{"id":1908,"date":"2026-06-07T20:33:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T20:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southfloridamovingguides.com\/?p=1908"},"modified":"2026-06-07T20:33:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T20:33:58","slug":"minnesotans-whose-loved-ones-were-killed-by-police-condemn-state-gop-for-praying-for-derek-chauvin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southfloridamovingguides.com\/?p=1908","title":{"rendered":"Minnesotans whose loved ones were killed by police condemn state GOP for praying for Derek Chauvin"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Minnesota residents with loved ones who died at the hands of police spoke out Thursday about the state Republican Party holding a public prayer for Derek Chauvin, the former police officer in prison for murdering George Floyd.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou all had the opportunity to honor fallen soldiers or children who lost their lives,\u201d said Courteney Ross, Floyd\u2019s girlfriend and who was visibly emotional through \u201ctears of outrage.\u201d \u201cInstead, you took precious time to purposefully hurt everyone who loved Floyd. And every other family who has lost a loved one to the police. \u201d<\/p>\n

Valerie Castile, the mother of Philando Castile, a 32-year-old school cafeteria worker who was shot and killed by a Minnesota police officer in 2016, echoed what Ross said, calling the act \u201cthe most hurtful thing you can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou give a moment of silence to a murderer? Come on,” Castile said.<\/p>\n

The two women were among those who spoke at a news conference organized by Twin Cities Coalition For Justice.<\/p>\n

What happened in Minnesota over the weekend<\/p>\n

The Minnesota Republican Party nominating convention held a moment of silence last weekend for Chauvin.<\/p>\n

When the action became public knowledge, it triggered intense backlash.<\/p>\n

Racial justice groups, civil rights advocates and Democratic public officials swiftly condemned party officials, accusing them of blindly supporting law enforcement and disrespecting Floyd and his family.<\/p>\n

Chauvin has been in federal prison since 2021, after he was convicted of murdering Floyd six years ago. Cellphone video of Chauvin putting his knee on Floyd’s neck for over 9 minutes despite Floyd’s pleas of \u201cI can’t breathe” sparked the numerous racial reckoning protests that dominated the latter half of 2020.<\/p>\n

On the one-year anniversary of Floyd’s death, people knelt in a moment of silence at the site, symbolizing the 9 minutes and 29 seconds Floyd was pinned down.<\/p>\n

A delegate at the Minnesota GOP gathering in Duluth on Saturday proposed acknowledging Chauvin, according to reports from local news outlets. It occurred days after the sixth anniversary of Floyd’s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moment of silent prayer was a spontaneous motion brought forward from the convention floor. It was not part of the official convention program, it was not proposed by Convention Chairman Danny Nadeau, and it was not a statement from party leadership,\u201d the Minnesota Republican Party said in a statement.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Minnesota GOP did not immediately return an email Thursday seeking additional comment.<\/p>\n

The impact of honoring a police officer \u2014 and not the person killed<\/p>\n

Castile said it didn’t matter if only one person participated, it was still hurtful.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am proud of the ones who did not do the moment of silence,\u201d she said. \u201cThose that did, they should be reprimanded in some fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ross urged those Republicans who did not take part to hold their peers accountable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m speaking to the few of you that thought it was wrong. Please stand up,” Ross said. \u201cYou are public servants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who led the state’s prosecution of Chauvin, said in a statement this week he was \u201cheartbroken and frankly shocked” by the prayer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision dishonors the memory of George Floyd and wounds his loved ones all over again. As the lead prosecutor whose team presented this case to a jury of twelve Minnesotans and then prevailed at every step of the appeals process, I am deeply troubled by what this says about the state of our politics,” Ellison said.<\/p>\n

Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, the attorneys who represented Floyd’s family in a wrongful death lawsuit, were left \u201csickened by this lack of respect.” They also demanded the Minnesota GOP retract their moment of silence and apologize to Floyd’s family.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe audacity of the Minnesota Republican Party to honor an individual who has both been convicted by a jury of his peers for the murder of a fellow human being, while at the same time (violating) a professional oath to protect and serve his community, is disgusting,\u201d they said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Reached via text message on Thursday, Floyd\u2019s New York-based brother, Terrence Floyd, said he was \u201cglad to see people are still fighting with us for complete justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

How some conservatives support police officers<\/p>\n

The moment of silence for Chauvin fits a pattern of flashpoints when conservatives reacted to police violence with \u201cback the blue\u201d initiatives. Long before 2020, when George Floyd’s murder catalyzed the largest racial justice demonstrations since the Civil Rights Movement, some officers were symbols of \u201claw and order\u201d or anti-Black Lives Matter sentiment.<\/p>\n

For example in 2014, after Darren Wilson \u2014 the former Ferguson, Missouri, police officer who is white \u2014 fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was Black, a GoFundMe website raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the officer\u2019s family and legal defense. The amount dwarfed the total raised for Brown\u2019s family. Wilson ultimately did not face criminal charges or federal civil rights offenses.<\/p>\n

Officers in the high-profile cases in which police killed Laquan McDonald in Chicago and Eric Garner in New York also drew sizable support from law enforcement unions that recast the criminal prosecution or discipline of officers as unjust and politically motivated.<\/p>\n

Although legal outcomes vary a lot in these cases, most prominent examples of support for officers charged in killings do not result in overturned convictions.<\/p>\n

___ Associated Press editor Aaron Morrison in New York City contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

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Minnesota residents with loved ones who died at the hands of police spoke out Thursday about the state Republican Party holding a public prayer for Derek Chauvin, the former police officer in prison for murdering George Floyd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national"],"yoast_head":"\nMinnesotans whose loved ones were killed by police condemn state GOP for praying for Derek Chauvin - South Florida Moving Guides<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southfloridamovingguides.com\/?p=1908\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Minnesotans whose loved ones were killed by police condemn state GOP for praying for Derek Chauvin - 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