Today is Sunday, May 25, 2025, the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that sparked a worldwide protest movement. It’s hard to believe that five years have elapsed since Floyd’s gruesome murder.

An online article for BBC News – of all places – reflects on this grim anniversary by Madeline Halpert entitled “Americans remember George Floyd on fifth anniversary of death.” The article points out that there have been special gatherings in the city where he grew up and in the one where he died.

Today in Floyd’s hometown of Houston near his gravesite, his family gathered for an event led by the Reverend Al Sharpton, while Minneapolis held several commemorations.

The mood five years ago, in my opinion, was much more optimistic than the mood today, given a second Dump administration and how it’s started to roll back police reforms in Minneapolis and other cities.

In Minneapolis, community members planned a morning church service, a candlelight vigil, and an evening gospel concert today to remember Floyd.

The events were a part of the annual Rise and Remember Festival taking place in George Floyd Square, the intersection where Floyd was murdered and which has since been named to honor him.

“Now is the time for the people to rise up and continue the good work we started,” Angela Harrelson, Floyd’s aunt and cochair of the Rise and Remember nonprofit, said in a statement about the festival.

In Houston, where Floyd grew up and where he is buried, local organizations planned poetry sessions, musical performances, and speeches by local pastors.

The police officer accused of murdering the unarmed Black man has been serving a 22-year prison sentence after he was convicted of murdering the 46-year-old. Other officers were convicted for failing to intervene in the killing.

In a post on X, Rev. Sharpton said Floyd’s death had “forced a long overdue reckoning with systemic racism and galvanized millions to take to the streets in protest.”

In the wake of Floyd’s death, under former President Joe Biden, the justice department opened civil investigations into several local law enforcement agencies, including Minneapolis, Louisville, Phoenix and Lexington, Mississippi, where investigators found evidence of systemic police misconduct.

The department reached agreements with both the Louisville and Minneapolis police departments that included oversight measures like enhanced training, accountability, and improved data collection of police activity.

But just last Wednesday, the Dump administration said those findings relied on “flawed methodologies [where’s the proof?] and incomplete data.”

Administration officials said the agreements were “handcuffing” local police departments.

In opposition to this announcement by a lawless administration, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey stated that his city would still “comply with every sentence of every paragraph, of the 169-page consent decree that we signed this year.”

Since returning to office, Dump has taken aim at Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) measures intended to reduce racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination. Early in his tenure, Dump signed an executive order to eliminate DEI policies in the federal government, some of which were the result of protests during what is often called “Black Lives Matter Summer,” held after the deaths of Floyd and others.

As a capitulation to Dump’s twisted view of America, the mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, removed Black Lives Matter Plaza, a strip of road that was emblazoned with the phrase near the White House. God forbid that racist president Dump should be offended by the sight of that phrase staring up at him in the White House. This week, a famous mural of Floyd was destroyed as part of a building demolition, according to Houston Public Media.

Recent surveys suggest Americans believe there have been few improvements for the lives of Black people in the United States five years after Floyd’s demise, including a May survey from Pew Research Center in which 72 percent of participants said there had been no meaningful changes.

The number of Americans expressing support for the Black Lives Matter movement has also fallen by 15 percent since June 2020, the same survey suggests. It appears then that the hope that arose from the movement five years ago in the wake of Floyd’s death has indeed paled as a result of the regressive mood in the country since Dump’s reelection. Too bad and too sad! The country certainly has stalled its progress in the civil rights arena as a result of reelecting this Neanderthal to the White House.

In the meantime, the buffoon who is president drew sharp criticism from critics everywhere for his West Point speech to the graduating cadets there yesterday. An online Mirror article by Anna Carlson entitled “Trump sparks backlash by wearing giant MAGA hat and pink tie to formal West Point graduation” details the volley of criticism engendered by Dump’s bizarre speech in front of graduating cadets at this country’s elite military school. Right away the clueless president received backlash for wearing a bold red MAGA hat to the ceremony, as if he were addressing his ignorant supporters at a campaign rally. He also got flak for wearing a pink tie.

One critic denounced Dump for his lack of respect of the graduating class for his ridiculous fashion choices. One user on social media stated, “Wearing a campaign hat at West Point disgraces that hallowed path. This isn’t a rally, it’s a solemn military ceremony. The uniform demands respect. The moment demands dignity. Trump brought neither. Shameful.” Another asked pointedly, “Why is the orangutan disrespecting our military with a red hat?”

Firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) who has gotten raves for her intelligent assaults against bimbo Marjorie Taylor Greene and other MAGA idiots in Washington mocked the president’s West Point address in language only she can use. During this speech now being called a rant, the buffoon in chief complained that he had been “through more investigations than Alphonse Capone” and noted that “a lot of trophy wives [don’t] work out.” Huh! What the fuck has this nonsense to do with the cadets’ mission in the near term? Supposedly, Dump also complained about “drag shows” in the U.S. armed forces.

In response to Dump’s incoherent speech, which is just another in a long line of rambling rants, Crockett fumed, “I am tired of it.” She laughingly indicates, “I mean, he literally sounds like someone who is broken out of the insane asylum. Like, he just be all over the place.”

Crockett continues her rant against the president, saying, “Like get him some ADHD medicine, if nothing else, because I don’t know where he’s ever going to go.” She continued, “And I don’t think that those that have gone through West Point expected to have their commander-in-chief address them and start talking about trophy wives or start talking about how he had so many investigations.” But this is what a malignant narcissistic personality – like Dump – does: veer the discussion back to him- or herself, no matter what the subject of the speech is. It will always be about the narcissist.

Crockett spared no sympathy for Dump, as she continued, “What a great reminder that you are not qualified to be the person that potentially will command us as troops to go into war. Like, that is not instilling confidence whatsoever. And honestly, our troops deserve better. Our graduates deserve better. We as a country deserve better.”

Crockett argued that the speech was a sign that Republicans should seriously question Dump’s mental capacity. She turns the knife in further, by concluding, “We know when it comes down to his criminality, he is not qualified to serve. But this is absolutely deplorable.” (These comments from Rep. Crockett come from an online RawStory article by David Edwards entitled ‘Get him some ADHD medicine’: Jasmine Crockett trashes Trump’s West Point speech.”) I’m afraid the mainstream media will overlook this event and not concentrate on the buffoon’s declining mental capacity, which would have certainly been the case if former President Joe Biden ever offered the same speech to these West Point cadets. That is deplorable!

Oh, have a good Memorial Day, by the way!

And so it went!