Sharpton eulogizes Daunte Wright as a prince and vows to remove ‘stench of police brutality’
Sharpton said that so many were mourning and had come to pay their final respects “from all over the country because you hurt one of our princes.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton eulogized Daunte Wright as the Prince of the Brooklyn Center and used the police pulling over the slain young man after a traffic stop as a metaphor.
Sharpton said that so many were mourning and had come to pay their final respects “from all over the country because you hurt one of our princes.”
Read More: Daunte Wright to be eulogized at Minneapolis funeral
He blasted the police for thinking “he was just some kid with air freshener. He was a prince!”
Wright’s funeral was held at the Shiloh Temple International Ministries on Thursday in north Minneapolis after he was shot and killed on April 11 by former Officer Kim Potter, a 26-year veteran of the Brooklyn Center Police Department. Potter has since been charged with second-degree manslaughter. Sharpton blasted the circumstances that led to the 20-year-old’s death.
“We come today as the air fresheners for Minnesota. We’re trying to get the stench of police brutality out of the atmosphere. We’re trying to get the stench of racism out of the atmosphere. We’re trying to get the stench of racial profiling out of the atmosphere,” he said on Thursday. “Your air is too odorous for us to breathe. We can’t breathe in your stinking air no more.”
Sharpton made clear that the fight for justice would continue.
“The absence of justice is the absence of peace,” he said.
“And when we say that we’re not talking about violence, because there is a confusion in this country between peace and quiet.”
He also chided, “people always ask: why don’t you tell people not to be violent. We always do. When are you all gonna tell police to stop being violent?”
Read More: Mom of Daunte Wright’s child speaks out: ‘I’m just really hurt for my son’
The civil rights icon extended his sympathies to Wright’s parents Katie and Aubrey Wright. His mother is white and his father, Black. Sharpton praised his parents because they “raised him in an interracial home.”
“They defied the color barriers,” he said, “and raised children to not hate nobody.”
Sharpton declared that no amount of money would fill the void that has been left in Wright’s family, who also leaves behind a two-year-old son, Daunte Wright Jr.
“I don’t care how much settlement they [Wright’s family] may be given — you can never fill the hole in their heart that was caused for no reason.”
Sharpton said the time had come for America to have a reckoning on race and how police use force against civilians, particularly Black Americans.
“The time has come for America to stand up and bring a new day — to where we don’t have to explain to our children what to do when the police stop you,” Sharpton said. “It’s time to bring a new day where we don’t have to videotape when we see a badge, but where we know that that badge will serve and protect — not treat us like we’ve been convicted. The time has come for police to understand they’re not above the law.”
Sharpton believed that Wright’s death would help create a world that will “change the laws of the land.” He added that those who have yet to be born would one day “know his name.”
Wright’s funeral was attended by hundreds, including civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing the family, in addition to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Gov. Tim Walz, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Valerie Castile, mother of Philando Castile, and members of George Floyd‘s family were also in attendance.
Walz issued a proclamation on Thursday morning and called for a statewide moment of silence which lasted from noon to 12:02 p.m. It celebrated Wright’s life, offered condolences to his family and that desire to prevent another tragedy.
“While nothing can bring Daunte Wright back to his loved ones, we must continue to work to enact real, meaningful change at the local, state, and national levels to fight systemic racism so that every person in Minnesota — Black, Indigenous, Brown, or White — can be safe and thrive,” the proclamation read.
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