George Floyd's family visits Capitol Hill on anniversary of death
The family of George Floyd visited Washington on the anniversary of his death and urged Congress to act on the George Floyd Policing Act.
USA TODAY
George Floyd's uncle has spent the past year fighting for justice after the death of his nephew at the hands of Minneapolis Police.
One year ago this week , the Fayetteville-born Floyd, 46 was killed in police custody after spending nine suffocating minutes with the knee of former police officer Derek Chauvin on his neck.
Floyd's uncle, Selwyn Jones, said he watched the video of his nephew's death that surfaced on the internet knowing exactly how it would end.
"It was heartbreaking," Jones said Tuesday by phone from his home in South Dakota on the one-year anniversary of Floyd's killing.
"When you first lay your eyes on that video, it doesn't take you long to realize that the Black guy is going to die at the end of this movie, that he had not one chance of leaving that scene."
Social justice one year on
Now, following a year of social uprising against police brutality across the country, Jones has hope for the future of policing in the United States.
Congress is working on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. While its approval has been delayed past President Joe Biden's original deadline of the anniversary of Floyd's death,if passed, the bill would increase accountability for police misconduct, restrict the use of certain practices, enhance transparency and date collection and establish training, according to the act.
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A staple of the bill is a provision that aims to weaken qualified immunity, which would allow for police officers to face more civil lawsuits and more repercussions for incidents of police brutality. This provision has faced resistance in Congress as supporters of the bill attempt to win enough Republican support to pass the act through the Senate.
According to Jones, the bill has been a long time coming — long before even the death of his late sister's child.
"We have been going through this stuff for over 400 years, what is another month or two?" Jones asked. "In a perfect world, it would have already been done, but it's not a perfect world. And it'll happen, because there's a lot of momentum towards it, so it will happen, it's just a matter of time."
Real, positive change
While the country waits for a decision on the bill from Congress, Jones believes that real, positive change is on the way for policing and social justice in the United States.
Over the course of the past year, protests and political activism have already begun to alter to the public perception of police brutality in the United States, enough so that Congress is now in the process trying to pass a bill to permanently change the laws that allow for these incidents of police brutality to occur.
While Floyd is not the first victim of police brutality to make international news, Jones said that his death is the one that resulted in the most tangible change.
"You'll never forget the day that you heard about George Perry Floyd," he said.
A pandemic helped spark change
Jones believes that the change sparked by his nephew's death is partly a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which began to develop in the United States about two months before Floyd's death.
"We had an opportunity to sit back and have 8 billion people that had nothing to do and were waiting for something to happen. Lord knows we didn't have long until the death of George Floyd." Jones said.
According to Jones, because of COVID-19 restrictions and the lockdowns across the globe, too many people were paying attention for Floyd's death to go unnoticed.
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"Because without coronavirus, George Floyd would have just been another dead Black guy," Jones said. "Nobody would have cared. But when you're locked down and the only thing you can do is just sit there and wait, you have no other choice."
While Jones has hope for adequate police reform and systemic changes in the United States, he says the George Floyd Justice in Policing act is not the end of the struggle for racial equity and social harmony.
Despite any structural reform, Jones said, he will always warn his children to respect police officers, "because if you respect them, things go easier," he said.
"Unfortunately, we have to teach our babies that you better shut up and be quiet and say the right things. If not, you run the chance of putting yourself in a situation that you don't want to be in."
Crime reporter Jack Boden can be reached at jboden@gannett.com.
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The Link LonkMay 26, 2021 at 05:11PM
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'You'll never forget the day': George Floyd's uncle hopes for justice, police reform a year on - The Fayetteville Observer
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