Lawyer Ben Crump , the Reverend Al Sharpton and relatives of George Floyd take a knee in Minneapolis on March 29, 2021 AFP/Kerem YucelMINNEAPOLIS: Lawyer Ben Crump quietly switched knees. The Reverend Al Sharpton needed some assistance. For eight minutes and 46 seconds on Monday relatives and lawyers of George Floyd took a knee to mark how long a white policeman knelt on the neck of the African American, who died of asphyxiation.
"We take it, a knee, for eight minutes and 46 seconds. And we want you to think up during that time, why Chauvin didn't in that time get his knee out," Sharpton, a longtime civil rights activist, told media. Sharpton and Crump, who specializes in police brutality cases against African Americans, had gathered alongside Floyd's brothers and his nephew in the square across from the court house where opening arguments in the extraordinary trial began Monday.Crump pointed to American football player Colin Kaepernick, who was the first person to take a knee - during the national anthem at a game in 2016 - to protest police violence again Black people.
Without condoning the police excesses, it is a fact that George Floyd was a criminal and a habitual offender.