Millions of people are using an online petition service to vent their frustration over the death of George Floyd.
A petition called “Justice for George Floyd” on the website Change.org has registered close to 5 million signatures since it was started after Floyd died while in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, earlier this week.
“George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer,” reads part of the petition. “We are trying to reach the attention of Mayor Jacob Frey and DA Mike Freeman to beg to have the officers involved in this disgusting situation fired and for charges to be filed immediately.”
Multiple buildings have been burned to the ground in Minneapolis over three days of protests this week. Protesters set ablaze one of the city’s police precincts as tensions boiled over in the aftermath of Floyd’s death. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was pinned to the ground via his neck by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, for several minutes as Floyd and onlookers begged him to stop. Floyd became unresponsive and was later declared dead at a local hospital.
Minneapolis isn’t the only place where throngs of people have gathered to voice their anger as protests also fomented in places such as Ohio, New York, California, and Arizona.
“George was handcuffed and restrained and being completely cooperative when this all went down,” the petition reads. “The officer put his knee on George’s neck choking him for minutes on minutes while George screamed that he could not breathe. Bystanders beg for the police officer to take his knee off George’s neck, but the officer didn’t listen and continued to choke him.”
According to a tweet by Change.org on Thursday, the petition has circulated quicker than any other petition in the site’s 13-year history.
