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8:46: A Number Becomes a Potent Symbol of Police Brutality

In the protest movement surrounding George Floyd’s death, a time span has become an important symbol: 8 minutes, 46 seconds. That’s how long prosecutors say the 46-year-old black man was pinned to the ground under a white police officer’s knee before he died last week.

Protesters have seized on the detail as a quiet way to honor Floyd at a time of angry and sometimes violent clashes with police. Demonstrators this week in Boston and Tacoma, Washington, lay down on streets staging “die-ins” for precisely 8 minutes, 46 seconds. In Houston, churchgoers held candles and bowed their heads in silence, experiencing the crawl of time.

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