VINEYARD HAVEN, Mass. — A British-South African endurance athlete is closing in on the finish line of his 62-mile (100-kilometer) multi-day swim around Martha’s Vineyard on Monday, aiming to become the first becoming the first person to swim all the way around the island.
Lewis Pugh began swimming multiple hours a day in the 47-degree (8-degree Celsius) water on May 15 to raise awareness about the plight of sharks as the film “Jaws” nears its 50th birthday. He wants to change public perceptions and encourage protections for the at-risk animals — which he said the film maligned as “villains, as cold-blooded killers.”
“It was a film about sharks attacking humans and for 50 years, we have been attacking sharks,” he said before plunging into the ocean near the Edgartown Lighthouse. “It’s completely unsustainable. It’s madness. We need to respect them.”
Pugh, 55, said this would be among his most difficult endurance swims, which says a lot for someone who has swum near glaciers and volcanoes, and among hippos, crocodiles and polar bears. Pugh was the first athlete to swim across the North Pole and complete a long-distance swim in every one of the world’s oceans.
But Pugh, who often swims to raise awareness for environmental causes — he’s been named a United Nations Patron of the Oceans — said no swim is without risk, and that drastic measures are needed to get his message across: Around 274,000 sharks are killed globally each day — a rate of nearly 100 million every year, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
“Jaws,” which was filmed in Edgartown, renamed Amity Island for the movie, created Hollywood’s blockbuster culture when it was released in summer 1975, setting new box office records and earning three Academy Awards. The movie would shape views of the ocean for decades to come.
Both director Steven Spielberg and author Peter Benchley expressed regret that viewers of the film became so afraid of sharks, and both later contributed to conservation efforts as their populations declined, largely due to commercial fishing.
Day after day, Pugh has entered the island’s frigid waters wearing just trunks, a cap and goggles, enduring foul weather as a nor’easter dumped 7 inches (18 centimeters) of rain on parts of New England and flooded streets on Martha’s Vineyard.
Pugh’s endeavor also coincides with the New England Aquarium’s first confirmed sighting this season of a white shark, off the nearby island of Nantucket. Just in case, he’s accompanied by safety personnel in a boat and a kayak, whose paddler is using a “Shark Shield” device to create a low-intensity electric field in the water to deter sharks without harming them.
The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision in the next few weeks in a high-stakes case that could affect transgender people’s access to transition-related care nationwide.
The case, U.S. v. Skrmetti, concerns a law in Tennessee that prohibits certain care for minors, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, and whether the restrictions are discriminatory on the basis of sex and transgender status.
A new documentary, “Heightened Scrutiny,” follows Chase Strangio, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, as he represents trans youth, their families and a doctor who filed suit against the law in April 2023.Strangio became the first openly trans person to argue in front of the Supreme Court during oral arguments in December. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and will show at NewFest, a queer film festival in New York, on May 29, and then at other film festivals across the country.
The film’s director, Sam Feder, said it is a follow-up to another documentary he directed called “Disclosure,” which was released in 2020 and evaluated how trans people are depicted in film and television.
“The motivation to make that film was to explore how the rise in visibility could lead to backlash,” Feder said. “I did not know it would be as terrifying as it is now.”
“Heightened Scrutiny” features interviews with trans activists including actress Laverne Cox, and with journalists including Jelani Cobb, dean of the Columbia Journalism School and a writer for The New Yorker; Lydia Polgreen, a New York Times opinion columnist; and Gina Chua, one of the most high-profile trans media executives.
Much of the documentary focuses on the effects of increasing media coverage, particularly from The New York Times, on minors’ access to transition-related care.
Julie Hollar, a senior analyst at the media watchdog group FAIR, says in the documentary that she evaluated the Times’ front page coverage for 12 months, and during that time, she said, the Times “actually published more front page articles that framed trans people, the trans movement, as a threat to others than they did articles about trans people being threatened by this political movement.”
The New York Times did not respond to a request for comment.
Amy Scholder, who produced both “Heightened Scrutiny” and “Disclosure,” said that while researching media coverage of trans people over the last few years, she was astonished by how quickly much of the public appeared to go from celebrating trans visibility after “Disclosure” to questioning it.
“It was disconcerting how many avowed feminists were questioning health care for trans adolescents and questioning the participation of trans people in sports, and especially adolescents in sports — things that just seemed so against my understanding and experience of what it means to be a feminist,” she said.
She compared the public response to laws targeting trans youth to what she experienced during the AIDS epidemic, when people distanced themselves from the crisis because they didn’t think it affected them or didn’t want it to.
“Then the irony is,” Feder said, “people thought it didn’t affect them, but you chip away at anyone’s bodily autonomy and you’re chipping away at everyone’s bodily autonomy.”
The documentary shows that media coverage that is critical of transition care for minors has been referenced by state legislators trying to pass laws to restrict the care, and by states that are defending those laws in court, with Strangio saying at one point during the film that he had never previously seen news articles referenced so regularly as evidence in lawsuits.
Feder said the film was originally going to focus entirely on media coverage, but Strangio’s story allowed them to show viewers the real-world consequences of that coverage. They followed Strangio from July, just after the Supreme Court announced that it would hear the Skrmetti case, to Dec. 4, the day Strangio argued the case.
The film shows Strangio the day after the election, a month before his oral arguments at the high court, when he says he’s “had moments of ‘I can’t do this again,’ but then I wake up this morning and I think, ‘F— it, we fight.’”
“That’s part of what is so extraordinary about him — he has that fight in him,” Scholder said. “He knows how to be strategic, and he’s such a brilliant legal mind and has always reminded us that we’re going to take care of each other, and that these laws, for better or worse, will never actually take care of us.”
Feder said that going forward, he hopes the film provokes conversations about how laws restricting transition-related care could have widespread effects outside of the trans community. He also said he hopes people will “examine and understand how they want to be able to make decisions about their own body.”
“We’re seeing state after state ban abortion, and soon it’s going to be all contraception, and then it’s who are you going to be able to marry, do you have any privacy in your own home? It’s going there. This is one example of how we are a moment of complete civil liberty freefall,” he said.
NOTTINGHAM — Chelsea held their nerve on the final day of the season to win 1-0 at Nottingham Forest and secure qualification to the UEFA Champions League for next season.
They were the party poopers at a raucous City Ground on the final day of what has been a brilliant season of overachievement from Nuno Espirito Santo’s side. Forest were still applauded off by their supporters and deservedly so as they returned to Europe for the first time in 30 years.
Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea started slowly but Pedro Neto missed a glorious chance to put them ahead in the first half, then Chris Wood missed an equally wonderful chance at the other end as Nottingham Forest also chased Champions League qualification hard.
But Levi Colwill’s goal early in the second half was enough to seal the win which saw Chelsea reach the Champions League after a two-season hiatus.
They finished in fourth place in the table on 69 points, while Forest finished seventh on 65 points and will now play in the Europa Conference League next season.
Chelsea’s next steps are crucial for sustained success
The Champions League is where Chelsea want to be and they’re back. What they do next is crucial in staying there. Recruitment is going to be key for Maresca’s side this summer with a new goalkeeper, center back and central forward essential to their development. With the Club World Cup coming up, they have less time to work on new deals compared to most clubs but the temporary window opens soon for business to be done. Chelsea will work fast, and furious, to upgrade this young squad. But they must also make absolutely sure the deals they are doing are the right ones. We’ve seen before that their wild approach in signing dozens of players has had mixed results but now they have to be more specific. And go big. The next transfer window is going to be crucial if they’re going to be in the Champions League and challenging for big trophies in the years to come. There will be huge relief that Chelsea are back in the Champions League and dining at Europe’s top table. Now comes the hard bit: picking the right elite players to keep them there.
Nottingham Forest vs Chelsea player ratings (via FotMob.com)
Nottingham Forest vs Chelsea score: 0-1
Colwill 50’
Nottingham Forest vs Chelsea live updates! — By Joe Prince-Wright at the City Ground
Final thoughts as Chelsea reach the Champions League
Chelsea celebrate at full time!
Tense and tight here now
Forest know if they score soon they can make a really good finish of this. With other results going their way, this is their chance. 20 minutes to go.
Colwill has Chelsea ahead!
He taps home at the back post. Chelsea’s fans go wild!
Half time: Nottingham Forest 0-0 Chelsea
Brilliant first half here. Forest have gone for it and almost took the lead just before half time. Chelsea have looked sluggish aside from the one chance Neto flicked over. This Champions League race is going down to the final 45 minutes of the season. Tense!
Wood flicks over!
Huge chance for Forest just before the break. Chris Wood flicks over at the near post! Brilliant cross from Aina. So close to an opener for Forest. They’ve played really well.
Neto flicks over!
Chelsea’s best chance of the game so far as a cross is whipped in from the right. by Palmer. Neto is unmarked six yards out but prods it over. He has to hit the target there. “That’s why they need a striker!” says someone near the press box. Hard to disagree with that…
Some great last-ditch defending from Chelsea already
Forest have started well and Gibbs-White charges into the box but Reece James makes a great tackle. Forest are going for it. Chelsea are leaving gaps. Breathless start here at the City Ground.
Taiwo Awoniyi on the pitch before kick off
After his nasty injury which required surgery, great to see Taiwo Awoniyi on the pitch before the game. The whole stadium applauded him.
President Donald Trump’s move toward federal recognition of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina fulfills a repeated promise he made on the campaign trail, but it has sparked concern from other Native American tribes about the precedent set by the different process used in this instance.
During the first days of his second term in office, Trump signed an executive order urging the Department of the Interior to create a plan that would identify a pathway for the federal recognition of the Lumbees.
To be federally recognized, tribes must meet a specific set of criteria, including: proving their nation existed before the founding of the United States, that the tribe has been recognized as Native since 1900 or before, that the tribe has operated as an “autonomous entity” and that members have genealogies that demonstrate both Native heritage and distinct ancestry from previously recognized tribes.
The Lumbee Tribe claims to be “the amalgamation of various Siouan, Algonquian, and Iroquoian speaking tribes” and to have a recorded existence since 1725. Currently, the Lumbees boast over 55,000 members who are spread across multiple counties in their home state of North Carolina. Although they were recognized by the state over a century ago, the Lumbee Tribe has not been recognized by the United States as a sovereign tribe.
“The fact that we are still here centuries after colonial expansion, centuries after war and disease … should be celebrated,” Lumbee Chairman John L. Lowery told The Robesonian, a local newspaper. Lowery declined an interview request from NBC News but said in a statement that he looks “forward to the White House formalizing the document and sending it over to congressional leadership.”
Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina Chairman John L. Lowery in front of the Lumbee Tribe Cultural Center in September 2023. Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina / Facebook
The Lumbees were denied the full benefits of recognition by the Lumbee Act of 1956, a law that prohibits the U.S. from having a federal relationship with the group. This blocks the tribe’s outright recognition along with access to government funding for needs such as health care, education and economic development.
“The more than 60,000 North Carolina members of the Lumbee Tribe have waited decades for federal recognition,” Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., said in a 2023 press release. “They deserve the same rights, privileges, and respect granted to other Native American tribes throughout our country.”
In the past, the Lumbees have looked to other means for recognition, including multiple bills in Congress, most of which never made it off the chamber floor due to backlash from established Native tribes. Now, Trump’s Interior Department is searching for another path forward — and these methods go around the traditional process established in 1978 by the Office of Federal Acknowledgment (OFA), which has granted recognition to more than 500 tribes across the nation.
By circumventing this evaluation, multiple Native groups and tribal leaders worry that this could set the wrong precedent for tribal recognition in the future. Chief Michell Hicks of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians says that a “diligent process” must be in place, and he worries about how this order could erode the current method of recognition.
“We’ve always known who we were and where we came from, and the difficulty with the Lumbee group is they’ve attempted to attach to a number of historical tribal and nontribal names, trying to identify themselves,” Hicks told NBC News. “I think part of it is just the clarity around who they are and are they truly a sovereign nation or are they remnants of something else, and not necessarily Native?”
For some chiefs like Brad KillsCrow of the Delaware Tribe of Indians, this order undermines the efforts that other Native groups have undertaken toward their own recognition.
“There’s a process that has been put in place, a process that we all have gone through and each of the 574 [recognized] tribes were able to prove who they were and their existence,” KillsCrow said. “Don’t try to take a back door and not do what everybody else has and then get federal recognition.”
Broader implications
For KillsCrow, the Lumbee Tribe’s recognition loophole is not a lone issue. The chief says he has interacted with multiple groups claiming to have Delaware ancestry but that haven’t proved their historic roots. He worries that if the Lumbee are able to successfully bypass the OFA standards, other organizations that haven’t met those guidelines will be able to do the same in the future.
KillsCrow also highlights some potential financial ramifications to Lumbee recognition. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it would cost over $350 million to recognize the Lumbee Tribe and provide it with the allotted benefits. As the leader of a small tribe, he worries this will strip money away from his own budget.
Hicks and KillsCrow believe this push for Lumbee recognition by the executive branch is rooted in the politicization of Native issues. Multiple times during campaign stops in North Carolina, Trump promised the Lumbee Tribe that it would be recognized under his administration. In Robeson County, North Carolina, where the Lumbee Tribe is headquartered, 63.3% of the population voted Republican last November. Previously, Trump carried the county by 51% in 2016 and 59% in 2020.
But making tribal recognition a voting issue risks Native voices going unheard depending on election winners, KillsCrow and Hicks argued.
“I would recommend to President Trump, let this go through the OFA process,” Hicks said. “Let the experts do their job. Whatever that answer is, it is.”
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Susan Brownmiller, a prominent feminist and author of the 1960s and ’70s whose “Against Our Will” was a landmark and intensely debated bestseller about sexual assault, has died. She was 90.
Brownmiller, who had been ill, died Saturday at a New York hospital, according to Emily Jane Goodman, a retired New York State Supreme Court justice and practicing attorney who serves as the executor of Brownmiller’s will.
A journalist, anti-war protester and civil rights activist before joining the “second wave” feminist movement in its formative years, Brownmiller was among many women who were radicalized in the ’60s and ’70s and part of the smaller circle that included Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan and Kate Millett who radicalized others.
While activists of the early 20th century focused on voting rights, the second wave feminism transformed conversations about sex, marriage reproductive rights, workplace harassment and domestic violence. Brownmiller, as much as anyone, opened up the discussion of rape.
“Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape,” published in 1975 and widely read and taught for decades after, documented the roots, prevalence and politics of rape — in war and in prison, against children and spouses. She denounced the glorification of rape in popular culture, contended that rape was an act of violence, not lust, and traced rape to the very foundations of human history.
“Man’s structural capacity to rape and woman’s corresponding structural vulnerability are as basic to the physiology of both our sexes as the primal act of sex itself,” she wrote.
In her 1999 memoir “In Our Time,” Brownmiller likened the writing of “Against Our Will” to “shooting an arrow into a bulls-eye in very slow motion.” Brownmiller started the book in the early 1970s after hearing stories from friends that made her shriek “with dismay.” It was chosen as a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and considered newsworthy enough for Brownmiller to be interviewed on the TODAY show by Barbara Walters. In 1976, Time magazine placed her picture on its cover, along with Billie Jean King, Betty Ford and nine others as “Women of the Year.”
Brownmiller’s book inspired survivors to tell their stories, women to organize rape crisis centers, and helped lead to the passage of marital rape laws. It was also received with fear, confusion and anger. Brownmiller remembered a newspaper reporter shouting at her, “You have no right to disturb my mind like this!”
Brownmiller was also faulted for writing that rape was an assertion of power that helped all men and was strongly criticized for a chapter titled “A Question of Race,” in which she revisited the 1955 murder in Mississippi of Black teen Emmett Till. Brownmiller condemned his gruesome death at the hands of a white mob but also blamed Till for the alleged incident that led to his death: whistling at Bryant’s wife, Carolyn Bryant.
The chapter reflected ongoing tensions between feminists and civil rights leaders, with activist Angela Davis writing that Brownmiller’s views were “pervaded with racist ideas.” In 2017, New Yorker editor David Remnick would call her writing about Till’s murder “morally oblivious.” Asked by Time magazine in 2015 about the passages on Till, she replied that she stood by “every word.”
Steinem would criticize Brownmiller for comments she made during a 2015 interview with New York magazine, when Brownmiller said that one way for women to avoid being assaulted was not to get drunk, suggesting that women themselves were to blame.
Brownmiller’s other books included “Femininity,” “Seeing Vietnam” and the novel “Waverly Place,” based on the highly publicized trial of lawyer Joel Steinberg, convicted in 1987 of manslaughter for the death of his 6-year-old daughter, Lisa. In recent years, Brownmiller taught at Pace University.
“She was an active feminist, she was not one to just agree with the popular issue of the day,” said Goodman, whose friendship with Brownmiller spanned decades.
She recalled remarkable gatherings, including poker nights, at Brownmiller’s longtime Greenwich Village apartment, which was the subject of her 2017 book, “My City Highrise Garden.”
Another longtime close friend, 92-year-old Alix Kates Shulman, a fellow writer and feminist, lived within walking distance.
“We were women’s liberation comrades,” she said.
Brownmiller was born in New York City in 1935, and would note proudly that her birthday, Feb. 15, was the same as Susan B. Anthony’s. Her father was a sales clerk, her mother a secretary and both were so devoted to Franklin Roosevelt and so knowledgeable of current events that Brownmiller “became very intense about these things too.” She was a Cornell University scholarship student at and had a brief “very mistaken ambition” to be a Broadway star, working as a file clerk and waitress as she hoped for roles that never materialized.
The civil rights movement changed her life.
She joined the Congress of Racial Equality in 1960 and four years later was among the “Freedom Summer” volunteers who went to Mississippi to help register Black people to vote. During the ‘60s, she also wrote for the Village Voice and for ABC television and was a researcher at Newsweek.
In the late 1970s, Brownmiller helped found the New York chapter of “Women Against Pornography,” with other members, including Steinem and Adrienne Rich. Organizers agreed that porn degraded and abused women, but differed over how to respond. Brownmiller wrote an influential essay, “Let’s Put Pornography Back in the Closet,” disputing arguments that pornography was protected by the First Amendment. But she opposed anti-porn leader Catherine MacKinnon’s push for legislation, believing that pornography was best confronted through education and protests.
In the 1980s, Brownmiller stepped back from activism and in her memoir noted her despair over the “slow seepage, symbolic defeats and petty divisions” that were both causes and symptoms of the movement’s decline. But she still remembered her earlier years as a rare and precious chapter.
“When such a coming-together takes place, when the vision is clear and the sisterhood is powerful, mountains are moved and the human landscape is changed forever,” Brownmiller wrote. “Of course it is wildly unrealistic to speak in one voice for half the human race, yet that is what feminism always attempts to do, and must do, and that is what Women’s Liberation did do, with astounding success, in our time.”
Phil Robertson, the bearded patriarch of A&E Network’s “Duck Dynasty,” has died, his family announced Sunday.
“We celebrate today that our father, husband, and grandfather, Phil Robertson, is now with the Lord,” his daughter-in-law Korie Robertson, wife of Willie Robertson, posted on Facebook. He was 79.
Korie Robertson thanked supporters for “the love and prayers of so many whose lives have been impacted by his life.”
The family will have a private funeral service, but a public celebration of his life is planned later, the post said.
The founder of Duck Commander duck calls in West Monroe, Louisiana, Robertson had moved into producing and writing numerous television shows that celebrated country living and people and featured his colorful family. In addition to “Duck Dynasty,” the series included “In the Woods with Phil” (2017), and “Duck Commander” (2009), according to IMDB.
At least 11 people were hospitalized Sunday night in a shooting at a South Carolina beach town, police said.
The Horry County Police Department said in a statement that more victims are likely to have been taken to medical facilities in private vehicles after the gunfire in the community of Little River. Conditions of the injured were unavailable.
Police described the investigation as “active” and “ongoing.”
“Community members are advised to steer clear of the area as public safety personnel do their work,” police said.
A North Myrtle Beach police officer responding to the shooting was injured when his gun accidentally fired, Myrtle Beach police said in a separate statement. The officer, who suffered a leg wound, was stabilized at a hospital, the department said.
The shooting sometime before 10 p.m. was isolated to its original location near the Intracoastal Waterway, police said. “There is no risk to the community at this time,” they said.
It wasn’t clear what precipitated the violence or whether more than one shooter may have been involved.
Little River is a community of more than 11,000 people along the South Carolina coast’s Grand Strand and near the border with North Carolina.
The town is known for its deep-sea fishing charters, boat cruises and casino boats. It is about 25 miles northeast of Myrtle Beach.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
This is why the Knicks traded for Karl-Anthony Towns.
With New York’s season hanging by a thread — down 10 on the road entering the fourth quarter in a series it already trailed 0-2 — Towns took over and scored 20 the rest of the way.
Karl-Anthony Towns scored 20 points in the fourth-quarter tonight!
He is the SECOND KNICK EVER to record 20+ points in a fourth-quarter of the playoffs in the PXP era 🤯😱
Combine that with the best New York defensive performance of these playoffs — their scrambling and ability to peel-switch off Haliburton to stay in front of him but cover pick-and-pop shooters has improved dramatically — and the improbable happened.
New York came back to take Game 3 106-100 on the road. Indiana still leads the series 2-1 but Game 4 on Tuesday night suddenly becomes a swing game in the Eastern Conference Finals.
This was a game where Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau tried everything.
Thibodeau made his big move before the game, starting Mitchell Robinson next to Karl-Anthony Towns and sending Josh Hart to the bench — and it worked out of the gate. Indiana shot 2-of-8 to open the game (although some of that was just missed open looks) and they had just one assist early, allowing New York to get out to a 15-10 lead.
Then Hart was subbed in for Towns, the Pacers hit back-to-back 3-pointers to retake the lead, and it was on.
Indiana dominated most of the rest of the first half.
A stretch in the second quarter summed up this game because both teams ran everything through or at Jalen Brunson. The Knicks had to initiate their offense with Brunson, not having another quality perimeter shot creator has been an issue, and it caught up with the Knicks here. On the other end, Indiana has targeted Brunson in pick-and-rolls and on switches relentlessly all series, but they were especially focused in this game and it spiraled into that second-quarter run where Indiana stretched its lead out to 20.
The other thing Tibodeau did was finally trust his bench (foul trouble for Towns and Brunson played into that). The Knicks came back with 16-4 run into the fourth quarter sparked by bench players — Miles “Duece” McBride and the previously unseen this series Delon Wright and Landry Shamet. Those guys brought the two-way play New York had been lacking.
Towns finished with 24 points and 15 rebounds, saving the Knicks’ season. Brunson finished with 23 points and despite a rough night came up clutch when it mattered.
Indiana shot 20% from 3 as a team (5-of-25) and got 20 points from Tyrese Haliburton and 19 from Myles Turner. That said, the Pacers struggled to create good looks when it mattered against a desperate Knicks team, and they will need to do that Tuesday to take control of this series.
MINNEAPOLIS — On Sunday, five years since the day George Floyd was killed, the Minneapolis square named for him was overflowing.
Hundreds gathered, as they have throughout recent days, with tears and renewed calls for justice for the man who died under a police officer’s knee while a crowd pleaded for him to stop.
Visitors on Sunday dropped colorful flowers — including many yellow roses — on the intersection where Floyd was murdered, decorating a memorial enshrining him on the city’s streets.
“The feeling that we have from previous ‘angelversaries’ is very different this year,” said Bridgette Stewart, a freelance journalist and community activist who lives in Minneapolis.
Stewart said her workplace is in George Floyd Square, so she is there “every day.” Five years on, a sense of calm has returned to the community, Stewart said, and people have started to come together.
“This is our first year, actually, where we haven’t had to have Homeland Security come in and do the whole bomb sweeping,” she noted.
Ximena Rayo, a 58-year-old school principal in the city, said she doesn’t live far from where Floyd was killed. She recalled the entire city being moved by the murder.
While “we’re nowhere where we need to be,” Rayo said, there are signs of progress. Namely she said, new people have been hired and the city’s mayor and police department are “really working on better ways.”
“It looks like people feel safe,” Rayo said.
The 5th annual “Rise & Remember Festival,” which its organizers say honors Floyd and others “lost unjustly to the pervasive impacts of systemic racism,” kicked off on Friday. On Saturday, bundles of colorful flowers marked Floyd’s memorial.
Billy Briggs, a live music photographer who lives just steps from George Floyd Square, described feeling intense anxiety leading up to the fifth anniversary of Floyd’s death, triggered by memories of that day. Briggs, who served as a caretaker of the square for a year, began photographing it as a way to cope with the trauma.
“When I watch families park in front of my house, walking over there [the square], sometimes it brings me a little bit tearful, because I know they’re going over for a hard lesson, but an important one,” Briggs said. “And I’m just glad that people are still coming and bringing their families here to teach that lesson.”
A view of the site where George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer. Sunday marked the five-year anniversary of the slaying, which sparked worldwide protests. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)Stephen Maturen / Getty Images
Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020, by white police officer Derek Chauvin, who used his knee to press the weight of his body on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, asphyxiating him.
Floyd’s dying words were “I can’t breathe.”
Those words became a rallying cry for millions outraged by his murder, including politicians, institutions, businesses and schools. Protesters across the country took to the streets to call for change, demanding that America reckon with its deep-seated racial injustices and reform its police departments.
Chauvin was sentenced to 21 years for violating Floyd’s civil rights and 22 1/2 years for second-degree murder. Minneapolis banned police chokeholds, and companies pledged more than $66 billion for racial equity initiatives.
Floyd’s life was celebrated in other cities as well on Sunday — his family held a private memorial service in Houston and his brother hosted a march in Brooklyn, New York, that led to the unveiling of a new community plaque honoring Floyd.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and activist, was one of the first to learn of Floyd’s death five years ago. When she watched the footage showing how he died, her heart was broken.
“I knew that I witnessed what felt like a lynching,” she said Saturday. “Tears began to stream down my face, and I was horrified by what I had seen.”
A protester in front of a burning building during a demonstration in Minneapolis in 2020 over the death of George Floyd.Chandan Khanna / AFP / Getty Images
Armstrong said the conditions that led to Floyd’s death “are still in place,” adding that she had hoped “people in positions of authority would do the right thing and that they would take intentional steps to change the laws and the policies that led to the murder of George Floyd.”
“We got crumbs when we asked for a whole feast, and that’s why we’re in a standstill as a city right now,” she said.
Armstrong expressed a desire for new leadership in Minneapolis, calling for a new mayor who can take control, reform the city’s police department and appoint a new police chief.
“Why are incidents still happening to Black residents? Why are they still not getting justice? Why are they still fearful?” Armstrong asked. “That points to one person, the leader over the Minneapolis Police Department, who appointed the chief. The chief is ill-equipped and underequipped to be the chief of a police department with this history and a diverse city. He needs to go as well.”
The Minneapolis Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
City Council member Andrea Jenkins, who represents Ward 8, where Floyd was killed, described the mood at the square over the weekend as a mix of somber reflection and joyful remembrance.
“I think people are feeling mixed emotions of all of those things,” she said. “And certainly remembering George Floyd, remembering the trauma that was inflicted then, but also recommitting to that resolve of continuing the fight for justice.”
Community members and Floyd family members gather around a mural of George Floyd at George Floyd Square to leave yellow roses and photos in his memory in Minneapolis on May 23, during a tribute marking nearly five years since Floyd’s killing by police.Kerem Yucel / AFP / Getty Images
Jenkins noted several significant changes in the city since Floyd was killed, including the formation of the Office of Public Safety, which integrates the police department, the fire department and emergency management. The city also created a behavioral crisis response team to respond to anyone experiencing mental health challenges.
“For a long time, I felt like Minneapolis Police Department was on an island out there by themselves and it was their own making, but now it feels like we pulled them back into the city enterprise and hopefully making them feel more a part of the community and less of the us-against-them,” Jenkins said.
Have the policy changes been enough? “No, but I think we’re on the path to significant change,” Jenkins said, adding that the current federal government is derailing some of the change she and others are fighting for.
“Which is, I think, the story of America,” she said. “Little progress, and then we regress.”
