“Please, please, I can’t breathe,” this was the haunting last plea of George Floyd as a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into his neck.
George Floyd was brutally murdered on Monday by arresting officer Derek Chauvin. His throat crushed while he begged for his life, as bystanders pleaded for mercy.
Mercy never came.
By Tuesday, protestors took to the streets begging for justice to be done. Thousands of people marched to the site of the murder, chanting “I can’t breathe,” and “It could’ve been me.”
What began as peaceful protests in Minneapolis, however, soon turned violent. Police responded to the mounting tension by firing rubber bullets, tear gas, and flash grenades into the crowds.
The unrest quickly escalated, as violence begat violence. The 3rd Precinct, home of the 4 officers involved in Floyd’s death, has been set ablaze, and various businesses in the area have been looted and ransacked.
One of these businesses? Target.
The store, located on Lake Street, is in close proximity to the police headquarters. On Wednesday, looters took to the store aisles, stealing merchandise off the shelves, and destroying most of the store. Glass from broken windows and debris litter the flooded floors, and shelving and beverage coolers have been ripped apart.
Target has responded to the ransacking and widespread damage in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
Chairman and CEO, Brian Cornell, posted a statement to Target’s corporate website on Friday, beginning with:
“We are a community in pain,”
It goes on to read:
The murder of George Floyd has unleashed the pent-up pain of years, as have the killings of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. We say their names and hold a too-long list of others in our hearts.
As a Target team, we’ve huddled, we’ve consoled, we’ve witnessed horrific scenes similar to what’s playing out now and wept that not enough is changing.
And as a team we’ve vowed to face pain with purpose.
The purpose? To assist those people in the very midst of the violent outbursts, even as Target has shut its doors. As of Wednesday, the company has closed down more than a dozen stores in the Minneapolis-St.Paul region. There is no word on when the stores will re-open.
The company will be distributing first aid equipment, bottled water, and baby essentials to the areas that have been hardest hit by the protests.
As I write this, our merchant and distribution teams are preparing truckloads of first aid equipment and medicine, bottled water, baby formula, diapers and other essentials, to help ensure that no one within the areas of heaviest damage and demonstration is cut off from needed supplies.
In addition, Cornell promises that the more than 200 members of the Lake Street store in Minneapolis will continue to have full pay and benefits. He also promises to rebuild the store, which has been a fixture in the community since 1976.
As the riots continue and spread to other cities in the U.S., Cornell emphasizes that the safety and well-being of Target employees, guests and the surrounding community will take priority.
Since the country was rocked by images shared on social media of George’s death, the protests have reached a fevered pitch. The Pentagon has now put the military police on alert.
And as he pledges Target’s assistance to those in need, Cornell also calls for healing, promising to do whatever it takes to provide help and resources to families in Minnesota.
It’s hard to see now, but the day will come for healing—and our team will join our hearts, hands and resources in that journey.
Even now, Target leaders are assembling community members, partners and local officials to help identify what more we can do together and what resources are required to help families, starting right here in Minnesota.
Cornell ends the statement with yet more words of encouragement. Calling upon the love and “opportunity for all,” that the company is committed to upholding.
Since we opened our doors, Target has operated with love and opportunity for all. And in that spirit, we commit to contributing to a city and community that will turn the pain we’re all experiencing into better days for everyone.
The United States is facing an epidemic.
Racism continues to thread its poison throughout our country. Black men and women are being brutally targeted, and the price? Their lives.
Over the course of just a few months, there have been several high profile deaths of black people at the hands of white racists. Deaths that never should have happened. Lives that never should have been lost.
And it needs to stop. It HAS to stop.
And we hope, along with Target, that the pain will not be in vain. That the senseless loss of lives will end. George Floyd’s life mattered. His death, matters. George cannot be saved. But others can. Much-needed change CAN happen. And when it does, those better days? Will come. For everyone.
Violence begets violence. Unfortunately, our leaders at the TOP have not done enough to address the growing divide within a nation that says: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands ONE NATION, UNDER GOD, FOR LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL. I’m Puerto Rican, an American citizen which unfortunately many White Americans don’t know our history and that we are American Citizens. In order for this country to begin healing, it must begin at the top with our President, our political leaders who were elected to represent the People of these United States and not their own personal agenda or continued tug of war between parties, the justice system of this nation, and the police force. The police force must do a better job in training and filtering out people who have no business entering into the police force to only use the badge to dishonor it and to dishonor police officers who have given their lives in the line of duty to protect civilians and who dishonor the good cops that care. I love shopping at Targets and hope that better days are ahead of us. I hope our country begins healing. Our leaders must begin to address how the continuing threat and infiltration of white supremacy and Nazism is affecting our democracy and peace in this country. I wanted to end by sharing how Puerto Ricans on the Island made a difference and ousted the corrupt governor and other leaders on the Island, peacefully by standing together as one. United we stand. Divided we fall and become a weak Nation and vulnerable in the eyes of our enemies who wish to see America fall on its knees. Peace to All.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/07/22/thousands-take-streets-puerto-rico-demand-gov-ricardo-rossell-resign/
Shame on these protesters. You’re ruining the purpose of your protest by letting instigators goad u to do damage. Target and other businesses should sue the organizers. It should be done so future protest policed by these groups.
>”His throat crushed”
Wrong: “No physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation”; however, the combined effects of being pinned down by an officer as well as “his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death.”
Floyd previously entered a woman’s home, pointed a gun at her stomach, and searched for drugs/money.
He was sentenced to 10 months in jail for possessing cocaine in 2005, too.
He did 8 months for the same offense in 2002.
He served 30 days for criminal trespassing.
And yet another stint for theft in August 1998.
Coronary artery disease.
Hypertensive heart disease.
He had fentanyl in his system when he died.
Arbery had a long rap-sheet, too, including for carrying a loaded gun into a school he did not atteng.
What is the response of Target (champion of men entering ladies’ rooms to micturate) to the murder of 2 elderly white people at their son’s grave by a black male?