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My wife @TammyTKing and I were part of this die-in this afternoon as part of #faithinindiana rally. For more than 8 minutes we stretched out on the ground and listened to the names as they read the names of black people killed by police. 1/ https://twitter.com/richnye13/status/1267170226602475525
It was supposed to symbolize the last minutes of Floyd’s life. But we lay on our back looking up into a cloudless sky.
Floyd spent his last minutes with his face smashed into the pavement, a 200-pound man jamming a knee into his neck, suffocating to death. 2/
Floyd spent his last minutes with his face smashed into the pavement, a 200-pound man jamming a knee into his neck, suffocating to death. 2/
We spent the time listening to names of victims of police brutality: Eric Garner, Tamar Rice...you know the list. The reading went on for most of those 8 minutes plus, with two beats of a drum between names. Kinda like a heartbeat. 3/
At the time counted on, I heard my wife crying on the ground behind me. “This is a long time,” she said. Not because the ground was getting hard, but because she was thinking about how long George Floyd suffered. 4/
It WAS a long time. I thought of how many names we were hearing. They just went on and on. How many families have been shattered? 5/
At the end, they stopped reading names. But the drum’s heartbeat continued.
Then it slowed.
Then it stopped.
Like when George Floyd’s heart stopped. Like when so many other heart’s stopped.
6/
Then it slowed.
Then it stopped.
Like when George Floyd’s heart stopped. Like when so many other heart’s stopped.
6/
Some things must change. Here’s a few things for @IndyMayorJoe and the City County Council to try for starters: 7/
We have to get up off the ground and move. We must vote out of office the people who are standing in the way of justice-economic, electoral, criminal justice. 8/
And, for those of us who are white, we have to stand alongside the people of color in our community and demand justice for them. It’s the only way we can really be free. end
