George Floyd’s brother says he still has nightmares about his 2020 killing

George Floyd’s family is still grieving. four years after his assassination by a Minneapolis police officer.

“(It’s) absolutely hell,” his sister-in-law Keeta Floyd told CBS News. “They don’t realize what’s going on behind the scenes, for every life lost since the death of George Floyd. It’s extremely painful. It’s a wound that never heals.”

Several members of the Floyd family joined members of the Congressional Black Caucus this week for the reintroduction of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The measure, sponsored by Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, would implement tougher reforms to combat police misconduct and strengthen accountability standards.

“We want this law to pass, period,” Philonise, Floyd’s brother, told CBS News. “We’ve been fighting for this same law for 2020 since my brother was murdered. The day after the funeral, I came here to speak to Congress. Nothing was passed. Every time you look up, they say ‘Oh, we “We’re going to do this, we’re going to do that.”

Before Republicans gained the majority, the House twice passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act – both times while the House was under Democratic control, in 2020 and 2021. The bill limited immunity qualified officers, prevented racial profiling and limited the use of excessive measures. force. It collapsed in the Senate after bipartisan negotiations between New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker and South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott failed. a proposal to ban chokeholds, no-knock warrants and expand federal data collection efforts.

“We had a piece of legislation that had been supported by the nation’s largest police union, by chiefs’ associations across the country, by civil rights activists and more, but in the Senate, because of the “filibuster, it takes 60 votes to pass anything,” Booker said. CBS News. “And while I am confident that we have more than 50 votes to pass many common-sense reforms, I still find it frustrating that we have not been able to introduce bills that would reflect the changes made in the Red and Blue States.”

CBS News has reached out to Scott’s office for comment. Last year, the Republican senator gave a lengthy speech on police reform following the death of Tire Nichols, 29 years oldwho was killed by officers from a Memphis police unit during a traffic stop.

“Politics too often gets in the way of doing what all Americans know is common sense,” Scott said. “Here we find ourselves again… having the same conversation with no action having happened so far.”

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, nearly 400 police policy bills were passed last year, including measures addressing officer training.

“Colorado said we were going to end qualified immunity, Connecticut said it, New Mexico said it,” Philonise Floyd said of several state laws that have taken effect since the death of his brother in 2020. “It’s these other states that haven’t done it. They’ve opened their eyes and seen what’s happening. But what will happen is once this happens at their doorstep, they’ll make changes, and then they’ll say, “Hey, let’s not be proactive.”

President Biden signed a decree in 2022 requiring federal law enforcement to implement reforms and incentivize state and local law enforcement to improve policing practices. In a statement, Jackson Lee said Congress must “do its part.”

“While we applaud the administration’s efforts, this action is not as permanent or as comprehensive as the reforms we can accomplish through congressional action,” Jackson Lee said.

Floyd, 46, was killed after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes as Floyd gasped, “I can’t breathe.” The incident, caught on video, sparked global protests and racial reckoning at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Chauvin was convicted and is currently serving a 22-and-a-half-year prison sentence.

Philonise and his wife say he still has nightmares about his brother’s murder.

“He’s in a mental health crisis himself,” Keeta explained. “They don’t see that, how much it tears families apart. They don’t see that. You know, the world doesn’t see that. And so, we heal. We heal constantly.”

“I can’t talk to my brother,” said Philonise, who called George “a ray of hope.”

“All these families that are with us, that don’t know, that have never had this, they are standing up for a reason because they are saying our fight is your fight,” Philonise Floyd said. “George was my brother. Every mother said, ‘He was my son.’ So if people are mobilizing like this, they are doing it for a reason, because they want people to be able to change these laws.”