Tuesday marks one-year since George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis. Protests broke out around the country and world, including Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, in the days following his death.
Such incidents are again drawing protest after two violent episodes following traffic stops. In suburban Minneapolis, not far from where George Floyd was killed in a police encounter, a veteran cop recently killed a 20-year-old Black man, Daunte Wright, after he was stopped for expired registration tags. (Wright’s mother told reporters that when she talked to her son moments before he was shot, he said police raised concern about an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror.) In Virginia, a Black and Latino Army officer sued after he was pepper spraying, struck and handcuffed after being pulled over for not having a permanent license plate on his new SUV.