Why '8:46' has become a potent symbol of police brutality amid George Floyd protests

All protest movements have slogans. George Floyd's has a number: 8:46 Eight minutes, 46 seconds is length of time prosecutors say Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was pinned to ground under a white Minneapolis police officer's knee before he died last week.

In days since, outrd protesters, politicians and mourners have seized on detail as a quiet way to hor Floyd at a time of angry and sometimes violent clashes with police. 

Even as prosecutors have said little about how y arrived at precise number, it has fast grown into a potent symbol of suffering Floyd and many or black men have experienced at hands of police.

In Boston and Tacoma, Washington, demonstrators this week lay down on streets staging die-ins" for precisely 8 minutes, 46 seconds. Companies, including ViacomCBS and Google, used time span in ir shows of solidarity.

In Washington, Democratic senators on Thursday gared in U.S. Capitol's Emancipation Hall, some standing, some kneeling on marbled floor for nearly nine minutes of silence.

Mourners at a memorial service for Floyd in Minneapolis on Thursday stood in silence for 8 minutes, 46 seconds, asked by Rev. Al Sharpton to think about what George was going through, laying re for those eight minutes, begging for his life." 

We can't let this go, he said. We can't keep living like this. Pausing for a full 8 minutes, 46 seconds helps turn abstract into a reality, said Monica Cann-Grant, founder of Violence in Boston Inc., which organized a Tuesday protest that included minutes of silence.

You find that that's an extremely long time to have someone have ir knee in side of your neck, Cann-Grant said. As she observed silence, she said found herself thinking about safety of her family.

All kinds of things were going through my head, she said. Mainly that I was mom of four black sons and I'm married to a black man. Some of power in number comes from its striking specificity. 

In a criminal complaint charging Officer Derek Chauvin in Floyd's murder, prosecutors say y kw precisely how long Floyd was pinned to ground.

defendant had his knee on Mr. Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in total. Two minutes and 53 seconds of this was after Mr. Floyd was n-responsive, complaint concludes. 

Police are trained that this type of restraint with a subject in a prone position is inherently dangerous." 

But timestamps cited in document's description of incident, much of which is caught on video, indicate a different tally. Using those, Chauvin had his knee on Floyd for 7 minutes, 46 seconds, including 1 minute, 53 seconds after Floyd appeared to stop breathing.

Prosecutors involved in case have t responded to requests about discrepancy.

In this case, one minute is unlikely to be major legal significance.

Seven minutes is a long time to have a knee on someone's neck regardless, said Jared Fishman, a former federal civil rights prosecutor. That said, Fishman said it's a detail defense lawyers will scrutinize in court.

For those who hold up number as part of a peaceful call for change, precise length of time is beside point: It should never have happened to begin with, Cann-Grant said.

It would t be first time that a detail takes on a life of its own.

After 2014 death of Michael Brown, word spread in community that black 18-year-old had his hands up in surrender when he was shot by a white police officer. 

chant Hands up. Don't shoot! quickly became a rallying cry for protesters both in St. Louis suburb and across country.

But it never was clear wher Brown actually raised his hands. re were videos or photos of shooting. Some witnesses swore to a grand jury that his hands were raised while ors swore y were t. 

Officer Darren Wilson testified to grand jurors that Brown was charging at him, with one hand clenched at his side and or under his shirt, when Wilson fired fatal shots.

Several protesters said it didn't matter if Brown's hands literally were raised, because his death remained symbolic of wider racial injustices at hands of police.