George Floyd’s brother begs Congress to reform police and asks what a black man’s life is worth

Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd who predicted that his death ‘is going to change the world,’ pleaded with Congress to reform law enforcement and asked what a black man’s life is worth in today’s world.    

In his prepared testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Floyd recalled May 25, the day his brother died after white police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. 

‘George wasn’t hurting anyone that day. 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,’ he said.

George Floyd was arrested after trying pay with a counterfeit $20 bill at a store in Minneapolis. 

Philonise Floyd described his brother, who he said he called ‘Perry,’ as mild mannered and polite. He testified the day after his brother’s burial in Houston, Texas.

‘He was mild mannered. He didn’t fight back. He listened to the officers. He called them ‘sir.’ The men who took his life, who suffocated for him eight minutes and 46 seconds. He still called them ‘sir’ as he begged for his life,’ he said. 

‘I’m tired. I’m tired of the pain I’m feeling now and I’m tired of the pain I feel every time another black person is killed for no reason. I’m here today to ask you to make it stop. Stop the pain. Stop us from being tired,’ he told lawmakers.

He asked lawmakers to listen to the protests that spung up around the country in the wake of his brother’s death and the calls to reform police. 

‘George’s calls for help were ignored. Please listen to the call 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 – not the problem,’ he said.

Philonise Floyd paused and choked back tears as he concluded his opening remarks. 

‘You’re changing the world,’ he told his brother. ‘Thank you for everything. For taking care of us when you were on Earth, and for taking care of all of us now. I hope you found mama and can rest in peace and power.’

As he walked into the committee room on Wednesday morning, Philonise Floyd was asked what message he hoped to send Congress, ‘Justice for George,’ he said. 

Republicans, while expressing their sympathy to Philonise Floyd, used the hearing to blast Democratic efforts at police reform, specifically criticizing the ‘defund the police’ movement.

The ‘defund the police’ movement calls for funds to be removed from police departments and allocated to social services instead. Some in the movement are even calling for police departments to be dissolved altogether. 

Democrats did not include that provision in their reform police legislation they released on Monday and Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it clear that is a local issue, not a federal issue.

But Republican Congressman Jim Jordan, a prominent Capitol Hill ally of President Donald Trump, attacked Democrats for it in his opening statement.

‘It is pure insanity to defund the police,’ he said. ‘The fact that my Democratic colleagues won’t speak out against this crazy policy is just that frightening.’

President Trump gave Jordan’s statement his seal of approval.

‘Great statement to Congress by @Jim_Jordan concerning Defunding (not!) our great Police. This Radical Left agenda is not going to happen. Sleepy Joe Biden will be (already is) pulled all the way Left. Many, like Minneapolis, want to close their Police Departments. Crazy!,’ he tweeted.

The president made no mention of George Floyd or Philonise Floyd’s testimony.

But he did play TV critic, complaining that Fox News cut away from the hearing before the GOP witnesses spoke.

‘Incredible! @FoxNews just took Congressional Hearing off the air just prior to important witness statements. More like CNN!!! Fox is lost!!!,’ he wrote.

Fox News cut away as House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy was introducing Angela Underwood Jacobs, a Republican candidate for Congress whose brother Patrick was killed May 25 in Oakland.

She said he was killed in the unrest that swarmed the nation after George Floyd’s death.

‘My brother, Dave Patrick Underwood, a federal officer, was murdered 5/29/20 in Oakland California, while on duty during the riots,’ she wrote on Facebook. ‘This Violence Must Stop.’ 

Patrick Underwood was a contract security officer for the Department of Homeland Security, guarding the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building. 

‘Underwood died from gunshot wounds sustained after shots were fired by an unidentifed subject in a vehicle,’ according to a police statement. 

Underwood’s death is being investigated. 

‘I want you as our representatives in Congress to make a change, so that no one ever has to wake up to the phone call that I received telling me that my brother was shot dead and murdered,’ Angela Underwood Jacobs testified on Wednesday. ‘How my brother died was wrong.’

The ‘defund the police’ movement has become a rallying cry for some progressives in the wake of George Floyd’s death, including for Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a liberal star in the Democratic party. 

She told ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ on Thursday that calls to ‘defund the police’ are criticisms of many departments’ outsized budgets.

‘It’s not always just about the number of officers on the street. It’s about these police precincts that have tanks, that have military weaponry, and frankly have a degree of material resources and warlike weaponry that people ask why does a local police precinct have this in the first place?’ she said.

‘People always say ‘how are you going to pay for it’? What this movement is doing first and foremost — it’s important to note — that this is directed at city councils and mayors. And so you should look to see if your city is having this conversation,’ she added.

She compared the rallying cry to that of ‘Black Lives Matter.’

‘Just a few years ago, everyone said that Black Lives Matter polled poorly, that it was divisive, that it required too much explanation. But these are everyday people going out into their communities saying this is what we want for ourselves and for our city council budgets,’ she said.

Democrats’ legislation outlaws chokeholds, makes it easier to sue police officers, prohibits racial profiling, makes lynching a federal hate crime and ends no-knock raids.

Republicans are looking presenting their own police reform legislation this week. It would be narrower than the Democrats’ bill. 

It does not include the chokehold provision, for example.

The draft GOP plan would condition grant funding on reporting on the use of force that causes death or injury, seeks increased funding for body-worn cameras and penalties for failing to use them and to establish a new independent commission to conduct a comprehensive review of the criminal justice system and make recommendations for reform, among other ideas. It also calls to make lynching a federal hate crime, according to CNN, which obtained a copy of the draft proposal.