George Floyd's brother tells lawmakers: 'He didn't deserve to die over $20'

In his congressional testimony, Philonise Floyd remembered his brother George Floyd as “our gentle giant.”

“I was reminded of that when I watched the video of his murder. He called all of the officers ‘sir.’ He was mild mannered. He didn't fight back. He listened to all the officers. The man who took his life, who suffocated him for eight minutes and 46 seconds, he still called him ‘sir’ as he begged for his life,” he said.

“I can't tell you the kind of pain you feel when you watch something like that, when you watch your big brother, who you looked up to your whole entire life die, die begging for his mom.”

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Democratic lawmaker Karen Bass told a House hearing today she hopes America will pass meaningful police reform before the end of the year.

"I hope that we work for passage of this legislation in the House, that it gets through the Senate, the President signs it and in the year 2020 we never, ever, ever see again what we saw a few weeks ago."

“It wasn't just a tragedy for our country and our nation, but it really was an embarrassment of our nation in front of the entire world. While we hold up human rights in the world, we obviously have to hold them up in our country," she added.

She said she told George Floyd's brother that George's name "will live on history because the tragedy that he suffered has been the catalyst for what I believe will be profound change."

George Floyd’s brother Philonise Floyd delivered an emotional testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, urging lawmakers to listen to "the call" for change from the Floyd family and protesters across the country.

"I’m tired. I’m tired of pain," Floyd said. "I’m here to ask you to make it stop. Stop the pain. Stop us from being tired," Floyd continued.

"George called for help and he was ignored. Please listen to the calls I’m making to you now, to the calls of our family, and to the calls ringing out in the streets across the world. People of all backgrounds, genders and race have come together to demand change. Honor them, honor George and make the necessary changes that make law enforcement the solution and not the problem," Floyd continued.

"The people elected you to speak for them, to make positive change," Floyd said. "George’s name means something. You have the opportunity here to make your names mean something, too. If his death ends up changing the world for the better. And I think it will. Then he died as he lived. It is on you to make sure his death isn’t in vain."

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Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, said he's testifying before Congress today to "make sure that his death would not be in vain."

Floyd's killing at the hands of police last month has sparked protests across the country.

"I couldn't take care of George the day he was killed, but maybe by speaking with you today, I can make sure that his death would not be in vain," Philonise Floyd said today. "To make sure that he is more than another face on a T-shirt, more than another name on a list that won't stop growing."

ABD'de George Floyd isyanı polis teşkilatlarının lağvedilmesini bile gündeme getirirken, Temsilciler Meclisi polis reformuyla ilgili oturum düzenlendi.

Tanık olarak çağrılan Floyd'un kardeşi, ağabeyinin bakkalın sahte 20 dolar ihbarı üzerine gelen polis tarafından öldürüldüğünü hatırlatarak sordu: Bir siyah erkeğin hayatının değeri 20 dolar mı?

ABD'nin Minneapolis kentinde bakkalın sahte 20 dolar verdiği ihbarı üzerine gelen polislerden bir beyaz memurun ensesine çöküp boğarak öldürdüğü George Floyd’un erkek kardeşi Kongre'de konuşma yaptı.

George Floyd protestoları isyana dönüşürken, Kongre'nin alt kanadı Temsilciler Meclisi'nin Adalet Komisyonu kanun uygulayıcı kolluk kuvvetlerinin hesap verebilirliğiyle ilgili oturumuna kurbanın kardeşi Philonise Floyd'u tanık olarak çağırdı.

Floyd, ağabeyinin '20 dolar için ölmeyi hak etmediğini' söyleyerek vekillere şöyle seslendi:

"Bir siyah erkeğin hayatının değeri bu mudur? 20 dolar mı? 2020 yılındayız. Artık yetti."

Floyd, "Polis şiddeti sona ermeli" çağrısında bulunarak "George dünyayı değiştirdi" vurgusu yaptı.

Ağabeyinin polis tarafından öldürülmesinin videosunu izlerken derin acı hissettiğini belirten Floyd "Anne diye bağırmasını unutamıyorum. Kardeşinizin ölümünü izlemek tarifsiz bir acı" diye konuştu.

Human rights activist Martin Luther King III said that protesters are finally now being heard, after he recently tweeted, “As my father explained during his lifetime, a riot is the language of the unheard.”

King said that the protests after George Floyd’s death will not change racial inequities in America right away, but can be impactful within a short period of time. 

“I believe the entire nation, and really the world is focused on this issue … the question really is: what will those changes be? And it is clear that our nation is poised for change —and responsible change. Obviously, you cannot change institutional racism overnight. It's a process,” he said to CNN’s Jim Sciutto.

King said that there needs to be dialogue between civil rights leaders and the White House, citing when his father, Martin Luther King Jr., held meetings with Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson. 

After delays across Georgia during its primary yesterday led to voters spending hours in line, King added that “there's no question” that voter suppression exists and that it disproportionally affects black Americans.

“If we don't deal with voter suppression, it's going to be interesting to see what happens in the election in November … We should be making it much easier for people to vote, and we're not as a nation,” he said.

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"I believe the entire nation and really the world has spoken, on this issue...the question really is what will those changes be? And it is clear that our nation is poised for change and responsible change."
- Martin Luther King III on the nation's response to George Floyd's death pic.twitter.com/szT0yNrYlq

— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) June 10, 2020

House Judiciary Committee committee chair Jerry Nadler opened today's hearing on police reform urging Congress to bring change on police reform following George Floyd's death, saying lawmakers have an "obligation" to do "everything in our power" to deliver that change.

"If there is one thing I have taken away from the tragic events of the last month, is that the nation demands and deserves meaningful change. We can and should debate the specifics, but at the end of the day, it is the responsibility and the obligation of the House Judiciary Committee to do everything in our power to help deliver that change for the American people," Nadler said.

Nadler expressed his condolences to Philonise Floyd for the loss of his brother and thanked him for testifying and discussing his brother's life.

Speaking to reporters ahead of today's hearing, House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler said he doesn’t know whether there will be bipartisan consensus on police reform legislation but “we must have real reform."

"Frankly, anybody who stands in the way is going to get bulled over," he said.

Nadler added: “There's going to be very heavy pressure from the American people” and he hopes Republicans will be “responsive” to that pressure.

Asked what he expects to hear from George Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, who is testifying today in front of the committee, Nadler replied, “We will hear some of the experience, some of his feelings, that will help inform what we do.”

Also, asked the same question, House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy said, “I’m here to listen, to find a solution.”

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican in the US Senate, presented his ideas for policing reform to colleagues during a closed-door lunch Tuesday. 

Republican senators — confronted by marches in cities and small towns across America — are growing more vocal that the party must act on policing reform, a stark contrast to just a week ago when many members dismissed the idea of the Senate acting at all.

There is now a five-person task force that will lead Republicans in their effort to craft legislation including Scott, Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, also of South Carolina, John Cornyn of Texas, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.

All of the members are working just days after Democrats unveiled their own proposal, which went further in dictated specific changes that state and local police forces should make including banning chokeholds.

Here are the main differences between both plans:

George Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, is on Capitol Hill this morning, where he'll testify before the House Judiciary committee.

"He didn’t deserve to die over twenty dollars. I am asking you, is that what a black man’s life is worth? Twenty dollars? This is 2020. Enough is enough," Floyd will say, according to a copy of his prepared remarks.

Martin Gugino — the 75-year-old man seriously injured after video showed him being pushed by two Buffalo officers at a protest — will be moved to a rehabilitation floor of the hospital where he’s being treated today, his attorney Kelly Zarcone tells CNN in a statement. 

“We hope he will be released within the next two weeks,” she said.

The officers, who were suspended after the incident, were each charged with one count of assault in the second degree and have been released on their own recognizance without bail. They both pleaded not guilty.

Yesterday, Trump suggested without evidence that Gugino may have been part of a "set up."

The toppled statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston will be retrieved and placed in a museum after it was dumped into a river in Bristol, England, by protesters on Sunday.

On Wednesday, Bristol City Council announced on Twitter: “The statue of Edward Colston will be retrieved from the harbor and exhibited, with Black Lives Matter placards, in one of our museums. A decision on how the plinth will be used will be decided democratically through consultation,” they said.

The statue of Edward Colston will be retrieved from the harbour and exhibited, with #BlackLivesMatter placards, in one of our museums.

A decision on how the plinth will be used will be decided democratically through consultation. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/yqPpEy2RiY

— Bristol City Council (@BristolCouncil) June 10, 2020

The council, on its website, said it has received many ideas for what should go on the remaining plinth, including another statue of notable Bristol people or revolving art projects.

The statue of Colston will be displayed in the museum alongside Black Lives Matter placards from the recent protest “so the 300 year story of slavery through to today’s fight for racial equality can be learnt about,” the council’s website said. 

Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees also announced a new commission will be set up to examine the city’s “true history”.

“The events over the last few days have really highlighted that as a city we all have very different understandings of our past. The only way we can work together on our future is by learning the truth of our beginnings, embracing the facts, and sharing those stories with others. This is why this commission is so important,” Rees said in a statement.

He said so far education of Bristol’s history has “often been flawed”.

Some background: On Sunday, protesters tied the bronze statue of Edward Colston with rope before toppling it to cheers from the surrounding crowd. Demonstrators were later seen rolling the statue to the nearby harbor and throwing it into the River Avon.

Since the incident, which was applauded by some and decried by others for what they called "mob rule," there has been much debate about what to do with the statue.

The statue of Colston had stood in Bristol's city center since 1895 but had become increasingly controversial, with petitions created to demand its removal.

Philonise Floyd, George Floyd’s brother, has arrived at the US Capitol building ahead of his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee hearing at 10:00 a.m. ET examining the crisis of racial profiling, police brutality and lost trust between police departments and the communities they serve. 

“Our nation needs Congress to act. This is our moral moment – we must look at legislation to address laws that shield police officers from ever being accountable. We must address the structural conflicts of interest," Rep. Karen Bass, Congressional Black Caucus Chair and House Judiciary Crime Subcommittee Chair, said in a news release about the hearing last week. 

Floyd family attorney Ben Crump, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, also president of the Major City Chiefs Association, and Sherrilyn Ifill, the president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, will also be testifying.

George Floyd's brother, Philonise Floyd, will testify before Congress this morning during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on "Policing Practices and Law Enforcement Accountability." 

The hearing will feature 12 witnesses, some testifying in person and others virtually, including Floyd family attorney Ben Crump, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, who is also president of the Major City Chiefs Association, and Sherrilyn Ifill, the president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

“There are now protests taking place in every state as people take a stand against police brutality and racism. People are rightfully upset, they are frustrated, and they want to be heard. They want real change, not meaningless words. I want Americans to know that I hear them, and I see them. The House Judiciary Committee is working very closely with the Congressional Black Caucus to determine the best path forward to address police brutality and racial inequality," the committee's chair, Jerry Nadler, said in a news statement released last week about the hearing.

The hearing comes days after Democrats put forward sweeping legislation aimed at cracking down on police brutality and recording patterns of misuse of force across the country, the first concrete step toward action from Washington as a national movement continues to emerge.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that Congress "cannot settle for anything less than transformative structural change."

The legislation is the most expansive effort in recent years to crack down at a federal level on policing practices across the US, but it is expected to face strong resistance from Republicans, police unions and local officials who don't want Washington intervening in their policy making.

George Floyd's death has sparked an outpouring of grief and protest worldwide. Here's the latest on the demonstrations:

Hundreds march in Seattle: The crowd marched into the city hall late Tuesday night to demand the resignation or impeachment of Mayor Jenny Durkan. The protests appeared peaceful.

Richmond protesters remove Christopher Columbus statue: The crowd vandalized the monument to the explorer before throwing it into a lake.

UK rapper speaks out over police brutality: British rapper Wretch 32 posted a clip of his 62-year-old father being tasered by a police officer. The video has been viewed more than 1 million times online.

HBO Max temporarily removes "Gone with the Wind": The company will return the film to its library with additional historical context. The film's portrayal of slavery, African Americans and the Civil War South has been criticized in the decades since its release.

In the two weeks since George Floyd's death, President Donald Trump's advisers have worked to prepare him to meet the national moment.

Some have shared stories with him about their own or their friends' experiences with racism, encouraging Trump to be more empathetic.

A group of White House officials solicited ideas from criminal justice reform advocates about policing reforms and proposed the President meet with African American leaders. And this week, White House officials put the President in a room with law enforcement officials who argued certain aspects of policing could change.

But as Trump now considers backing some of those reforms and addressing issues of race and policing in a prominent speech, his message on the subject remains muddled and -- in the view of some advisers -- tinged by a hardline stance he adopted at the start of nationwide protests that some view as difficult to walk back.

In the two weeks since national protests began, Trump has sought to stamp out unrest using overwhelming police and military force, shown little interest in addressing questions of systemic racism at the heart of the protests and renewed his criticism of NFL players kneeling during the national anthem as a form of peaceful protest.

Even as he considers unveiling police reform proposals as early as this week, Trump and many of his top lieutenants have denied systemic racism is a problem in policing at all.

Read more here.

"He's going to change the world."

The poignant eulogy to George Floyd delivered by his brother Rodney on Tuesday is already at least partially true, although how deep and enduring that change is will be decided by future struggles.

In a span of mere days, the death of a black man with a white policeman's knee on his neck became a parable in America's aching racial story and a rallying point for action that resonated far beyond Minnesota, where he died, and disrupted politics, business, culture and sports. Floyd's impact has spanned continents -- sparking debate and reflections across the Atlantic in Europe.

Barely known outside his own circle, Floyd suddenly became the most famous man in the world, shouldering the pain of the racially oppressed everywhere with his dying words, "I can't breathe."

Yet he will never know of his fame nor perceive the change he has wrought.

Read more here.

A statue of Christopher Columbus in Richmond's Byrd Park was vandalized, torn down, and thrown in the park's lake on Tuesday night, according to CNN affiliate WTVR.

Protesters marched to the Robert E. Lee monument in Richmond, Virginia on Tuesday. Later, some groups returned and vandalized the statue.

The crowd pulled the statue down with rope and pushed it into the lake, WTVR reported.

Columbus, a 15th-century Italian explorer, is a deeply controversial figure in the United States and held responsible for paving the way for European exploration and colonization of the Americas.

It's not the first time that a statue of him has been vandalized. In 2019 people threw red paint over statues of the explorer in San Francisco and Providence, Rhode Island.

British rapper Wretch 32 has spoken out about police brutality in the country after posting a video of his 62-year-old father being tasered in London.

"This is how the police think they can treat a 62 year old black man in Tottenham but this 1 happens to be my dad #Nojusticenopeace," the rapper, whose real name is Jermaine Scott, wrote on Twitter.

In the clip Scott’s father, Millard Scott, can be seen falling downstairs in a home after an officer says, “police officer with a Taser. Stay where you are.”

The video has been viewed 1.1 million times on social media so far.

Scott gave an interview to UK broadcaster and CNN affiliate ITV News in which he criticized London's police force for its historical use of heavy-handed tactics.

“I grew up in a household with my Dad and my uncle and I have watched them fight against police brutality my whole life," he said.
"I am 35 now and we are still here again today. And I now have to have the same conversations that my dad and my uncle and my grandparents and my parents had with me when I was a child. That means there is no progression.”

A spokesperson for London's Metropolitan Police said: "Officers entered the home to carry out arrest enquiries as part of a long running operation to tackle drugs supply.”

In response to Wretch 32 on Twitter, the police force said “no indication of misconduct has been identified.”

Police officers said they arrested a 22-year-old man inside the house, who was charged with encouraging another to commit an offense.

Officers also arrested a 52-year-old woman at the scene on suspicion of obstructing or resisting a police constable in the execution of duties.

Police departments around the world are moving to ban neck restraints in the aftermath of George Floyd's death and the widespread protests that followed.

Neck restraints, or neck holds, refer to the practice of officers using their arm or leg to restrain someone's neck. The technique has been a subject of controversy for years, particularly following the death of Eric Garner in 2014 after a police officer was accused of choking him.

The term "chokehold" is often used in mainstream discourse to refer to any neck hold, but police generally categorize neck restraints in two ways: the stranglehold and the chokehold. Strangeholds -- also called carotid restraints, sleeper holds or blood chokes -- temporarily cut off blood flow to the brain and are meant to render a subject unconscious for a time. Chokeholds -- also called airway holds -- restrict breathing by applying pressure to the windpipe.

Law enforcement officers say the techniques are used to gain control of aggressive or resisting subjects. Some departments state that they should only be employed as a last resort, when the officer believes the subject poses a threat to their or others' lives. But as the cases of Floyd, Garner and others have shown, neck restraints have the potential to go badly wrong -- sometimes resulting in death.

Read more here.