“It’s OK to be angry, but channel your anger to do something positive or make a change another way, because we’ve been down this road already.”
Those are the words of George Floyd’s brother, Terrence Floyd.
Last Monday, the 46-year-old George Floyd was killed by an ex-police officer in Minneapolis who held his knee on his neck for just shy of 10 minutes, when he passed away. George Floyd’s senseless death has sparked a week-long firestorm of protests and violent riots around the country.
Now his younger brother is calling for an end to the destruction.
“The anger, damaging your hometown is not the way he’d want,” Terrence Floyd said during an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Terrence Floyd was also joined on “GMA” by the Rev. Kevin McCall, who said, “The Bible says, ‘Be angry, but sin not.’ So it’s good to protest, and we want to continue to keep the protests while we continue to call for justice. But we need peace. We don’t need looters, we need peace. And the best way that you can get peace is on your knees, praying and asking God to hear our cry.”
McCall went on to urge protesters to listen to the Floyd family’s call for peaceful demonstrations over violent riots, because “it’s not about what you want.”
During a separate interview with ABC News, Terrence Floyd said his brother “was about peace” and “all about positivity, motivation.”
“I’m outraged, too,” he said. “I get angry, I wanna bust some heads, too. I wanna get, you know, crazy. But I’m here to — my brother wasn’t about that. My brother was about peace. My brother, he was, you’ll hear a lot of people say he was a ‘gentle giant.’”
He continued:
I just had to come down here to speak to people, and let people know that — just channel your anger elsewhere. Don’t tear up your town. All of this is not necessary, because if his own family and blood is not doin’ it, then why are you? If his own family and blood is trying to deal with it and be positive about it and go a certain, go another route to seek justice, then why are you out here tearing up your community? Because when you finish, and then you turn around, and you wanna go buy something, you done tore up. So now you’ve messed up your own living arrangements. So just relax. Justice will be served.
Terrence Floyd’s overarching concern about the violent riots is there are people co-opting peaceful demonstrations.
As a result, his brother’s memory is being lost.
“Do something positive; stop making excuses,” he said. “And that’s what I feel is going on: They’re using this as an excuse to be stupid.”
I wrote more about signs of hope here.