until we change the whole system of justice.”
Mr. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed on May 25 after police officers arrested him for allegedly trying to pass off a counterfeit $20 bill. Video that circulated widely on social media showed a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, with his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck as he pleaded for mercy and said he couldn’t breathe.
“It’s time for us to stand up in George’s name and say get your knee off our necks,” said Mr. Sharpton, who asked mourners to stand in silence for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the length of time Mr. Floyd lay pinned to the pavement.
Protesters nationwide have demanded that authorities cut funding for police and put it toward minority communities. Thursday night, they got backing from a second big city mayor. San Francisco’s London Breed said she would help lead an effort to redirect money from that city’s police department toward the African-American community as part of a budget proposal she would submit this summer.
San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton, who announced the plan with Ms. Breed, said the move would serve as “a concrete, bold and immediate step towards true reparations for Black people.”
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced a similar initiative Wednesday.
A judge in Minneapolis on Thursday set the bail at $750,000 for the three ex-officers charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder in the killing of Mr. Floyd, the Associated Press reported. Only five news organizations were allowed into the courtroom amid constraints imposed due to the new coronavirus.
From left to right, the booking photos of ex-officers Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Kiernan Lane.
Photo: Hennepin County Jail/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesNone of the officers entered a plea, as expected for a first court appearance, according to the AP. Judge Paul Scoggin set June 29 as their next court date.
Meanwhile, two police officers in Buffalo were suspended without pay after knocking down a 75-year-old man in an incident caught on a widely shared video, Mayor Byron W. Brown said on Twitter. The event came after a conflict between two groups of protesters who were out beyond curfew, said Mr. Brown, who added that he was “deeply disturbed by the video.”
In New York Thursday, thousands gathered for a memorial for Mr. Floyd, organized by some of his family, in Cadman Plaza Park in Brooklyn and then marched across the Brooklyn Bridge. Protesters carried signs that said “Black lives matter” and chanted, “No justice, no peace.”
Tison Turenne, 8, walks across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan after attending a memorial for George Floyd on Thursday.
Photo: Michael Noble Jr. for The Wall Street JournalNew York Mayor Bill de Blasio received scattered boos, as he promised change. “It will not be about words in this city. It will be about change,” he said, leaving shortly after.
At Union Square later in the day, a crowd of about 400 protesters stood chanting “George Floyd” and “No justice, no peace” to the thumping of drums and hands clapping.
Roberto Escobar, a U.S. citizen who was born in El Salvador, has been coming out from Harlem to protest for three nights. He and his wife had initially held off on joining because they were concerned that coronavirus posed too much of a risk. But the 38-year old decided he couldn’t stay silent.
“We go through a lot of discrimination with police as well,” he said, referring to Hispanics. “There is a need for people to change how they look at people of color.”
Stores across Manhattan were boarded up. In Union Square, Best Buy, Nordstrom and Duane Reade were closed at 5 p.m. and boarded up. Some protesters were arrested in New York after violating curfew.
In Chicago, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said Thursday it would investigate a family’s allegation that a young woman was pulled out of her car at a looted mall, thrown to the ground and subdued by an officer who put his knee on her neck.
Police said the woman, Mia Wright, had assembled with three others for the purpose of using force or violence to disturb the peace and that she had been charged with disorderly conduct.
After days of peaceful protests and nights of violence, several other major cities have had a few nights of relative calm. Unlike New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., didn’t continue their curfews Thursday.
In downtown Los Angeles, about 1,000 people gathered, some holding signs reading “The fight ain’t over” and “Disarm the police,” as they listened to speeches condemning police brutality. There were fewer police around City Hall than in previous days, but a large contingent of National Guard troops encircled the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters.
Toyna Panton, one of the demonstrators, said police budget cuts announced by Mayor Garcetti weren’t adequate. Nearby, 37-year-old Kristen Fraser said the cuts were a step in the right direction. She attributed the move as well as the newly announced policies regarding police misconduct to the past week’s protests. “If no one said anything or put a light on it, nothing would have happened,” she said.
The Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., which had arrested nearly 300 people Monday related to the protests, said Thursday morning it had made no arrests the night before.
Oscar Soto, with sign, protested by the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington late Thursday.
Photo: Michael M. Phillips/The Wall Street JournalA thunderstorm that passed through just after 8 p.m. didn’t deter some protesters from marching near the White House, where security has been beefed up with additional fencing around the perimeter.
Earlier, some protesters marched to the Lincoln Memorial, where they listened to speeches until the rain started. The demonstration was leaderless and peaceful, and police cleared traffic for the marchers, as they wound through the streets.
Photos and Voices of the George Floyd Protests: ‘We Deserve to Be Heard’
As protests and vigils spread across the country, protesters voice their motivations for getting involved.
As protests and vigils spread across the country, protesters voice their motivations for getting involved.
VIEW Photos
“I was marching, and someone handed me a megaphone,” said Hilda M. Jordan, 22. Wearing a mask on which she had scrawled the words “no justice, no peace,” Ms. Jordan led the crowd in repeating the names of African-Americans who had died in police custody.
As of Thursday, 32 states and the district had activated more than 32,400 National Guard troops in response to the protests, the National Guard said.
In the Minneapolis bail hearing, the lawyers for the three men argued for lower bail, the AP reported. Earl Gray, a lawyer representing Thomas Lane, told the judge it was his client’s fourth day on the job and that he was being trained by Mr. Chauvin, the AP reported.
Two of the three officers were positioned on Mr. Floyd’s back and legs during the nearly nine minutes that Mr. Chauvin pressed a knee into his neck, according to their criminal complaints. The third officer kept onlookers at bay. None intervened to stop Mr. Chauvin, the complaints said.
At the service, Mr. Sharpton told the story of attending a march years ago “and a young white lady looked me right in the face” and told him to go home in crude and derogatory terms, he said as the mostly black crowd sucked in its collective breath.
Mr. Sharpton said the colors of the faces of the young people on the streets protesting had given him hope. In many instances, he saw more white people than black people.
US civil rights leader Al Sharpton (L) reacts as he attends a memorial service in honor of George Floyd on June 4, 2020, at North Central University's Frank J. Lindquist Sanctuary in Minneapolis, Minnesota. - On May 25, 2020, Floyd, a 46-year-old black man suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 bill, died in Minneapolis after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pressed his knee to Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes. (Photo by kerem yucel / AFP) (Photo by KEREM YUCEL/AFP via Getty Images)
Photo: kerem yucel/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesHis remarks came a few moments after several siblings and cousins remembered Mr. Floyd as a bear of a man who was kind and humble and could polish off six pieces of chicken at a sitting. The family was so poor they had to wash their clothes in the sink and hang them over the hot water heater to dry. But the household was warm and loving, his brother said. His mother regularly took in Mr. Floyd’s friends for long periods.
“That is where he got his character,” said Jeanette Sledge, who listened to the service on her car radio and came out to be part of a crowd of at least a thousand to watch the family leave the chapel and show her support.
“I knew him, he was a kind, sweet, humble man,” she said. Sobs rang out across the chapel as mourners stood in silence for eight minutes and 46 seconds.
“I listened to that and I started to cry,” Ms. Sledge said. “It was such a long time. I imagined myself running in to get the police off him.”
—Jim Carlton, Tripp Mickle and Douglas Belkin contributed to this article.
Write to Shan Li at shan.li@wsj.com, Alan Cullison at alan.cullison@wsj.com and Michael M. Phillips at michael.phillips@wsj.com
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