President Biden Tells Nation ‘We Can’t Stop Here’ And Urges Senate To Pass George Floyd Justice In Policing Act

Black Americans reacted with relief and cautious optimism after a jury convicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin of murdering 46-year-old George Floyd on the street in front of a corner store where bystanders appealed to Chauvin to take his knee off the neck of Floyd who was handcuffed and saying he could not breathe.

President Joe Biden said, “It seems like it took a unique and extraordinary convergence of factors: A brave young woman with a smartphone camera, a crowd that was traumatized — traumatized witnesses — a murder that lasts almost 10 minutes in broad daylight for everybody in the whole world to see, officers standing up and testifying against a fellow officer instead of just closing ranks which should be commended, a jury who heard the evidence and carried out their civic duty in the midst of an extraordinary moment under extraordinary pressure.”

He added, “We can, and we must do more to reduce the likelihood that a tragedy like this will ever happen or occur again.”

Lawmakers joined the President in calling for the Senate to pass The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act which was introduced last summer by then-Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Cory Booker and Congresswoman Karen Bass who is the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. The House passed the legislation.

“This bill would hold law enforcement accountable and help build trust between law enforcement and our communities,” Vice-President Harris stated. “This bill is part of George Floyd’s legacy.”

In Minneapolis and around the country, the conversation the day after the verdict focused on police reform.

“Make no mistake, we are not done,” explained Antonio Romanucci, one of the attorneys for the Floyd family. “The George Floyd Policing and Reform Act must pass the Senate. We now know that today police can and will be held accountable for needless death. This death never should have happened … From now on, everyone is on notice that police will be held accountable. But we will be held accountable, too. This whole country should be held accountable, but police especially.”

Republican Senator Tim Scott is suggesting a compromise that has stalled past attempts to curb excessive force by police: civil lawsuit protections currently afforded to police officers or so-called qualified immunity. Scott wants to shift the burden of responsibility from individual police officers to the police departments where they work.

“I assume my conference understands where I am, and I’m hopeful and optimistic,” Scott said.

The hope generated by Tuesday’s guilty verdict spread across the country but was still tempered by the grim history of police brutality. George Floyd’s brother, Philonise, called it a “never-ending cycle.”

But Rev. Al Sharpton who eulogized Floyd acknowledged the guilty verdict as an outcome that gave social justice activists the “energy” to fight on.

“We are determined that we are going to fight until we make federal law The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act — must be law,” he said.