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Go Floyd! Huge support for 9-year-old heading to World Dwarf Games

One multi-talented nine-year-old boy from Northern New South Wales is hard at work preparing to represent Australia at the World Dwarf Games. Floyd Morley was born with a form of dwarfism known as achondroplasia - a condition considered to be one of the most common types of short-limbed dwarfism, said to affect approximately one in every 25,000 people. His parents - mother Jade and father Ross - were initially concerned about the challenges their son may face in life, considering everything from potential health conditions to bullying. “At the beginning, we were really worried about all his health concerns,” Jade explained to A Current Affair’s Leila McKinnon, “we were worried that he was going to get picked on, we worried that he was going to get bullied.” However, all the pair truly wanted was for everyone to “celebrate him. He’s the best. He is the best kid.” After too much time spent unable to catch anyone playing tag, or finishing behind his peers in school races, Floyd was left feeling “very frustrated” and “very lonely.” “I didn’t really realise how much it affected him,” Jade admitted. “I didn’t really feel that confident,” Floyd explained, “of playing soccer. I only just took to surfing and handball.” And now, everyone will have the chance to see that Floyd is the best at what he does, with the nine-year-old’s sights set on competing in Germany alongside his friends and teammates. It was a convention for short-statured people that changed things, giving Floyd the opportunity he needed and deserved to find his confidence and joy in what he was doing. "He comes running up to me and he has had this beam of light and he was like, 'Mum, I caught them in tag'," Jade said of that pivotal moment. "No one was slowing down for him to catch them … then he participated in soccer and basketball and he was like, 'oh my God, I'm good at this'." As Floyd’s pride for himself and what he could accomplish grew, and his connection to those who were like him, so did Jade’s - as she had said, “I just want him to be proud and to have that real soul about him that’s like ‘I am proud of who I am’” - with his mother also confessing that it had been a “beautiful experience.” When asked what the upcoming World Dwarf Games meant to him, Floyd wasted no time in declaring that he “felt really proud of myself, I felt really great, I couldn’t wait to meet all these people that were just like me.” The games - which take place every four years in Germany - are run by volunteers, and the Australian team rely on fundraising and donations for their financial assistance. Funds go towards training costs for the athletes, as well as travel to and from the games, and are vital for budding talents such as young Floyd. Short Statured People of Australia set up a fundraiser for the 2023 competition, and their page has seen a flood of love and support for Floyd and his team, after Jade admitted that “we're looking for multiple sponsors or one really big sponsor. We've got shirts, we want to put sponsors' names on them." “You deserve the world Floyd,” wrote one donor. “Keep shining your magic!” “Go Floyd! And all the amazing guys and girls participating in the games,” said another. “What an inspiration you all are. I will be following these games all the way.” “Go Team Australia! Can’t wait for My Sophia to join you in the future!!” said one proud supporter. And as another put it, “way to go Floyd. You’re a true inspiration of your parents.” Images: A Current Affair / Nine

Caring

The Dark Side of the Moon at 50: how Marx, trauma and compassion all influenced Pink Floyd’s masterpiece

Dixi et salvavi animam meam. This Latin phrase – I have spoken and saved my soul – sits at the end of Karl Marx’s <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/">Critique of the Gotha Programme</a>. Written in 1875, this text imagines a communist society that will come about “after the enslaving of the individual to the division of labour, and thereby also the antithesis between mental and physical labour has vanished”. Only then, Marx argues, “can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be completely transcended and society inscribe on its banners: from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs!” Roger Waters – bassist, lyricist and conceptual mastermind behind Pink Floyd’s 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon, released 50 years ago today – knows Marx’s Critique. Indeed, he quotes it when discussing the record with music journalist John Harris. “Making The Dark Side of the Moon, we were all trying to do as much as we possibly could,” Waters <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/301401">told</a> Harris. "It was a very communal thing. What’s that old Marxist maxim? ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.’ That’s sort of the way the band worked at that point." Assertions about solidarity, cooperation and shared “unity of purpose” – as Waters says – situate Dark Side in the context of Pink Floyd’s <a href="https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/pink-floyd-roger-waters-david-gilmour-feud/">notoriously fractious</a> recording career and helps us understand the album’s enduring appeal. <h2>Shine on you crazy diamond</h2> Pink Floyd formed in London in 1965. Led by the charismatic songwriter, guitarist and lead vocalist Syd Barrett, the group established itself as a leader in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_underground">London underground music scene</a>. They released their debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn in 1967. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_Machine">Soft Machine</a> member Kevin Ayers <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/pink-floyds-the-piper-at-the-gates-of-dawn-9781441185174/">described</a> The Piper at the Gates of Dawn as “something magical, but it was in Syd Barrett”. Not long after the record’s release, Barrett suffered a catastrophic, LSD-induced breakdown. In response, the band recruited David Gilmour on guitar and recorded a second album, A Saucerful of Secrets, as a five-piece in 1968. Around this time, the increasingly unstable Barrett was unceremoniously ousted by the rest of the band. After Barrett left, says Ayers, “Pink Floyd became something else totally”. There are different versions of Pink Floyd. The recordings released after Barrett left the band in 1968 bear little resemblance to the first. Dark Side sounds nothing like the whimsical Piper. But it is obvious the record is in large part preoccupied with the loss of Barrett. This preoccupation comes to the fore in the album’s penultimate track. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1OOQP1-wOE&ab_channel=HDPinkFloyd">Brain Damage</a>, written and sung by Waters, references Barrett’s adolescence (“Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs”), alludes to his illness (“And if the dam breaks open many years too soon”), and acknowledges his leaving the group (“And if the band you’re in starts playing different tunes; I’ll see you on the dark side of the Moon”). Drummer Nick Mason confirms the group didn’t want to lose Barrett. In his <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/265734.Inside_Out">autobiography</a>, he writes, "He was our songwriter, singer, guitarist, and – although you might not have known from our less than sympathetic treatment of him – he was our friend." <h2>If the dam breaks open many years too soon</h2> What we hear on The Dark Side of the Moon is a band dealing with trauma. In this sense, Dark Side represents the start of a reckoning with the past – a process that culminated with the band’s next record, 1975’s elegiac <a href="https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/wish-you-were-here-pink-floyd-seminal-ode-to-the-tragic-life-of-syd-barrett/">Wish You Were Here</a>. Culmination is a useful term when it comes to Dark Side more generally. On this record, all the avant-garde techniques and tendencies the band had toyed with in the post-Barrett period – <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musique_concr%C3%A8te">musique concrète</a>, sonic manipulation, extended improvisation, analogue tape manipulation – come together to spectacular effect. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0kcet4aPpQ">Money</a> – with its anti-capitalist lyrics penned by Waters (“Money, it’s a crime; share it fairly, but don’t take a slice of my pie”), odd time signature, and handmade tape-loops mimicking the sounds of cash tills, bags of coins being dropped from great height and bank notes being torn up – is one of the stranger hit singles in pop music history. Be that as it may, Money and the album from which it is taken, of which <a href="https://www.pinkfloyd.com/tdsotm50/">more than 50 million copies</a> have been sold, continue to resonate with listeners worldwide, five decades on from its initial release. <h2>The enormous risk of being truly banal</h2> “I made a conscious effort when I was writing the lyrics for Dark Side of the Moon to take the enormous risk of being truly banal about a lot of it,” Waters told John Harris, “in order that the ideas should be expressed as simply and plainly as possible.” On this point, <a href="https://www.loudersound.com/news/david-gilmour-says-its-pretty-unlikely-he-and-roger-waters-will-resolve-pink-floyd-feud">if nothing else</a>, David Gilmour agrees. He told Harris, "There was definitely a feeling that the words were going to be very clear and specific. That was a leap forward. Things would mean what they meant. That was a distinct step away from what we had done before." Mortality, insanity, conflict, affluence, poverty and, in another nod to Marx, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation">alienation</a> are some of the themes presented on the record. The need – and this brings us full circle – for compassion, if not outright solidarity, is another. This is an album about the importance of understanding, as Waters <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/301401">insists, "T</a>he potential that human beings have for recognising each other’s humanity and responding to it, with empathy rather than antipathy." Given the sorry state of the world in 2023, about which Roger Waters has many <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-64580688">contentious</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/feb/07/pink-floyd-lyricist-calls-roger-waters-an-antisemite-and-putin-apologist">problematic</a> things to say, I wager Pink Floyd’s masterwork will continue to resonate with listeners for a while yet. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-dark-side-of-the-moon-at-50-how-marx-trauma-and-compassion-all-influenced-pink-floyds-masterpiece-198400" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Music

How Stoicism influenced music from the French Renaissance to Pink Floyd

Have you ever turned to music when struggling with a difficult emotion, like sadness, anxiety or anger? Most people believe that music has some therapeutic power, and that confidence is increasingly backed by <a href="https://www.musictherapy.org/research/sound_health_initiative/">empirical evidence</a>. However, there remains little consensus on precisely how or why music has an ability to influence our emotional, physical and mental well-being. Since ancient times, physicians and philosophers have explored the power of music in human life. Although the writings of Plato and Aristotle are more famous, another ancient school of philosophy, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/">Stoicism</a>, cultivated an interest in music’s therapeutic potential. Given that the word “<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stoic">stoic</a>” is mostly used to describe a rigid, emotionless person, Stoic musical practices would seem doomed to the boring or bizarre. But Stoicism – the capital “S” kind – is a school of thought that’s really more about managing turbulent emotions in everyday life. This casts their connection to music in a different light, and it helps explain how Stoicism positively shaped the course of intellectual and music history. <h2>Control what you can</h2> Founded in ancient Athens and peaking in popularity in first century Rome, Stoicism was developed by philosophers like <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/seneca/">Seneca</a>, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epictetus/">Epictetus</a> and the Roman emperor <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcus-aurelius/">Marcus Aurelius</a> to manage destructive emotions such as anxiety, anger and grief through exercises that shift perspective. The question of control forms the core of this method. The Stoics taught that it is only by recognizing and accepting what is beyond a person’s control that a person can exert maximal control over what is within their power. Importantly, the Stoic approach does not seek to directly suppress bad emotions but focuses instead on reshaping a person’s worldview, so that when they encounter difficulty or trauma, they will be prepared to experience emotions less destructively. This strategy of putting things in perspective may seem familiar; the founders of cognitive behavioral therapy, <a href="https://theconversation.com/cbt-dbt-psychodynamic-what-type-of-therapy-is-right-for-me-171101">one of the most popular forms of psychotherapy today</a>, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Philosophy-of-Cognitive-Behavioural-Therapy-CBT-Stoic-Philosophy/Robertson/p/book/9780367219147">directly borrowed from Stoicism</a>. In recent years – and especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic – interest in Stoicism <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/apr/16/how-stoics-are-speaking-to-locked-down-readers">has surged</a>, with people from diverse political and economic backgrounds recognizing the efficacy of this ancient system to address afflictions like anxiety and addiction. <h2>In turbulent times, Neostoicism emerges</h2> So where does music fit into all of this? <a href="https://tufts.academia.edu/MelindaLatour">As a historical musicologist</a>, I have done <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-voice-of-virtue-9780197529744?q=voice%20of%20virtue&lang=en&cc=us">extensive research</a> on musical practices inspired by the revival of Stoicism in late-16th and 17th-century France, a movement known as Neostoicism. Emerging in the wake of the violent <a href="https://explore.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/show/renaissance-in-print/frenchwarsofreligion">French Wars of Religion</a>, Neostoics looked to Stoicism as a remedy for social and political instability. They developed a vocal music repertoire to teach the principles of the system, guiding singers and listeners to “rehearse” Stoic techniques of emotional regulation through informal musical gatherings in people’s homes. These songs illustrated Stoic principles through musical “<a href="https://youtu.be/HaQTq6LsggA">text painting</a>,” in which specific words, actions or concepts were musically conveyed through sound – and, sometimes, visuals – in the score. Take an example from 1582 – “L’eau va viste,” a poem by Antoine de Chandieu that was set to music by Paschal de L’Estocart. Numerous Stoic writings, such as Seneca’s “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/On-the-Brevity-of-Life">On the Brevity of Life</a>,” evoke similar imagery of running water to warn against placing one’s happiness in external comforts and securities, which, like a current, quickly pass. L’Estocart’s musical arrangement for “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYKsBPxmenc">L’eau va viste</a>” picks up on this quality of motion. A snowballing rhythm gains momentum with each new example of quick passing. <h2>The river of time</h2> Zoom ahead almost four centuries, and the English rock band Pink Floyd composed a strikingly similar musical reflection in their iconic song “Time” from their 1973 album, “<a href="https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/DarkSideOfTheMoon.pdf">Dark Side of the Moon</a>.” The album outlines all the major forces and concerns that can drive people insane: aging, death, fear, greed and violence. Mental health held particular salience for the band. Their founding frontman, Syd Barrett, <a href="https://www.pastemagazine.com/science/psychedelics/was-syd-barrett-an-acid-casualty/">had a mental breakdown</a> only a few years prior. According to Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, the album is about “life with a heartbeat,” and the band signals this by opening and closing the album with a slow, simulated heartbeat that sounds somehow both mechanical and profoundly human. Developing this rhythmic symbolism further, the single “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgXozIma-Oc">Time</a>” uses numerous musical strategies to draw attention to the fragility of human life. The track opens with a meandering two-and-a-half minute instrumental introduction, slowly building from a breathy synthesizer drone to the disorienting sound of numerous ticking clocks. Then there’s a cacophony of alarms before listeners hear a mechanical bass click that sounds like a metronome or a mechanical heartbeat. The entrance of the electric guitar and increasingly regular musical phrases finally set up the arrival of <a href="https://genius.com/Pink-floyd-time-lyrics">the vocals in the first verse</a>: “Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day / fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way.” This unusual extended instrumental introduction destabilizes a listener’s expectation of musical time and demands greater attention to the moment-by-moment sensations of its passing. The lyrics throughout the song reinforce this initial musical warning –that listeners must pay close attention to the flow of time and to make sure it’s used with purpose and meaning. “The time is gone. The song is over,” <a href="https://genius.com/Pink-floyd-time-lyrics">the lyrics conclude</a>, “Thought I’d something more to say.” <h2>An internal store of power</h2> These two musical examples, composed nearly 400 years apart, model a core element of Stoic therapy: By meditating on the fragility of time, Stoics seek not to instill dread, but to reveal death and transience as natural aspects of the human experience that can be faced without anxiety. This calm acceptance offers a release from destructive emotions like fear and yearning that pull our attention to the future and the past. <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/6367/meditations-by-marcus-aurelius-a-new-translation-by-gregory-hays/9781588361738">As Marcus Aurelius recommended</a>, “Give yourself a gift – the present moment.” Stoicism and its abundant artistic echoes are easily misread as pessimistic because of this relentless focus on human mortality and fragility. This negative reading misses Stoicism’s profoundly optimistic and empowering message, which is that our mental freedom remains in our control, regardless of our external circumstances. Waters highlighted exactly this point in his defense of the humanism of “Dark Side of the Moon,” <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Rough_Guide_to_Pink_Floyd.html?id=yHsZAQAAIAAJ">explaining that</a> “Despite the rather depressing ending … there is an allowance that all things are possible, that the potential is in our hands.” Music, from this perspective, offers a way to learn about the therapeutic method of the Stoics in a way that goes beyond the contemplation of philosophical lyrics. These examples – and many others in the Stoic tradition that so thoughtfully unite words and sounds – transform helpful Stoic advice into a therapeutic practice guided through the twists and turns of song. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-stoicism-influenced-music-from-the-french-renaissance-to-pink-floyd-181701" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Music

George Floyd deserved a better life

George Perry Floyd, Jr. was murdered when Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin sank his knee into Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds. Video footage went viral within hours, helping to inspire protests against racism and police violence that lasted all the American summer of 2020. But while the size of the protests was unprecedented, the activism of that summer had <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-fury-in-us-cities-is-rooted-in-a-long-history-of-racist-policing-violence-and-inequality-139752" target="_blank" rel="noopener">deep roots</a>. Journalists across the United States and indeed the world, focused attention on that history of protest, as they had done during the 2014 police killings of Eric Garner, choked to death in New York, and Michael Brown, shot in Ferguson, Missouri. At the Washington Post, reporters and researchers devoted significant resources to a six-part series, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/10/12/george-floyd-america/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">George Floyd’s America</a>. Now, two of those journalists, Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, have expanded the work into a book: <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/703358/his-name-is-george-floyd-by-robert-samuels-and-toluse-olorunnipa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice</a>. When Floyd was born in 1973, 200,000 people were incarcerated in the US. By the time of his death, as Samuels and Olorunnipa point out, that number exceeded 2 million. The proportionate rate of growth of that number in <a href="https://usafacts.org/data/topics/security-safety/crime-and-justice/jail-and-prisons/prisoners/?utm_source=usnews&utm_medium=partnership&utm_campaign=fellowship&utm_content=bracketed_link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Texas</a>, where Floyd grew up, is even worse. <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2021-10-13/report-highlights-staggering-racial-disparities-in-us-incarceration-rates" target="_blank" rel="noopener">African Americans are locked up at 4.75 times the rate of white Americans; Latinos at 1.3 times the rate</a>. This <a href="https://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/intl-rates.png" target="_blank" rel="noopener">extraordinary rate of incarceration</a> is a political choice rather than a reflection of more violent criminals being locked up. Rates of incarceration <a href="https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download;jsessionid=ED19CF648065ABC51FE1605ED5D77E32?doi=10.1.1.462.6544&rep=rep1&type=pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increase</a> with political conservatism and the increased rates of poverty, income inequality and unemployment that accompany that conservatism. Extensive investment in prisons, jails and police forces has created a self-perpetuating system that evolves by producing the very criminals it locks up. This life-and-times biography poignantly depicts the mechanisms by which African Americans, especially male children and adults, become disproportionately the fodder for that system. A long history of racism, it might be said, funnelled George Floyd to prison. <h2>The grandson of sharecroppers</h2> Floyd’s two parents were both born to <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sharecropper" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sharecroppers</a> in North Carolina. The cycle of poverty in which they were trapped was not of their own making. Black Americans have been prevented from building wealth from the moment slavery ended. Floyd’s great-great-grandfather, for example, who was born into slavery in 1857, amassed land worth $US30,000 in 1920, but his white neighbours stole it from him by a mixture of fraud underpinned by the threat of violence. That tale is absolutely typical for a majority of Black families in the US South. The knock-on effects have been intensified by government policies that meant for generations, Black Americans had <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-see-the-legacy-of-slavery-look-at-present-day-school-systems-43896" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fewer opportunities for education</a>; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/opinion/sunday/race-wage-gap.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">earned</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/04/economic-divide-black-households/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">less</a> even for the same work; and were <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/11/17/1049052531/racial-covenants-housing-discrimination" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prevented</a> <a href="https://aas.princeton.edu/news/2020-pulitzer-prize-finalist-history-race-profit-how-banks-and-real-estate-industry-undermined" target="_blank" rel="noopener">from buying property</a> that would <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/12/4/20953282/racism-housing-discrimination-keeanga-yamahtta-taylor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">build wealth over generations</a>. Desperate for a better life for her three children, Floyd’s mother uprooted them to Houston, Texas, when Floyd was four. There, they lived in public housing in the segregated <a href="https://www.gpb.org/news/2020/07/20/george-floyds-third-ward-reflections-on-the-neighborhood-made-him" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Third Ward</a>. Government policies that requisitioned homes from Black residents elsewhere in Houston had forced them into this section of the city. In the Cuney Homes development, known as “the Bricks,” even today the median income is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/george-floyd-neighborhood-stimulus/2021/04/09/59f57e7c-9623-11eb-962b-78c1d8228819_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">US$15,538</a>, well under half the <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N" target="_blank" rel="noopener">national average</a>. Floyd attended the local Jack Yates Senior High School, opened in 1926 when education was segregated by race and never the equal of other Houston schools catering to white children. As Floyd grew to 193 centimetres tall, he learned to offset the alarm that his size and colour induced in people. He became self-deprecating and deliberately easy-going, charming people across generations everywhere he went. Excelling at football, he secured entry to college. But Floyd’s dreams of playing pro football were stymied by his academic achievements. Never good at tests, Floyd fell behind by middle school and struggled to graduate high school. There were just not the resources in the schools to make up for living in poverty in an overcrowded flat with the responsibilities of caring for relatives. After four years at two colleges, Floyd dropped out and returned to Houston. Not long after, he was arrested for the first time for selling drugs. Samuels and Olorunnipa do an extremely good job of showing that at every node along the passage toward being turned into fodder for the prison-industrial complex, Floyd’s chance of escape was significantly less than that of a white man of the same age. Reading how Floyd’s options narrowed, it was impossible not to share his frustration and despair. <h2>Forensic exposé of injustice</h2> Quotas for arrests meant police sought the “low-hanging fruit” of petty drug dealing done on the streets. Misconduct charges for these police officers are common: the cop who arrested Floyd in 1997 for selling drugs was sacked in 2002 after being charged with theft and hampering arrest. The officer who arrested Floyd in 2004 was “later accused of falsifying charges in hundreds of drug cases, including the one involving Floyd.” Chauvin himself had faced <a href="http://complaints.cuapb.org/police_archive/officer/2377/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">29 charges</a> of misconduct and internal investigations prior to murdering Floyd. (Only 18 appear on the city’s police internal affairs records.) But because <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/state-policing-reforms-george-floyds-murder" target="_blank" rel="noopener">records of “decertification” are patchy</a>, such “wandering” officers can often get themselves <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/wandering-cops-moving-from-department-to-department-is-a-roadblock-to-police-accountability" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rehired</a>. The officers can stay unaccountable by targeting impoverished men who, unable to afford lawyers, are more likely to accept plea deals. Floyd was never tried by jury; he rather accepted eight plea deals. He knew that even if he got to court, the decision was unlikely to be positive because the state of Texas does not provide public defenders. Rather, the court pays for a private lawyer to defend those who can’t afford their own representation. Judges in Harris County, where Houston is located, more often than not will appoint lawyers who had donated to their election campaigns. In 2007, police arrested Floyd for a violent assault on evidence provided by a dubious photo ID process. (It has since been improved.) Facing up to 40 years of prison, a reluctant Floyd accepted a plea deal for five. Claustrophobia made Floyd’s time in prison difficult, and yet he discovered that none of the mental health, drug addiction, or education programs included in legislation such as the notorious <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/1994-crime-bill-and-beyond-how-federal-funding-shapes-criminal-justice" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1994 Crime Bill</a>, which sloshed billions of dollars into prison building, were available. As the authors point out, it was only after the <a href="https://www.communitycatalyst.org/blog/how-structural-racism-fuels-the-response-to-the-opioid-crisis#.YtX8puxBxqs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opioid crisis</a> hit white communities that such funds were expended. In short, whereas policymakers declared crack cocaine a crime problem, they saw opiate addictions, more commonly associated with white people, as an epidemic or public health emergency. The man responsible for prosecuting the case against Derek Chauvin, Jerry Blackwell, knew well the racism inherent at every level of what we uncritically call “the criminal justice system.” Blackwell anticipated the defence would claim that Floyd’s drug use or some physical anomaly was the reason he had died. He therefore required an independent medical examiner review the coronial findings into Floyd’s death. That person, and the examiner who worked for the Floyd family in the civil case against the city of Minneapolis (which the city settled before trial for a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/03/13/976785212/minneapolis-agrees-to-pay-27-million-to-family-of-george-floyd" target="_blank" rel="noopener">record $US27 million</a>), both questioned whether the autopsy had been conducted correctly. Specifically, they doubted whether the incisions made on Floyd’s body were sufficient to ascertain the cause of death. And, indeed, the defence claimed that Floyd’s drug use and a supposedly enlarged heart had contributed to his death. This was not unique; as the authors report, in 2021 researchers found evidence that medical examiners “had misclassified or covered up nearly 17,000 deaths that involved police between 1980 and 2018”. All this detail might make the book sound dull, but the research is woven lightly through the account of Floyd’s life so as to maintain momentum. We learn too about Floyd’s family, friends, girlfriends, and his young daughter Gianna. The authors bring to life Floyd’s ability to take people as he found them, underpinned by a deep Christian faith in God. <h2>Activism</h2> The final third of the book, which focuses on events after Floyd’s death, is also gripping. Even as we know the outcome, the twists and turns in the criminal case against Chauvin make for heart-in-the-mouth reading. Chauvin was <a href="https://theconversation.com/relief-at-derek-chauvin-conviction-a-sign-of-long-history-of-police-brutality-159212" target="_blank" rel="noopener">convicted of murder and manslaughter</a> and is serving a 22-and-a-half year sentence. And in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/07/derek-chauvin-sentenced-violating-george-floyd-civil-rights" target="_blank" rel="noopener">early July</a> a federal judge sentenced Chauvin to 21 years in prison for violating George Floyd’s civil rights – the sentence will be served concurrently.) Even more striking is the depiction of the bravery of protestors in Minneapolis and of Floyd’s family members, especially his brother, Philonise Floyd, as they seized an opportunity they never wanted – as spokespeople for justice. Joined by the civil rights veterans, the Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, Philonise campaigned hard for federal legislation to reform policing. Republican opposition to the hardest-hitting sections of the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1280" target="_blank" rel="noopener">George Floyd Justice in Policing Act</a>, introduced to Congress in February 2021 by Rep. Karen Bass, meant the bill foundered – and has still not been passed. Unlike all the earlier sections of the book, the activism around police and legislative reform is not given quite the context it deserves. Although Samuels and Olorunnipa interviewed 400 people for their book, activists who have long campaigned against police brutality and for the <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/2426-the-end-of-policing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dismantling</a> of the entire criminal justice system in favour of a society built on <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-is-prison-abolition-movement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">equal distribution of resources</a>, such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVjMNMG6Mxo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Angela Davis</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/magazine/prison-abolition-ruth-wilson-gilmore.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ruthie Wilson Gilmore</a>, do not appear. Nor is there much comment on the <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/state-policing-reforms-george-floyds-murder" target="_blank" rel="noopener">efficacy of prior efforts</a> to reform the criminal justice system via legislation. Banning choke-holds, for instance, will not end police murders when Black lives are still not regarded as mattering as much as those of white people. This criticism aside, His Name is George Floyd is a monumental achievement – a work of activism in itself. Bringing Floyd vividly to life, it makes an impassioned and persuasive plea for the dignity and preciousness of life. The book’s cover deliberately evokes the <a href="https://www.torranceartmuseum.com/staffpicks/2021/1/7/i-am-a-man-written-by-hope-ezcurra" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posters held aloft during the 1968 workers’ strike in Memphis, Tennessee</a> (when Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed), that proclaimed “I Am a Man.” George Floyd was a man, too, who deserved a better life. This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/george-floyd-deserved-a-better-life-a-new-book-charts-his-trajectory-from-poverty-to-the-us-prison-industrial-complex-and-the-impact-of-his-death-182947" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. Images: Penguin

Books

Pink Floyd reunite to record Ukraine protest song

For the first time in 28 years, legendary rock band Pink Floyd have reunited to collaborate for an incredible cause. Band members David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Guy Pratt have recorded a protest song against the war in Ukraine titled Hey Hey, Rise Up! The song is built around a spine-tingling refrain from Ukrainian singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk of the band Boombox. David Gilmour said the song is a show of “anger at a superpower invading a peaceful nation”. But the track can also be seen as a morale booster for the people of Ukraine, and a call “for peace”. Work on the haunting song began when Gilmour saw Khlyvnyuk's Instagram feed, with a video of the singer in Kyiv's Sofiyskaya Square, fully armed and ready to fight the Russian invasion. Facing the camera, the Ukrainian performer sang The Red Viburnum In The Meadow, a protest song written during the first world war, which has become a rallying cry in Ukraine over the last six weeks. <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cae5TydPAxh/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cae5TydPAxh/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Андрій Хливнюк (@andriihorolski)</a> </div> </blockquote> "It just struck me that, as it is a capella, one could turn this into a beautiful song," Gilmour told BBC 6 Music's Matt Everitt. David Gilmour had played with the band BoomBox in 2015, and contacted Khlyvnyuk to seek permission to use his video. "I spoke to him, actually, from his hospital bed, where he had a pretty minor injury from a mortar," the star said. "So he's right there on the front line.” "I played him a little bit of the song down the phone line and he gave me his blessing." All proceeds from the song will be going towards the humanitarian relief effort in Ukraine. You can listen to Hey Hey, Rise Up! below. <iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/saEpkcVi1d4" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Image credits: Getty Images

Music

Sam Newman wages war on Caroline Wilson: “What a piece of work”

Controversial former AFL player and Channel 9 star Sam Newman is going out with his arms swinging as his TV career comes to an end. Nine parted ways with Newman after he made explosive comments about George Floyd, the American man who died in police custody and ignited the Black Lives Matter movement across the world. The 74-year-old ex-Geelong Cats player said Floyd was a “piece of s***” and consequently Nine got push-back from some sponsors. Wilson and Newman used to go head to head back on his time with the Footy Show and she was one of the more vocal critics of his comments about Floyd. “Sam, you’ve got a terrible history in the area of race relations, and you’ve done it again, unleashing a series of bitter and divisive rants,” she said on Footy Classified before Newman left Channel 9. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> This paper published this delightful piece of racism - then pretended they didn’t. Carolin Wilson was their Chief football writer at the time. Can only presume she ok’d it. <a href="https://t.co/GIqeIarZp8">pic.twitter.com/GIqeIarZp8</a> — Sam Newman (@Origsmartassam) <a href="https://twitter.com/Origsmartassam/status/1281122243087499264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2020</a></blockquote> “What an unfortunate piece of timing that the Sunday Footy Show decided to bring you back this week and portray you as the venerable football bead after you had unleashed so much bitterness.” <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> Disgraceful and reprehensible. Why would Carolin Wilson remain employed? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DoubleStandards?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DoubleStandards</a> 🤮 <a href="https://t.co/C7MGCs5Kl9">pic.twitter.com/C7MGCs5Kl9</a> — Sam Newman (@Origsmartassam) <a href="https://twitter.com/Origsmartassam/status/1281183494182330368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2020</a></blockquote> Newman responded by pointing out in Wilson’s closet, tweeting: “What a piece of work Caroline Wilson is … Check HER record on disabled sport and fellow women commentators. “You’ll be staggered.”

Retirement Life

Sam Newman refuses to back down

Sam Newman resigned from Channel Nine on Friday following widespread backlash over his comments about George Floyd. But the former Geelong captain doubled down on his stance less than 24 hours later, describing Floyd as an “unsavoury character”. The 74-year-old was widely criticised after taking aim at Floyd’s criminal records on his podcast You Cannot Be Serious. “He has been in jail five times, he held up a pregnant black woman with a knife, he’s a drug addict, he’s a crackhead,” Newman claimed. “He’s dead because of the police brutality and it never should have happened. “But I am telling you who George Floyd is, now they’ve made a monument about him and he’s a piece of s**t.” A petition sponsored by anti-racism group Democracy in Colour was widely shared on Friday and called for Newman to be sacked. On the same day, Channel Nine issued a statement saying the network had “mutually and amicably” decided to part ways with Newman. In an interview with the <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/fiona-byrne/the-3pm-call-that-ended-sams-35year-career/news-story/614e33f7eca43d85be04717cceb8e388">Herald Sun</a> a day later, the media personality remained firm about his comments. “How in God’s name could you say that was controversial what I said about him,” Newman said. “I could have easily said, and probably should have if I had known it was going to be reported verbatim, that he is of unsavoury character. “The point is why are making a martyr out of George Floyd, we should be condemning the police brutality.” Newman also drew fierce criticism after describing COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus” on his Twitter posts. “Let’s face it. The AFL 2020 comp is a farce. HOW can a table ladder be set, when games and players are postponed. Cancel the official season and just play on to entertain the TV audience,” he wrote alongside the hashtag #ChineseVirus. The comment has attracted condemnation around the Internet. “Sam will say anything for attention,” one wrote. “He likes to be deliberately contrary. He’s finding it hard to go quietly, so negative attention is better than no attention,” another replied.

News

Channel 9 under pressure to sack Sam Newman after comments on George Floyd

Sam Newman has been pushing the limits – and largely getting away with it – for 40 years as a radio and TV personality. But this time, he may have taken it too far. Anger is brewing after the 74-year-old former AFL star made a few comments about George Floyd, an American man who died while being held by police in Minnesota. While describing Floyd’s death as “disgraceful”, Newman suggested the pedestal he was being put up on as the face of the Black Lives Matter movement was wrong because of his history. “George Floyd … is piece of shit,” Newman said on his podcast You Cannot Be Serious. “He has been in jail five times, he held up a pregnant black woman with a knife, he’s a drug addict, he’s a crackhead and he’s a pornstar.” “He’s dead because of the police brutality and it never should have happened. But I am telling you who George Floyd is, now they’ve made a monument about him and he’s a piece of shit”. The comments have caused severe backlash against the host, with Channel 9 – which recently brought Newman on for a weekly segment on its Sunday Footy Show program – under pressure to sack him. Jim Malo, a property writer with Nine-owned Domain, tweeted: “Genuinely ashamed this clown is employed by the same company as me.” Mike Carlton added: “How much longer will Nine put up with this vulgar, ranting, knuckle-dragging f***wit?” Rosie Thomas, the co-founder of Project Rockit, a youth-driven movement against bullying, hate and prejudice, tweeted to Channel 9 saying “it’s time to #StandDownSam hate is not commentary and it’s definitely not footy”. She linked to an online petition calling for Newman’s long association with the broadcaster to end. “Channel 9 has given one of Australia’s most prominent racists an unrivalled, paid platform to broadcast his hateful, racist views,” the petition read. “In pursuit of ratings and profit during a shortened footy season, Channel 9 is banking on racism to make back their advertising bucks. And by doing so, Channel 9 has made itself complicit in fuelling hatred and violence. “Newman’s hate speech normalises bigotry and emboldens those who seek to do harm to Black people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Muslim people, and others. “We need your help to show Channel 9 this is the wrong decision. It needs to take responsibility for its role in the spread of hatred, violence, and bigotry.” Newman infamously wore blackface on an episode of The Footy Show in 1999 and was forced to apologise to the indigenous community.

News

Barbra Streisand buys Disney shares for George Floyd’s daughter

George Floyd’s youngest child is now a Disney shareholder, thanks to Barbra Streisand. Six-year-old Gianna Floyed took to Instagram to share a photo of herself along with a certificate of Disney shares, and thanked Streisand for the gift. “Thank You @barbrastreisand for my package, I am now a Disney Stockholder thanks to you,” Gianna wrote. Representatives for the singer confirmed to the Guardian that she had sent Floyd the shares, as well as videos of two television specials, 1965’s My Name is Barbra and Color Me Barbra (1966). “I sent Gianna videos where I played a little girl in my first television special,” said Streisand, “singing kid songs, and my second special – a sequence with lots of baby animals.” <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CBYSZ4pnqeP/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CBYSZ4pnqeP/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">Thank You @barbrastreisand for my package, I am now a Disney Stockholder thanks to you 🥰🥰🥰</a> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/giannapinkfloyd_/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank"> GIGI FLOYD</a> (@giannapinkfloyd_) on Jun 13, 2020 at 7:59am PDT </div> </blockquote> The spokesperson refused to reveal how many shares – which currently cost around $127 – were purchased on Floyd’s behalf. According to a recent report, shares bought in 2010 would have yielded a 370% investment over the past decade. Streisand has called the death of Floyd on 25 May in Minneapolis, after a police officer pressed his knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes, “a modern day lynching”. A week ago, Streisand reposted a widely shared video of Gianna on her father’s shoulders, with the child’s message: “Daddy changed the world”. Gianna goes by the nickname “GiGi” on her Instagram account, which is thought to be run by her mother, Roxie Washington. She is the youngest of Floyd’s five children.

Caring

Pauline Hanson sparks outrage after branding George Floyd as a “criminal and dangerous thug”

Pauline Hanson has labelled George Floyd a “criminal and dangerous thug” while slamming the protests his death by police sparked in Australia over the weekend. The One Nation Leader addressed the Senate to denounce the Black Lives Matter protests, and the celebration of Mr Floyd, who died in Minneapolis last month after a police officer knelt on his neck for nine minutes. “George Floyd had been made out to be a martyr,” Hanson said. “This man has been in and out of prison numerous times. He was a criminal and a dangerous thug.” Mr Floyd’s death enraged people globally, as they took to the streets to protest against racism and police brutality. In Australia, 60,000 people joined demonstrations across the capital cities last weekend. “It sickened me to see people holding up signs saying 'black lives matter' in memory of this American criminal,” Hanson said. “I'm sorry, but all lives matter... we cannot allow bleeding hearts and those on the left to destroy the fabric of our society and our freedom. “No one could possibly condone the way in which George Floyd died. But what upsets me is the attitude of many people - black and white.” Hanson then focused her anger on those Australians who didn’t show the same outrage when Justine Damond – a white Australian woman –died at the hands of a black officer in Minneapolis in 2017. “There was no protest, no one really cared because she was white,” Hanson said. Hanson said politicians should “hang their heads in shame” for not speaking up about the health risks of the protests, which defied ongoing warnings for people not to gather in large groups due to the risk of spreading coronavirus. “It's a grave insult to all law-abiding Australians. These activists should never have been allowed to march and call Australians racist,” she said. “Shame on the politicians who were too gutless and too scared of losing votes to stand up to the mob. “People are furious and I don't blame them. They want to know how this happened when our pubs, clubs and gyms and businesses are still crippled by the full force of COVID-19 restrictions.” Hanson’s comments prompted backlash on her Facebook page. “The more you open your mouth the more you reinforce your racist tag. Give us a rest for heaven's sake,” commenter Ken Johnson said. “Don't speak for me when you say all Australians,” Steven Olive added. “Nobody protested when Justine Damond was killed because her killer was immediately arrested, charged, & convicted,” Mike King wrote. The Australian protests linked the death of Mr Floyd to indigenous deaths in custody. At least 432 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in police custody in Australia since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report in 1991.

News

White counterprotesters mock George Floyd’s killing

The protest in New Jersey township was similar to the ones that have taken place all over the United States since the murder of George Floyd by police – close to 70 people gathered to rally against police brutality and systemic racism. But as the diverse group marched on Monday, waving signs and chanting slogans in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, it was met by a number of white men who had gathered near a sign that said “All Lives Matter” and in front of a pickup truck draped with an American flag and pro-Trump sign. One of the men confronted the marchers aggressively as he kneeled on the neck of another who was facedown on the ground – an apparent attempt to mock the killing of Mr Floyd. The mayor and police chief in Franklin Township were quick to issue a statement regarding the scene, calling it “revolting” and that it had left them “appalled and saddened.” On Tuesday, the state’s Department of Corrections said it had suspended one of its employees after confirming that he was among the group that taunted and tried to rile the protesters up. Another man can be seen on video filming the protesters. “We have been made aware that one of our officers from Bayside State Prison participated in the filming of a hateful and disappointing video that mocked the killing of George Floyd,” the Corrections Department said in a statement that also pledged “a thorough and expedited investigation.” The department did not reveal the name of the officer in question, but officials said he was a senior corrections police officer who joined the Corrections Department in March 2002 and worked at a youth detention facility in Bordentown until January 2019, when he moved to the Bayside prison in Leesburg. Gov. Philip D. Murphy called the counterprotesters’ actions “repugnant.” “We won’t let the actions of a few distract from our progress toward dismantling systemic racism,” Mr. Murphy said in a statement. FedEx also confirmed that one of its employees had also taken part in the counterprotest and had been fired as a result. “We do not tolerate the kind of appalling and offensive behaviour depicted in this video,” the company said in a statement. Daryan Fennal, who organised the protest was emotional at the scenes that unfolded in front of them. “I was crying, immediately,” she said. “I was thinking about the kids who were marching behind me. That’s not something easily unseen.” In addition to mocking Mr. Floyd’s death, she said, the men on the side of the road had yelled, “If George Floyd would have complied he wouldn’t be dead”; “Go cash your checks”; “Start running”; and “Black Lives Matter to no one” as the group passed. But Ms Fennal said the hatred shown from a select few hasn’t dimmed her passion, or that of others, to continue protesting against injustice. “There are more people who are encouraged, even more so, to stand up and march alongside us and help black people who are facing systematic racism,” she said.

Legal

George Floyd killing: All four police officers charged

The former Minneapolis police officer who pressed his knee into the neck of George Floyd has had his charge upgraded to second-degree murder. The three other police officers present during the killing have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. Derek Chauvin, the man at the forefront of the investigation, had previously been charged with third-degree murder. This is the first time police have announced any charges against the three officers who were present at the scene. They are now being taken into custody and will face the same potential maximum sentence as Chauvin. “We are working together on this case with only one goal — justice for George Floyd,” Minnesota Attorney-General Keith Ellison said at a media conference. He thanked the community for giving prosecutors “the time and space we needed” to investigate Mr Floyd’s death and settle on the correct charges. “I now ask for continued patience. This case continues to be under investigation. We will not be able to say very much publicly, except that we encourage anyone who believes they have evidence to come forward and be cooperative,” Mr Ellison said. “Our job is to seek justice and to obtain a conviction, not to make statements to the press. “I also ask for your trust that we are pursuing justice by every legal and ethical means available to us. “The investigation is ongoing, we are following the path of all the evidence, wherever it leads.” He said while prosecutors would aim to work as “quickly and thoroughly” as possible, it may take “months” to come to a conclusion. “The reason thoroughness is important is because every single link in the prosecutorial chain must be strong,” he said, pointing out that only once before has a police officer from Minnesota been successfully tried for murder. “Trying this case will not be an easy thing. Winning a conviction will be hard. “I say this not because we doubt our resources or our ability. In fact, we’re confident in what we’re doing. But history does show that there are clear challenges here. “It is better to make sure that we have a solid case, fully investigated, before we go to trial than to rush it.” Reporters asked why Chauvin wasn’t charged with the higher offence of first-degree murder, to which Mr Ellison explained that such a charge would require premeditation to be proven. The second-degree charge will be easier, because it covers an “unintentional” death caused during an underlying felony offence – in this case assault.

Legal

Sunrise crew “worse for wear” after police attack during George Floyd protests

Seven News reporter Amelia Brace has provided a grim update on her and her cameraman’s condition after police officers “turned on” them as they reported on protests in Washington DC. Brace and Timothy Myers ACS were reporting live from the White House to provide an update on the ongoing protests at Washington DC when they were aggressively pushed and hit by heavily-armed police. The incident occurred at 6:30 pm as police began shoving crowds 30 minutes before a curfew was due to come into effect and went to air live on Australian television. Appearing on Sunrise this morning, Brace said they were both “worse for wear” today, admitting they were probably running on “adrenaline” in the wake of the attack. "I can feel across the back of my shoulders where I got whacked by the baton, and we have these welts from the rubber bullets - it's similar to if you got shot too closely by a paintball gun," the reporter explained. "We just are glad that the bullets were rubber and not real bullets - I would have panicked if I hadn't realised that it was not a real bullet." While Brace was in the firing line of police yesterday, it was Myers that appeared to have suffered the most, with footage showing an officer hitting him with a riot shield before punching him in the face. "He's a bit flat today - but the way Tim handled the situation yesterday was just amazing," Brace said of her colleague. "He really copped it at the start there, and then to go on to get rubber bullets to the back and then the tear gas... We had to really keep our heads down to try to avoid the gases as we were trying to sneak through the crowd, just desperately trying to get away from those police officers. "It was a terrifying experience, but we came through it, and an hour later, I finally had a chance to give him a hug and say, 'Are you OK?'" Brace, who is a full-time US correspondent for Seven News, was disappointed by what she had witnessed that day. "I am really disappointed... It's not just about the media and the fact that we were attacked while we were doing our job, but it's the fact that it was before curfew," she told Sunrise hosts David Koch and Samantha Armytage. "Every single person had a legal right to be there and to see these people tear-gassed, to make way for a photo opportunity for the president, is just outrageous. "This is not the United States that I know at the moment. It's a police state, martial law, and to see civilians treated like that is really upsetting."

Travel Trouble

World erupts in protest following George Floyd murder

The world has refused to stand still after watching in horror as US citizens took to the streets to protest the vicious death of George Floyd, a black man who died when a white police officer pressed his knee into his neck until he could no longer breathe. The civil unrest came to its breaking point this week after a number of deaths left Americans feeling helpless. Floyd's death on May 25 in Minneapolis was the latest in a series of deaths of black men and women at the hands of police in the US. <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CA3thNJA07j/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CA3thNJA07j/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by george floyd justice (@georgefloydjustise)</a> on May 31, 2020 at 4:23pm PDT </div> </blockquote> Protestors gathered together in central London on Sunday to offer support to all the American demonstrators. They held signs including "No justice! No peace!" and waving placards with the words "How many more?" at Trafalgar Square. <img style="width: 0px; height: 0px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7836306/trafalgar-square-central-london.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/efba07d54d354c25a1c68d8b839982d2" />Trafalgar Square, Central London Protestors then marched to the US Embassy, where a long line of officers surrounded the building. Protesters in Denmark also converged on the US Embassy on Sunday carrying placards with messages including “Stop Killing Black People”. Several hundred more people took to the streets on Sunday in the capital's Kreuzberg of Berlin, Germany with signs saying "Silence is Violence," "Hold Cops Accountable," and "Who Do You Call When Police Murder?" <img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7836307/copenhagan.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/7bb215669d644ad5bdd3ce11ab61eebe" /> Copenhagan, Denmark In Italy, the Corriere della Sera newspaper's senior US correspondent Massimo Gaggi said that the reaction to Floyd's killing was "different" than other cases of black Americans killed by police and the ensuing violence. "There are exasperated black movements that no longer preach nonviolent resistance," Gaggi wrote. He went on to note that the Minnesota governor is warning that "anarchist and white supremacy groups are trying to fuel the chaos.'' Russia denounced Floyd’s death as the latest murder in a series of police violence cases against African American people. The country has accused the United States of "systemic problems in the human rights sphere.'' "This incident is far from the first in a series of lawless conduct and unjustified violence from US law enforcement,'' the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "American police commit such high-profile crimes all too often.''

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Pink Floyd guitar sells for world-record price at auction

The legendary guitar belonging to Pink Floyd frontman David Gilmour has sold for $5.7 million at auction. It is now the most expensive guitar of all time. Gilmour raised over $30 million for charity after auctioning off more than 120 lots from his personal collection. The sale took place at Christie’s auction house in New York City and included iconic instruments played by Gilmour throughout Pink Floyd’s history. The legendary “Black Strat” Fender Stratocaster guitar, which was used on the recording of the band’s hit albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979), was the standout item and sold for the jaw-dropping $5.7 million. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en-gb"> "It's very hard to know how much I will miss it." David talks about his iconic Black Strat, ahead of its sale through <a href="https://twitter.com/ChristiesInc?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ChristiesInc</a> next month in the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GilmourGuitars?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GilmourGuitars</a> charity auction. <a href="https://t.co/CA7anqH9ej">pic.twitter.com/CA7anqH9ej</a> — David Gilmour (@_DavidGilmour) <a href="https://twitter.com/_DavidGilmour/status/1129086403000901637?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">16 May 2019</a></blockquote> Proceeds from the auction will go to the charity ClientEarth, which funds environmental lawyers and experts in the fight against climate change. "The global climate crisis is the greatest challenge that humanity will ever face, and we are within a few years of the effects of global warming being irreversible," Gilmour said in a statement. "We need a civilised world that goes on for all our grandchildren and beyond in which these guitars can be played and songs can be sung." Other stand out items sold at auction included Gilmour’s Martin D-35 acoustic guitar, which sold for more than $1 million and his 1955 Gibson Les Paul, which was famously used for the guitar solo on Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2).

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