By Dominic Taylor-
A bronze statue of George Floyd has been unveiled in Newark, New Jersey, weighing almost 700 pounds.
Officials say it will stay for at least a year in front of Newark’s City Hall, where it was officially unveiled in a ceremony on Wednesday.
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Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder by a jury this year. The former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murder in George Floyd’s death also made an appearance on Tuesday on federal charges alleging he violated Floyd’s civil rights by pinning the Black man to the pavement with his knee.
Federal charges in deaths involving police, are brought when prosecutors must believe an officer acted under the “color of law,” or government authority, and willfully deprived someone’s constitutional rights.
The statue of George Floyd is expected to serve as symbol of racial justice and an emphasis of accountability in the U.S police force.
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The city’s mayor, Ras Baraka, said he hoped it would inspire residents in the fight for racial justice, after a wave of anti-racism demonstrations following Mr Floyd’s murder in May 2020.
“George Floyd represents a lot more than himself at this juncture in history,” said Mr Baraka of Mr Floyd.
“Hopefully when people walk by it and they see it…hopefully it inspires them to become active in the struggles that are happening right here in Newark and right here in New Jersey.”
Leon Pickney, who commissioned and donated the statue, and artist Stanley Watts, also took part in the ceremony on Wednesday.
Mr Pickney said it would serve as a reminder of the ongoing calls for racial justice across the US.
“The statue was to cause them to remember why they marched during such a horrific pandemic and I didn’t want them to go back to a status quo,” he said of last year’s demonstrations.
“The world needed a peaceful George,” said Mr Watts, who sculpted the bronze statue showing Mr Floyd sitting on a park bench.
“The world needed him relaxed and chilling on a bench and that’s what we produced and we produced him larger than life, because after death, George will be remembered.”
The young teenager who filmed the 8 minutes incident in which Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck was given an award by the Pulitzer prizes board.
Darnella Frazier was 17 at the time when she encountered Floyd, who was Black, being crushed to death on the ground by white police officer Derek Chauvin, who was kneeling on the man’s neck during an arrest in May last year.
‘I cried so hard’: the teen who filmed Floyd’s killing, and changed America
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She filmed using her phone as Floyd begged for his life. Frazier testified about the deep trauma she has experienced ever since, when she spoke at Chauvin’s trial in Minneapolis in April at which he was convicted of murder.
Frazier was cited “for courageously recording the murder of George Floyd, a video that spurred protests against police brutality, around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists’ quest for truth and justice”, the Pulitzer board stated on Friday as it announced this year’s awards in media and arts.
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