Locals Rally On One Year Anniversary of George Floyd’s Murder

The NAACP and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) held a rally at Pasadena City Hall Sunday, one year after the murder of a Black motorist at the hands of a Minnesota police officer set off national protests.

“One year after the murder of George Floyd, the NAACP and NDLON call for a racial justice rally and demand action from the Pasadena establishment and political class,” according to a statement issued by the two civil rights groups.
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Earlier this year, former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering Floyd.

Chauvin placed his knee on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 25 seconds until he stopped breathing.

The event in Pasadena included a prayer and a nine-minute and 25-second period of silence in remembrance of Floyd.

“Many things have happened since George Floyd’s death at the knee of now incarcerated Derek Chauvin,” said Florence Annang, who has been appointed to the city’s Community Police Oversight Commission.

“The City Council last year voted for a police oversight commission and an independent auditor. Nine months later we are still waiting to start so we know the fight is daily and the strategies forever changing,” Annang said.

“The African drums we heard this afternoon say to remember the ones we have lost and move forward to fight with wisdom and focus for the safety and dignity for every resident and visitor of our city in every interaction with a Pasadena police officer,” she said.

Floyd’s death set off protests in Pasadena that were attended by thousands of people and remained peaceful. In other parts of the nation, protesters responded with violence.

Locally, the incident pushed the City Council to pass an ordinance establishing the yet-to-be seated police oversight commission.

“It is amazing, disconcerting, and demoralizing that even with the worldwide outcry and unrelenting protests because of the horrific murder of Mr. George Floyd by members of the Minneapolis Police Department, Black people, particularly Black men and men and women of color, continue to be unnecessarily and illegally stopped, followed, questioned, harassed, handcuffed, tasered, struck with an asp or a baton, punched, kicked, shot and in some cases murdered by law enforcement officers who continue to sully the name of policing,” said Pasadena City Councilman John Kennedy.

“Those law enforcement officers who violate their oaths of office, seemingly with impunity across this great nation of ours, must be held accountable and banned from the noble profession of policing,” said Kennedy. “Not until society and law creates an environment where good officers are protected and supported to tell the truth about their fellow colleagues’ bad or or illegal acts will policing be reformed and universally embraced.”

Last week, police reform legislation authored by Assemblymember Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, cleared the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Holden is a former Pasadena mayor and councilmember.

Assembly Bill 26 would establish clear guidelines for police responsibility and accountability when witnessing excessive force by another member of law enforcement, including providing a selection of techniques to establish that an officer has in fact attempted to intercede.