George Floyd a year later: ‘We’re not where we should be’ | Black Lives Matter News

Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA – “It’s been a long year. It has been a painful year. It has been very frustrating for me and my family to change your life in the blink of an eye, ”said Bridgett Floyd. George Floyd, he said on Sunday a rally Here, on the knee of the former police officer before the first anniversary of his brother’s murder Derek Chauvin.

As activists prepare for a celebration of Floyd’s life, at the now-named crossroads — George Floyd Square — he took his last breath a year ago. On Tuesday, members of Floyd’s family will travel to the White House to meet with President Joe Biden. . While there are movements to change the way we care for communities in Minneapolis and across the nation, residents and activists say it hasn’t been enough.

It was after Chauvin condemned On April 20 of the assassination, Vice President Kamala Harris said: “We feel calm. However, he cannot remove the pain. The measure of justice is not the same as justice. This verdict brings us one step closer. we still need to reform the system, “he added.

Biden encouraged him to join Congress pass The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a bill passed by members of the Black Caucus in Congress that seeks to end the use of hope, unscrupulous orders, legal immunity from the police, and the militarization of police departments.

Biden asked Congress to pass the law before Tuesday’s anniversary, but that’s not difficult, as the bill is stalled in the U.S. Senate. Democratic Sen. Cory Booker said “significant progress” has been made, but no agreement has yet been reached and the bill remains in limbo.

At the local level, it’s the same.

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Since Floyd’s death, there have been three major proposals for police reform in Minneapolis. First, Minneapolis City Council has proposed the creation of a public safety department with the goal of voting in the city elections in November. Yes 4 The petition to create a department of public safety headed by the Minneapolis Political Commission has recently submitted thousands more signatures than it should have in the hope that voters will make an effort this year as well.

Finally, another petition seeking to create a Civil Police Commission with the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice, led by the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice, is also ready to vote on the organization created after the shooting in Minneapolis police in 2015, but organizers hope it will eventually qualify for special elections. because they meet the deadlines for the upcoming November elections. Because the Minneapolis city charter requires a police department and requires the approval of voters to change that, all avenues for police reform are in the ballot box.

While legislative changes are making their way into the system, little has changed on the ground.

“Unfortunately, we are not where we should be,” Michelle Gross, head of the Police Brutality United Against Communities (CUAPB), told Al Jazeera. “Here in Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota, we have not been able to pass meaningful police reform legislation. There is nothing that has changed that will prevent another event from happening to George Floyd. “

He likes it a lot at the national levelA $ 2.7 billion omnibus bill aimed at directing public safety through police reforms and greater accountability passed the Democratic-led Minnesota House of Representatives in April, but has since been stalled in the Republican-controlled Minnesota State Senate.

“I see other states that end qualified immunity and other things that would make sense [police killings] and I don’t see it happening here and that frustrates me, ”Gross said, referring to the legal defense he protects from some police cases.

He believes Floyd’s death would have gone unnoticed had it not been for the video taken by Darnella Frazier. Without that, “a year later at this point, his family probably started to know what had happened to him if there hadn’t been a video clip.”

As for George Floyd Square, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has pledged to reopen the intersection to traffic this year, but local activists have said they will not reopen until they make their demands, including investing $ 156 million in community services next year. 10 years and remembering Mike Freeman Hennepin County Attorney – meet.

One of the places where the changes have taken place and happened quickly has been in the Minneapolis neighborhood of Brooklyn Center, where Daunte Wright shot Kim Potter, a former Brooklyn Center police officer, on April 11, and Potter has been charged with second-degree murder. and Minnesota attorney Keith Ellison has taken up the prosecution of the case.

After Wright was shot, Gross says Michael Elliott, the mayor of Brooklyn, turned black with him and other community groups. Together with the ACLU and others, Elliott introduced the resolution (PDF) in early May and passed by Brooklyn Center City Council the following week.

The changes include increasing independent surveillance of the police department, banning arrests for low-level offenses, sending members of a civilian department to enforce unarmed traffic to deal with minor traffic violations, and ultimately creating a new department to oversee public safety. “They’re going to create their own 911 call center, so there’s a little bit of infrastructure … so it’s probably going to take six to nine months, but the rest should be pretty easy to put in,” Gross says.

“[It] it will establish a new north star for our community that we will all be safe from, ”said Mayor Mike Elliott, according to the Star Tribune newspaper.“ He says we, as our elected leaders, are committed. You can hold us accountable for achieving these goals. “