Following the conviction of former United States police officer, Derek Chauvin, over the murder of George Floyd, a black man, US President Joe Biden has described the verdict as “a giant step forward in the march toward justice in America.”
Biden also urged lawmakers to seize the moment and ensure the legacy of George Floyd was not his murder, but lasting police reform.
“No one should be above the law and today’s verdict sends that message, but it’s not enough,” Biden said Tuesday at the White House. “This takes acknowledging and confronting head-on systemic racism and the racial disparities that exist in policing,” he said.
The president expressed optimism that the verdict would mark a “moment of significant change” for a nation he said (that) had not done enough to confront racial injustice.
According to him, the relief expressed by many Americans following the conviction which provided “basic accountability” only underscored the need for progress toward new federal policing legislation.
Outrage over Floyd’s death, on a Minneapolis street last May, prompted a fresh outburst of outrage over brutality and racism as graphic video recordings from bystanders were circulated. Floyd’s death and that of other Black people at the hands of the police galvanized nationwide protests that Biden described as the nation’s most significant reckoning with race since the civil rights movement.
The president secured the Democratic nomination – and eventually the White House – in part on the strength of support from Black voters eager to see change from President Donald Trump, who repeatedly voiced support for law enforcement while sharply criticizing demonstrators and other acts of protest, like Black National Football League players kneeling during the playing of the National Anthem.
Yet, since arriving in the White House, Biden has seen little progress toward the sweeping police reforms he promised to pursue. House Democrats passed legislation carrying Floyd’s name that would institute new restrictions on federal authorities prohibiting racial profiling, chokeholds, and no-knock warrants. Yet the bill has languished in the Senate without a clear path to a filibuster-proof 60 vote majority, with Republicans expressing opposition to provisions that would change qualified immunity rules for law enforcement.
Biden has however said that it should not take “a whole year” to get Congress to act.
