NEWBURGH – A virtual vigil was held on Facebook Live Monday night to honor George Floyd, the African American man who was choked to death by a Minneapolis policeman last week.
The event was organized by local activist and artist Charlene Valdez, who had a specially made candle dedicated to Mr. Floyd. She repeated “I Can’t Breathe” for eight minutes and 46 seconds to signify the amount of time he was held in a chokehold by police officer Derek Chauvin, who was later fired.
As she was waiting for viewers to join the live-streamed vigil, Valdez shared her sadness over simultaneously dealing with self-quarantining and another instance of police brutality.
“Not only do we have COVID and self-quarantining, but now we have the unfortunate death of George Floyd,” she said. “I’d be lying if I said this was easy. Honestly, it didn’t hit me until today.”
Being a longtime protester, Valdez expressed anguish over constantly having to fight for what she believes in, but encouraged those who haven’t been involved in a protest before to get involved.
“It’s mentally exhausting,” she said. “We do need you if you’ve never done it before. Just go, even if it’s not for the whole duration. Please go.”
To open the vigil, No Hate Here director Caryn Sobel gave an impassioned speech, quoting the U.S. Constitution before asking why incidents of this nature continue to happen in a country known as the land of the free.
“Some people missed the memo that we’re supposed to treat our fellow man with the same respect we treat our family…that our justice system is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty…that if we don’t treat our fellow humans like humans, we are a disservice to our country and to the human race,” she said. “This isn’t an exercise and intellectual debate. It is real life.”
The vigil commenced with a sound meditation from Angela Shapiro of Shapiro’s Furniture Barn.
Throughout the country, peaceful protests and riots have been held to both remember George Floyd and his brutal murder, and rage against deaths of African Americans that were perpetrated by the police in this country. A peaceful protest was held on Broadway in Newburgh this Saturday and another Monday evening, followed by a Black Lives Matter rally in Poughkeepsie on Sunday, and a vigil held in person later that night.
George Floyd was 46 years old and was known for being a leader in his community in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.
