BOSTON (WHDH) - Demonstrators gathered in Boston’s South End Friday afternoon calling for justice as the former Minnesota officer accused of killing George Floyd is charged with manslaughter and murder in the third degree.
Officials are calling for peace as hundreds gathered in Peter’s Park around 5 p.m. with signs in tow and a call to justice on their lips.
“Thank God,” former president of the Boston NAACP Michael Curry said when 7NEWS told him Derek Chauvin, the police officer who was seen on video kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died in custody after pleading that he could not breathe, had been taken into custody and charged Friday.
“The hesitancy, in this case, was disturbing for many of us,” Curry said. “We’re glad that at least this officer begins that first step in being held accountable.”
Curry now serves as a member of the NAACP National Executive Board and he said that across the country, racism has reached a boiling point.
Protests in Minneapolis escalated in violence on Thursday, when demonstrators torched a police station that officers had abandoned.
“It is unfathomable to watch a police station burn in a community,” he said. “But, what does that tell us about how much anger and frustration there is?”
Darnell Williams, the former president of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts called Floyd’s death “chilling” and when it comes to racism in America, he said it is “real and raw.”
Though, burning buildings down may not be the answer to the problem.
“What do you get out of burning the building down,” Williams asked. “What is your leverage point? How is that you’re gonna make the system better, stronger, wiser because of that move?”
Williams said he feels the frustration but is calling for calm — a sentiment Curry agrees with.
Both hope this anger leads to action.
“I challenge everybody who is listening to your program, you gotta be engaged,” Curry said.
All four officers who were at the scene of Floyd’s death were fired the next day. After the charges were announced, protesters outside the government center chanted, “All four got to go.”
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