‘They lynched my brother’
WASHINGTON — George Floyd’s younger brother took his grief to the U.S. Congress Wednesday with an impassioned plea that lawmakers not let his brother’s death be in vain, lamenting that he “didn’t deserve to die over $20” in a what he called a lynching.
The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee held the first congressional hearing to examine racial injustice and police brutality following George Floyd’s May 25 death after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
His death prompted a wave of protests in U.S. cities and abroad.
“They lynched my brother. That was a modern-day lynching in broad daylight,” Philonise Floyd, 42, of Missouri City, Tex., near Houston, told the committee, his voice breaking with emotion.
“His life mattered. All our lives matter. Black lives matter,” he added, wiping away tears.
The Democratic-led House is moving forward with sweeping reform legislation that could come to a vote by July 4, while Senate Republicans are crafting a rival plan.
George Floyd, a 46-yearold Houston native who had worked security at nightclubs, was unarmed when taken into custody outside a market where an employee had reported that a man matching his description tried to pay for cigarettes with a counterfeit bill.
“George wasn’t hurting anyone that day. He didn’t deserve to die over $20. I’m asking you, is that what a black man’s worth? $20? This is 2020. Enough is enough,” his brother said. “It is on you to make sure his death is not in vain.”