Thursday, 28 Mar 2024

George Floyd’s family says Biden is committed to police reform after White House meeting.

After meeting with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday for over an hour in a private Oval Office session, the family members of George Floyd said the president was still committed to passing a police reform bill, even as he missed his own self-imposed deadline of getting it signed on the one-year anniversary of Mr. Floyd’s death.

“He said of the deadline, he’s not happy about it not being met, but all in all he just wants the bill to be right,” Brandon Williams, the nephew of George Floyd, told reporters outside the White House after the meeting ended.

The family members and their lead attorney, Benjamin Crump, characterized the meeting with Mr. Biden as a “very personal” check in with a family he has gotten to know over the past year.

“He genuinely wanted to know exactly how we were doing,” Mr. Williams said.

One of Mr. Floyd’s brothers, Philonise Floyd, pushed for more action on Capitol Hill, where the legislation bearing his brother’s name has languished. The bill seeks to ban the use of chokeholds, impose restrictions on deadly force and make it easier to prosecute officers for wrongdoing.

“If you can make federal laws to protect the bird which is the bald eagle, then you can make federal laws to protect people of color,” he said.

Mr. Crump and the Floyd family were set to meet with Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, and Senator Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina, two of the lead negotiators on a bipartisan bill, after their meeting with Mr. Biden.

“We all want better policing,” Mr. Crump said. Invoking the killing of Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old Black medical worker who was shot and killed by Louisville police officers in March 2020, Mr. Crump said: “Their blood is on this legislation.”

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