GEORGE Floyd's grieving brother said he is "proud of protests, not destruction" in an emotional plea for peace on Thursday - just hours before crowds defied New York City's curfew again.
“You are not alone,” the large crowd at Cadman Plaza chanted before a grief-stricken Terrence Floyd as he thanked them for their support of his brother at a memorial in the city.
"I thank God for you all showing love to my brother," he told supporters at the massive gathering - while the rest of his family gathered for the first of three memorials in .
"I'm proud of the protests but I’m not proud of the destruction. My brother wasn’t about that.
"The Floyd's are a God-fearing family. Power to the people, all of us," Terrence added.
Terrence Floyd's powerful speech came on another day of turbulence across the country, as:
- The Floyd family called for change at
- The passenger in the car with Floyd during his arrest
- The by over the handling of protests in DC on Monday
- Police continued searching for a cyclist who attacked Floyd
The memorial was part of a day of demonstrations around the city that once again continued past the city’s imposed curfew of 8pm.
On Thursday night, protesters were seen being arrested by the for breaking the order.
Protests in the city have been ensuing for over one week no, but Miguel Fernandes told the that there were "a lot more nights to go."
"We’re still waiting for a conviction. We still haven’t gotten it," Fernandes said.
"All they’re doing is putting in charges. The system is not doing anything to make these guys pay for what they did."
As darkness fell, cries of “” and “No justice, no peace” continued to come from protesters, even as crowds shrank.
Demonstrators had been in Cadman Plaza, the site of Floyd’s memorial, on Wednesday night, when videos were taken of officers using batons and pepper spray on protesters who remained there after the curfew.
Both and said they had not seen the widely shared videos, but later Cuomo tweeted that he was asking the state attorney general to investigate the incidents as part of her ongoing look into police tactics during the protests.
"Peaceful protest is a sacred American right," the governor .
"No peaceful protestor deserves to be hit with a baton and no self-respecting police officer would defend that.”
De Blasio spoke at the memorial, with the crowd booing and heckling from the moment he arrived, shouting over him as he urged that Floyd’s death not be in vain.
"We have too much to change in this city and this country," the mayor said.
Earlier, de Blasio said police have used “a lot of restraint” overall and added, "but if there's anything that needs to be reviewed, it will be."
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said at the police headquarters in lower Manhattan: "Without a doubt, there will probably be a couple of officers suspended as a result of those actions."
Americans have been taking to the streets to protest , who died last week.
The 46-year-old died after white cop was filmed kneeling on his neck during an arrest in a now viral video.
All over the case, with Chauvin set to face the more serious charge of second-degree murder.
In Minneapolis, the first of three memorials was held on .
The initially sombre service transformed into a fiery call for change in which civil rights leader Al Sharpton declared black people must demand: "Get your knee off our necks!"
During the memorial, Floyd's brother Philonise said: "I love my brother, man, we had so many memories growing up," adding that "everybody loved George," explaining that people always "wanted to greet him and wanted to have fun with him."
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Floyd's family's attorney, Ben Crump, said: "The plea for justice is simply this: he who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it."
"He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really like cooperating with it."
"What we saw on that video was torture," Crump said, adding that all Floyd wanted from life is "what any of us want."