Joe Biden calls on lawmakers to honour Floyd with ‘reform bill’

Bloomberg

President Joe Biden said the conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was “a giant step forward in the march towards justice in America,” and called on lawmakers to ensure the legacy of George Floyd wasn’t his murder, but lasting law-enforcement reform.
“No one should be above the law and today’s verdict sends that message, but it’s not enough,” Biden said at the White House. “This takes acknowledging and confronting head-on systemic racism and the racial disparities that exist in policing.”
Hours earlier, a jury had convicted Chauvin of second-degree murder and lesser charges for cutting off Floyd’s air supply last May 25 as he lay handcuffed and begging for his life. The conviction, which stood out against decades of impunity for most police excessive-force cases, could mean decades in prison for the 45-year-old Chauvin, who will face sentencing in eight weeks. It also could lend momentum to congressional legislation named for Floyd that would set limits on aggression by police officers.
“Painfully earned justice has arrived for George Floyd’s family,” Ben Crump, a lawyer who is head of its legal team, said in a statement. The verdict’s impact, he said, extends beyond Minneapolis and will have “significant implications for the country and even the world.”
The episode that started a racial reckoning around the globe unfolded last spring after Chauvin and other officers responded to a call from a convenience store, where a clerk said Floyd had tried to use a counterfeit $20 bill.
Bystanders’ video recorded the 9 minutes and 29 seconds during which Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck. It galvanised the Black Lives Matter movement, already active after years of previous killings by police and vigilantes, while attracting unprecedented support from White people who marched for weeks last summer.
Floyd’s death prompted an urgent debate about the broader issue of inequality and institutionalised racism in all its forms, including in corporate America.
In his address, the president expressed optimism that the verdict could mark a “moment of significant change” for a nation he said has done little to confront racial injustice.