George Floyd was a Black man living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Four years ago, on May 25, 2020, he was viciously killed by a Minneapolis police officer. He was a friend, a father, and a grandfather who lost his life, all over an incident stemming from an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.
In spite of the alarm over COVID-19 pandemic, countless people across the world took to the streets to decry the callous murder. The depravity of George Floyd’s killing at the hands of the police reignited a movement for change.
We need societal change and real legislative solutions to address the crisis of police violence.
Four year’s later, we’re still waiting for Congress to head our calls. We need societal change and real legislative solutions to address the crisis of police violence.
Lawmakers must take long overdue action, beginning by finally passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
A Push for Change
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act was first introduced in 2020. The bill bearing his name, H.R.8525, was reintroduced in the House this year on May 23 by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18).
While the bill passed the House in 2020, it failed to move in the Senate. The bill takes on the hard task of reforming 18,000 different police jurisdictions and contains several important provisions including:
- A ban on racial and religious profiling in policing;
- A misconduct registry for police officers so they aren’t dismissed and rehired in another jurisdiction;
- Bans the use of chokeholds (similar to what was used to take George Floyd’s life)
Black Lives Matter is Still a Central Call
The United States has been living with the stain of racism for centuries — from stealing human beings from the continent of Africa, to breaking up families of enslaved people to sell them on auction blocks, to segregation and mass incarceration. Racism and white supremacy continue to infect our institutions and live in the minds of millions. This nation’s history is consistent with a struggle to move in a direction as high as its ideals.
George Floyd “fit the description” — a phrase that encapsulates the stinging and dark presumption of guilt and violence placed on Black people and especially Black men. Journalist Sam Sanders illustrated this point through interviews of Black men for NPR.
“Put yourself in my shoes. Imagine you walking down the street, and someone crosses the street just because you’re black man. Imagine you walking down the street, and a police officer stops you and frisks you just because you’re black man or just because of how you’re dressed. Imagine that being your son. Imagine that being your nephew, your uncle, your brother. Imagine that and then, you know, try to process what we go through because, like I said, it’s tough. It’s tough.”
That quote was recorded a decade ago. But not much has changed.
Facing constant aggression and scrutiny simply because of race or gender takes a devastating toll on a person. That reality faced by so many is too often coupled with violence, sometimes deadly violence, carried out by police.
Police kill thousands of people in the United States every year (1,247 in 2023). This epidemic of police violence that take the lives of Black people like George Floyd is not merely a result of many “bad apples” or the act of one evil person. It’s the outgrowth of generations of both individuals and institutions treating anyone not white as less than, even dangerous.
Continuing Work to Reform Police
In the fall of 2020, we selected the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act as the focus of FCNL’s Annual Meeting. The following spring, we dedicated our next major conference on the same issue. Although the political landscape has never been conducive to this bill, it is nevertheless important that we continue to work towards its passage.
The memory of George Floyd continues to live on. Through his children and grandchildren. Through his rap career in Houston, TX, and most recently his career as a truck driver in Minneapolis. His memory should continue to power the work to reform policing to be more humane and less violent.
