PIERS MORGAN: If you really want to show America you care about race and national unity, President Trump, then take the knee live on TV in the Oval Office

There was a barbecue in the town of Griffith, Indiana yesterday.

It was possibly the most unusual and unexpected barbecue in US history.

More than 400 people gathered in Central Park to protest about the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

They held banners with slogans like 'BLACK LIVES MATTER', 'END RACISM', 'COLOR SHOULD BE CELEBRATED', 'SERVE AND PROTECT' and even 'DEFUND THE POLICE AND DEFEND THE PEOPLE' and they kept up a steady stream of 'No lives matter until black lives matter!' and 'I can't breathe!' chanting.

Then they lay face-down on the ground, with their hands behind their backs, for eight minutes and 46 seconds, emulating the entire time helpless George Floyd had a knee to his neck while four officers held him down.

Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On?' rang out in the background.

+8

The cold hard truth for the President is that Colin Kaepernick's been shown by George Floyd's murder to be on the right side of history, and Trump's (pictured standing for the National Anthem in January) increasingly showing himself to be on the wrong side

+8

Kaepernick (pictured in October 2016), who hasn't played football since he first protested, has shown remarkable courage and resilience by sticking to his principles - despite exposing himself to horrific abuse and death threats

So far, so typical of many other protests in towns and cities all across America.

But this one had an extraordinary twist to it.

As the protestors did their thing, officers from the Griffith Police Department stood aside, peacefully, patiently and non-confrontationally.

They even helped fire up some grills, cook some hot dogs, and feed the protestors.

Then Griffith Police Chief Greg Mance addressed the crowd in a remarkably respectful and conciliatory tone, saying: 'We, as officers, aren't perfect. We come from a flawed society, raised by flawed parents and sent through flawed educational systems. We raise our families in flawed communities, and we work in a flawed judicial system. We, as officers, must listen to what the softest voices of our community are trying to tell us before those voices are yells of frustration.'

He called for urgent reform: 'Sadly, the need for healing and growth follows injustice brought by a great many systems, including the criminal justice system — a system, despite its sins and flaws, that I am very proud to be part of. While I am proud, I am also disgusted and ashamed by the killing of Mr. George Floyd and far many others that came before him, lives taken unjustly, lives taken through brutality, and all lives that matter.'

The event's organizer Taylor Green, 22, who had received multiple threats during the week, told The Times of Northwest Indiana: 'This is a community event, not a protest. Everybody in the community is different. You have a community of all different races and cultures. We all need to do things like in every community get to know one another. People are afraid of what they don't know. If we all don't know each other, we're more separate and afraid. We're coming together ... all lives cannot matter until black lives matter.'

+8

More than 400 people gathered in Central Park in Griffith, Indiana to protest about the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. They held banners with slogans like 'BLACK LIVES MATTER', 'END RACISM', 'COLOR SHOULD BE CELEBRATED', 'SERVE AND PROTECT' and even 'DEFUND THE POLICE AND DEFEND THE PEOPLE' and they kept up a steady stream of 'No lives matter until black lives matter!' and 'I can't breathe!' chanting

+8

Then they lay face-down on the ground, with their hands behind their backs, for eight minutes and 46 seconds, emulating the entire time helpless George Floyd had a knee to his neck while four officers held him down

+8

Griffith Police Chief Greg Mance (pictured), a white man, marched with the protesters in Central Park in Griffith, Indiana

+8

Police Chief Mance takes a knee while protesters lay face-down on the ground, with their hands behind their backs

Long after the crowd dispersed, a far smaller group of protestors decided they wanted to march downtown.

So, Police Chief Mance, a white man, marched with them.

And when they arrived at their new venue, and took the knee, Mance took the knee too.

It was an astounding moment, a white police chief taking the knee out of respect for a largely black crowd protesting about the murder of a black man at the knee of a police officer.

(It comes as no surprise to learn that in the seven years of Mance's tenure, only one charge of police brutality has made its way through the courts.)

By taking the knee, he joined many other police officers, and even members of the National Guard, who've done the same in the past week in very powerful solidarity with their fellow Americans demanding racial equality and an end to police brutality.

Those kneelers include Joe Biden, the Democrat nominee that Trump has to beat in November, who publicly took the knee six days ago as activists were attacking him for his record on race and crime legislation during the Obama administration when he was vice president, in an act that's been heralded as 'real leadership.'

Doubtless President Trump views Biden and all the new kneelers in the same 'son of a bitch' way he viewed NFL stars led by Colin Kaepernick when they took the knee during the national anthem.

Yet the cold hard truth for the President is that Kaepernick's been shown by George Floyd's murder to be on the right side of history, and Trump's increasingly showing himself to be on the wrong side.

Kaepernick, who hasn't played football since he first protested, has shown remarkable courage and resilience by sticking to his principles - despite exposing himself to horrific abuse and death threats.

And how horribly ironic it's been to see his point so brutally proven by George Floyd being killed by a police officer taking a knee to his neck.

When Kaepernick started his kneeling protests in 2016, in response to a summer of contentious police shootings involving fellow black Americans, he explained: 'To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.'

He started a movement that led to many other NFL stars and athletes also taking the knee, and it's now become a global symbol of respectful protest at racial inequality.

Even the NFL itself, so slow and cowardly to offer any support at the time, has now conceded it should have done.

In a video statement yesterday, Commissioner Roger Goodell said the NFL was 'wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier.'

To which Trump, with pathetic predictability, responded: 'Could it be even remotely possible that in Roger Goodell's rather interesting statement of peace and reconciliation, he was intimating that it would now be O.K. for the players to KNEEL, or not to stand, for the National Anthem, thereby disrespecting our Country & our Flag?'

+8

Joe Biden, the Democrat nominee that Trump has to beat in November, publicly took the knee six days ago as activists were attacking him for his record on race and crime legislation during the Obama administration when he was vice president, in an act that's been heralded as 'real leadership'

+8

From the start of the protests, the President has done nothing but pour 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts' fuel onto the flames, acting as a divisive lightening rod with his incendiary rhetoric

Well yes, Mr President, it is very possible that Roger Goodell has woken up like the rest of us to the horrifying reality of that George Floyd footage and the fact that Kaepernick's clearly right in what he's been saying.

In fact, it's YOU who's now sounding disrespectful to a country crying out for leadership and an urgent need for change, real change, to happen.

From the start of the protests, the President has done nothing but pour 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts' fuel onto the flames, acting as a divisive lightening rod with his incendiary rhetoric.

Yet the more he rages, and the more he vows to 'dominate' the protestors, the more tone-deaf and out-of-touch he looks – as his crashing approval ratings indicate.

Now we're told he's so unsettled by this reaction that he is planning to make an address to the nation this week on 'race and unity.'

'I believe you're going to be hearing from the President this week on this topic in some detail, and I would ask you maybe to reserve judgment until after that time,' housing Secretary Ben Carson told CNN.

If this is true, then I can spare him the bother of having to make or read a lengthy speech.

It's too late for words read off an autocue to have much effect at this stage.

No, if President Trump really wants to make a statement about race and unity, one that rocks the entire world, then with the American people watching live on TV, he should simply take the knee in the Oval Office.

In one stunning moment, Trump could heal so many wounds, unify so much of the country, and quite probably get himself re-elected.

Because it would show he finally gets it, and actually cares.

Of course, it's the very last thing anyone would expect him to do.

But if Trump's one thing, he's constantly surprising.

Do it, Mr President – take the knee.