Philonise Floyd gave stirring testimony on the death of his brother, George Floyd, at the hands of Minneapolis police before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday.
“He didn’t deserve to die over 20 dollars,” Floyd said, “I am asking you, is that what a black man is worth?”
George Floyd's brother, Philonise Floyd, testified before House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. "He didn't deserve to die over 20 dollars. I am asking you, is that what a black man is worth? Twenty dollars? This is 2020. Enough is enough." pic.twitter.com/TQWQeNE93X
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) June 10, 2020
The poignant testimony comes after House Democrats delivered a package of reforms to address police violence on Monday. The package, drafted by the Congressional Black Caucus, bans chokeholds like the one used by a white Minneapolis police officer when he knelt on the neck of George Floyd — a black man — for eight minutes and 46 seconds and protests to protect black lives broke out across the globe.
The police reform bill also outlaws no-knock warrants like the one used before black medical worker, Breonna Taylor, was shot and killed by Louisville police in her own home.
The younger Floyd implored House representatives to “do the right thing.”
Now, Senate Republicans are preparing to respond with their own set of proposals to redress police misconduct — an effort headed up by the party’s only black member, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.).
The proposal will provide “much-needed solutions,” Scott said in a tweet on Tuesday adding that the GOP reform package would address “police reform” and “retraining.”
In a press conference announcing the Minneapolis Police Department’s immediate withdrawal from police union contract negotiations on Wednesday, however, the department’s chief, Medaria Arradondo, said that Floyd’s death by police went beyond simply an issue of training.
“I did not see humanity,” Arradondo said in response to a reporter’s question about the origins of such a behavior — one that the police chief said he had never seen in his own training. “That’s the only answer I can give you.”
