KAISER HEALTHCARE WORKERS IN LA MESA HOLD KNEEL-DOWN FOR GEORGE FLOYD

By Miriam Raftery

June 8, 2020 (La Mesa) – Healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente in La Mesa held a kneel-down Friday, June 5th at 11:30 a.m. to honor the memory of George Floyd and support the national call for justice. The kneel-down has become a part of protests nationwide, held for eight and a half minutes, the length of time that a Minneapolis police offer knelt on Floyd’s neck before he died.

Floyd was suspected of passing a $20 counterfeit bill at a local store. The police officer who killed him has been charged with second degree murder. Several other officers who looked on but failed to intervene have also been charged with serious crimes.

His death, the latest in a string of brutal deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of white policemen, has become a rallying cry across the U.S. and worldwide calling for reforms to end police brutality, racial profiling and unjustified killing by police officers.

These are the last words of George Floyd:

It’s my face, man

I didn't do nothing serious man

please, please, please I can't breathe

please man

please somebody

please man

I can't breathe

I can't breathe

please

(inaudible)

man can't breathe, my face

just get up

I can't breathe

lease, a knee on my neck

I can't breathe

shit

I will

I can't move

Mama

Mama

I can't

my knee

my neck

I'm through

I'm through

I'm claustrophobic

my stomach hurt

my neck hurts

everything hurts

some water or something

please

please

I can't breathe officer

don't kill me

they're gonna kill me, man

come on man

I cannot breathe

I cannot breathe

they're gonna kill me

they're gonna kill me

I can't breathe

I can't breathe

please sir

please

please

please I can't breathe"



Then his eyes closed the pleas stop. George Floyd was pronounced dead shortly after.

Miriam Raftery, editor and founder of East County Magazine, has over 35 years of journalism experience. She has won more than 350 journalism awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club, and the American Society of Journalists & Authors. Her honors include the Sol Price Award for responsible journalism and three James Julian awards for public interest reporting from SPJ’s San Diego chapter. She has received top honors for investigative journalism, multicultural reporting, coverage of immigrant and refugee issues, politics, breaking news and more. Thousands of her articles have appeared in national and regional publications.

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