Doctors, nurses and staff at Sutter Health’s Palo Alto Medical Foundation take a knee on the sidewalk.
The group action in front of Sutter’s Live Oak location on Soquel Avenue on Friday, June 5, was in support of the ongoing global protests following the killing of George Floyd.
Floyd, an unarmed Black man, was killed in Minneapolis May 25 after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. His killing sparked protests across the U.S. and around the world that continue more than 10 days later as people call for changes to policing policies.
Dubbed “White Coats for Black Lives,” demonstrations such as the one by Sutter Health employees have been taking place Thursday and Friday around the nation.
The doctors and allied health care workers took a knee for 8 minutes and 46 seconds to publicly recognize racism as a public health issue. The time they spent kneeling is the same amount of time a Minneapolis police officer knelt on Floyd’s neck.
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