WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th May, 2021) On the first anniversary of George Floyd's murder, US President Joe Biden in a statement on Tuesday has called upon Congress to act resolutely on the urgent police reform bill to raise the accountability of law enforcement officers.
"We must have accountability when law enforcement officers violate their oaths, and we need to build lasting trust between the vast majority of the men and women who wear the badge honorably and the communities they are sworn to serve and protect," Biden said. "I appreciate the good-faith efforts from Democrats and Republicans to pass a meaningful bill out of the Senate. It's my hope they will get a bill to my desk quickly. We have to act."
Biden pointed out that the protests, which followed the death of Floyd, peacefully unified people of every race and generation to collectively say enough of the killings.
"If you can make Federal laws to protect the [national] bird, which is the bald eagle, you can make federal laws to protect People of Color," George Floyd's brother Philonise Floyd told reporters as he left the White House.
George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man was killed by police officer Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee to his neck for over nine minutes in Minneapolis. A trial determined "beyond reasonable doubt" that Chauvin's actions violated police rules of engagement and became a major factor in Floyd's death.
In April 2021, the former officer was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter potentially facing up to 75 years in jail.
