Hours after George Floyd was laid to rest in Houston, his younger brother made an impassioned plea to Congress to take action and prevent his death from becoming just “another name” on an ever-growing list of unarmed Black Americans killed at the hands of police.
Philonise Floyd testified before a House hearing in Washington on Wednesday amid a national reckoning over race and policing in America that has drawn millions to the street in protest and unleashed
“I’m tired. I’m tired of the pain I’m feeling now, and I’m tired of the pain I feel every time another Black person is killed for no reason,” he said, his voice rising with emotion as he addressed the committee. “I’m here today to ask you to make it stop. Stop the pain.”
The room was silent as he testified, gripped by the rawness of his grief.
George Floyd died in custody after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, ignoring his protests of “I can’t breathe.”
The Memorial Day encounter, which began with a call about an alleged attempt to use a counterfeit $20 bill at a local market, touched off demonstrations around the world that have already prompted local leaders to act to curb the powers of police as public support for the Black Lives Matter movement surges.
“Is that what a Black man’s life is worth? Twenty dollars?” Philonise Floyd said. “This is 2020. Enough is enough.
“Be the leaders that this country, this world, needs,” he continued. “Do the right thing.”
Democrats unveiled sweeping legislation this week aimed at combating excessive use of force by police and limiting legal protections for officers accused of misconduct. The measure, the most expansive effort by Congress to overhaul policing in modern times, make it easier to track, prosecute and punish police misconduct; prohibit chokeholds, limit the use of deadly force; ban no-knock warrants for drug-related crimes as well as tie federal grant money to training and practices that aim to reduce racial bias and discrimination.
Republicans have scrambled to respond to the growing calls for reform. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the lone Black Republican in the chamber, has been charged with drafting a conservative legislative response that the party can coalesce around.
But their efforts are complicated by the president, whose incendiary response to the protests – and repeated calls for “LAW AND ORDER” – have only inflamed tensions. During a meeting this week, Donald Trump suggested that incidents of police brutality were isolated and not systemic, insisting that virtually all officers are “great people”.
On Wednesday, Trump tweeted that he would “not even consider” renaming military bases named after Confederate leaders, even though the Pentagon said it would consider the move. This comes as several states, the navy and the marines have taken steps to remove or ban Confederate-era symbols and insignia.
Thousands of mourners attended vigils and memorials for George Floyd, which culminated in his funeral in Houston on Tuesday. In his eulogy, the Rev Al Sharpton, the civil rights leader, called George Floyd an “ordinary brother” who had become the “cornerstone of a movement that’s going to change the whole wide world”.
In death, George Floyd became an international symbol of police violence and injustice. But in life he was a father, a brother, a “gentle giant”, Philonise Floyd told lawmakers.
While the video of the encounter ignited the movement, it is deeply painful for his family to constantly relive his final moments in what seems like an unending loop on TV and online.
“I just think about that video over and over again,” Philonise Floyd said, wiping tears from his face. “You don’t do that to a human being, you don’t even do that to an animal.”
“Justice has to be served,” he said. “Those officers have to be convicted.”
The four officers involved in Floyd’s death have been fired from the force and now face criminal charges. But activists want more – they are demanding systemic changes to policing to prevent future deaths at the hands of police.
In response to the protests, a veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis city council pledged to dismantle the city’s police department and replace it with a new community-based system of public safety. Meanwhile, cities like Houston and San Diego have moved to ban chokeholds while New York and Los Angeles are considering changes to their policing budgets.
Such actions have infuriated police unions, which have long stood in the way of efforts by local officials to curb police powers. But some law enforcement officials believe change is not only inevitable but necessary.
In testimony on Wednesday, Art Acevedo, the chief of police in Houston who has been outspoken about the death of George Floyd, said there was “no denying that changes in policing must be made”.
“In crisis comes opportunity,” he said, referring to the political moment.
Yet the hearing laid bare the political divide that has long stood as a barrier to policing reform in America.
Congressman Jerry Nadler, a Democrat of New York and the chairman of the House judiciary committee, opened the panel’s hearing by urging Congress to adopt the Democrats’ Justice in Policing Act of 2020, which he says would create a “guardian – not warrior – model of policing”.
The ranking Republican on the panel, congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, agreed that now was the “time for a real discussion” about police misconduct and discrimination.
But he seized on calls by protesters to “defund the police” – an effort to reimagine public safety by cutting budgets for police departments and redirecting the funding toward social services – and accused Democrats of supporting the movement which he called “pure insanity”.
Among the witnesses called by Republicans was Angela Underwood Jacobs, the sister of Dave Patrick Underwood, an African American security officer contracted by the Federal Protective Service who was fatally shot while guarding a federal courthouse in California during the unrest that followed Floyd’s death.
Speaking directly to Philonise Floyd, Jacobs said she mourned with his family and understood their anguish. But she said discrimination was no excuse to “loot and burn our communities” and “kill our officers of the law”.
She called demands to defund, dismantle or abolish police departments “ridiculous” and said such solutions would only further erode the “safety net of protection that every citizen deserves”.
Philonise Floyd did not address the protesters’ demands directly. But he urged Congress not to let this moment pass.
“If his death ends up changing the world for the better – and I think it will, I think it has – then he died as he lived,” he said in closing. “It is on you to make sure his death isn’t in vain.”
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