The brother of George Floyd appeared Wednesday on Capitol Hill to implore lawmakers to take the reins in the fight against racial injustice in law…
The brother of George Floyd appeared Wednesday on Capitol Hill to implore lawmakers to take the reins in the fight against racial injustice in law enforcement, injecting a shot of high emotion into an historic debate over police brutality and Congress’s role in curbing it.
Fighting back tears, Philonise Floyd offered gripping testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, lamenting his powerlessness to save his older brother, killed last month in police custody, while urging the panel’s members to use the tragedy to crack down on racial disparities in criminal justice.
“I couldn’t take care of George that day he was killed. But maybe by speaking with you today, I can make sure that his death would not be in vain,” Floyd testified.
“George called for help and he was ignored. Please listen to the call I’m making to you now, to the calls of our family, and the calls ringing out in the streets across the world.”
Floyd described the anguish of watching the video of the police officer kneeling on his brother’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, despite his protests that he couldn’t breathe.
“His life mattered. All our lives matter. Black lives matter,” Floyd said later in the hearing, wiping tears from his eyes. “I just, I just wish I could get him back. Those officers, they get to live.”
“Justice has to be served,” Floyd said.
Floyd’s appearance brought a somber tone to a Judiciary Committee better known for its feisty, partisan fights over hot-button issues like gun reform, immigration and the impeachment of President Trump. But the public outcry that has followed George Floyd’s death has sparked street protests around the country, a national reckoning with the legacy of slavery and promises from both parties to adopt new laws designed to curtail racial profiling and police brutality.
Some Republicans said the tempered tenor of Wednesday’s hearing was no accident.
“We’ve spent a lot of time on our side, amongst Republicans, talking about the importance of tone and the importance of civility and showing a conciliatory face on this, because… this is one of the issues on which we all agree,” said Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), a member of the Judiciary Committee.
“What happened to George Floyd is an atrocity,” he added. “We have to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future, and we have to use this opportunity to address the core, root problems which are underneath all of that.
