Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday called the death of an unarmed African American man in Minneapolis a crime, and vowed that Congress will examine new…
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday called the death of an unarmed African American man in Minneapolis a crime, and vowed that Congress will examine new federal strategies for preventing similar tragedies in the future.
“This is such a tragedy; it’s a crime,” Pelosi said during a press briefing in the Capitol. “It breaks your heart, it just breaks your heart; it’s so sad. But there has to be — there has to be justice.”
George Floyd, 46, died Monday after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by Minneapolis police officers.
One video taken by a bystander showed Floyd repeatedly stating “I can’t breathe” as an officer held him to the ground with a knee on Floyd’s neck.
That video and others have sparked outrage, fueling calls for the officers’ arrests and, more broadly, for Congress to take another look at the racial disparities surrounding the nation’s criminal justice system.
Floyd’s death was just the latest in a growing series of similar, racially-tinged fatalities around the country.
During a conference call with the Democratic Caucus on Wednesday morning, a number of rank-and-file lawmakers urged party leaders to back an aggressive federal response.
Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and senior Black Caucus members — including Chairwoman Karen Bass (D-Calif.) and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) — quizzed their leadership team about how Democrats planned to respond to Floyd’s death, sources on the call told The Hill.
Pelosi suggested the Justice Department should investigate the incident, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) endorsed that idea while saying that the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) should take the lead on any response from the House, according to several sources on the call.
The FBI, a branch of the DOJ, has already launched a civil rights investigation.
