New York
On the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder that shook the US and triggered mass protests across the country and in other parts of the world, his family called for police reforms in a meeting with US President Joe Biden on Tuesday.
The president and Kamala Harris, America’s first female and first Black vice president, hosted several of Floyd’s relatives in the Oval Office after the family spoke to top lawmakers hoping for progress on police reform.
The legislation being considered to increase police accountability would be named after Floyd, who suffocated after being pinned down under the knee of Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020.
“If you can make federal laws to protect the bird, the bald eagle, you can make federal laws to protect people of colour,” Philonise Floyd, George’s younger brother, said as he emerged from the private meeting, which lasted over an hour.
Another brother, Terrence Floyd, said as he left the White House that he was encouraged by the “productive conversation” in which Biden and Harris were eager to “actually give an ear to our concerns.”
Floyd’s mother, siblings and his daughter Gianna, along with family lawyers, had earlier gathered at the US Capitol with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic members of Congress.—AFP
