The push for police reform has been an ongoing conversation for years but more specifically within the last year, amplified by the police killing of George Floyd. Earlier this week, the families of four Black men who were killed by police officers went to the Capitol to discuss what needs to happen.
According to ABC News, representatives from the families of George Floyd, Eric Garner, Botham Jean,
and Terence Crutcher met with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas. They had another sitdown with GOP Sen. Tim Scott and Sen. Lindsey Graham, both from South Carolina.They then went to the White House to meet with senior advisers Cedric Richmond and Susan Rice, as well as White House Counsel Dana Remus, the White House confirmed to ABC News
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“This legislation has my brother’s blood on it and all the other families’ blood on it,” Philonise Floyd said. “We’re here today because we need to let everybody know how we feel about our brothers and our families and family members who have been killed for anything that they shouldn’t have been killed for.”
According to U.S. News
, the family members who went included Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd; Allisa Findley, the sister of Botham Jean who was fatally shot by a Dallas officer in 2018; Tiffany Crutcher, the sister of Terence Crutcher who died after he was shot by a Tulsa officer in 2016; and Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner who died in 2014 after a New York City officer put him in an illegal chokehold.“(Schumer’s) only commitment was that, if it is a bill that is meaningful, and after he talks with these families, then he will bring it to the floor,” Benjamin Crump, the attorney for Floyd’s family. “He thought it was very important that these families who have their blood on this legislation believe in it. And hopefully, everybody in America will believe in it.”