Most of the crowd of estimated hundreds this past weekend that flowed from Federal Plaza to Michigan Avenue and the Magnificent Mile as well as to other Loop streets were young people—white, Black and brown—who echoed a united call for change.
And with funeral services continuing this weekend for Floyd, the African-American man who died on May 25, saying, “I can’t breathe” and with the knee of a Minneapolis police officer on his neck, the call for justice and protests are likely to continue for days, if not weeks.
Millennials of all races united in protests sparked by what many are calling the murder of Floyd, 46, who died while now former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee against his neck.
Chauvin, who is white, has been charged with 3rd-degree murder and manslaughter, although three other officers, also at the scene and who are seen on a video either holding Floyd down or standing idly by while Chauvin presses his knee against Floyd’s neck, have not been charged.
The downtown Chicago protests this past weekend were mostly peaceful, at least while daylight lasted, although by nightfall the city was engulfed in widespread looting downtown that spread to other areas.
