Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at George Floyd Memorial

May 25, 2021

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Rev, I want to say, too many families, too many families for too many years have needed to call you. And every single time you were there, you were there for a family in pain that should not have been in pain, but you were there for a higher purpose as well. And you've been indispensable calling this nation to justice. Thank you, and God bless you for that.  

[Applause] 

We saw a murder – let's be clear why there is so much anger, why it will not stop. We saw a murder before our eyes committed by someone who was supposed to exemplify law, was supposed to protect. He took an innocent life and everything that we had been told was backwards. And I understand anyone who felt betrayed in that moment because Rev’s right, how could you forget someone's humanity? Well, because for 400 years in this country, the persistent obsessive training was to tell white people not to value Black lives. It was everywhere you turned. And it poisoned [inaudible] that officer, what he did disgusts me to this hour of this day, and it tells us that so much more needs to change. We cannot let our country be a lie, we cannot let our ideals be a lie. We can't show the generations coming up that everything we told them wasn't real. We, in fact, have to make it real. And we have the power to do it. 

For anyone who at this moment feels pain or cynicism or doubt, I understand you, but I also appeal to you to look at what this movement has done in the last year. All over this nation, laws are changing. All over this nation police are being held accountable in ways before not imaginable because of a movement of people. But that movement cannot end. That to me is the message that a man who should be standing with us should be with his family, should be alive, he’s gone, but we are here, and it's our job to now finish this mission. 

[Applause] 

In Washington, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is the least we can do to honor him, but it has to happen. It has to happen, unless the ideal and the dream that is this nation turns out to be a lie. We can't let it be a lie. We have to call ourselves to that higher purpose and demand that our nation live up to its ideals.  

In this city, we know we can do better. I remember years ago on this stage, when people said, you can't get rid of stop and frisk, it'll lead to disorder and crime. That was a false choice. We got rid of it and we got safer, and we got more just, and so many times we’ve proven, do not accept the lie. 

[Applause] 

Fight for justice, fight for change. It can be done. We can change the culture of policing. Rev said it. We saw police officers come forward with their own anger and disgust and say, that's not us, we don't accept that. So, change can happen, change will happen because of us. I leave you with this. I wondered how to talk about this moment, where you could be overwhelmed by pain, or you could try to find a way forward. And a friend sent me this quote from Valarie Kaur, and it says so much. “What if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb? What if our America is not dead, but a country that is waiting to be born? What if the story of our country is one long labor? What if this is our nation's great transition? Breathe, push. We will breathe in love, through love.” And my friends, we will make this a country worthy of the words it says, we will make it a country that acts in that spirit and protects all of us. That is the America we can build together. Thank you, and God bless you all. 

[Applause]