The one-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd by a former Minneapolis police officer will be marked today with an event in Northampton.
The local activist group Northampton Abolition Now is hosting a standout from 4pm-5pm in front of Northampton City Hall.
It will feature speeches and conclude with nine minutes and 29 seconds of silence – the amount of time that former police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck.
After the standout, the group plans to set up equipment to let people testify at the Northampton City Council’s budget hearing.
The activists want the police department’s budget cut by 50 percent and the money transferred to a new city agency that would take over some of the tasks now done by the police.
WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief spoke with Ashwin Ravikumar, an organizer with Northampton Abolition Now.