SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV)– Dozens of community members gathered Wednesday afternoon for a Black Lives Matter protest to mark the two year anniversary of the death of George Floyd, killed at the hands of Minneapolis Police Officers.
The crowd walked from Victory Temple Fellowship Church to the Public Safety Building downtown, chanting ‘George Floyd’ and ‘No Justice No Peace.’ It’s a route the BLM protestors have become quite familiar with after nearly 40 days of protesting in the Summer of 2020 after George Floyd was murdered.
“It’s like reliving it all over again, we are reliving the trauma all over again, this community is reliving the trauma over again, George Floyd was not the first not was he the last,” BLM leader Hasahn Bloodworth said.
The trauma was felt even deeper Wednesday as the community grieved the lives lost in two senseless mass shootings just 10 days apart.
“I just think of those babies, those babies in Texas and families and my friends who had a funeral today for Mother Young in Buffalo, another one Friday it’s just overwhelming, it’s too much,”
Bishop Bernard H Alex, Victory Temple Fellowship Church
Protestors held a moment of silence to remember the lives lost and read aloud the names of the 10 victims from Buffalo’s mass shooting at a Tops Supermarket. Bishop Alex said it’s okay to take time to grieve, but that this community must turn their grief into action.
He said he believes the City of Syracuse is putting the plans in place for police reform but has yet to see much action.