June 10 Black Lives Matter protests

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said George Floyd's brother, Philonise Floyd, approached her before he testified today and asked if the police reform bill being debated in the House would actually become law.

"'Is there going to be a bill that is passed and why do you think so?'" she said he asked, recounting their conversation.

"I said 'I think so,'" she continued. "'I know so because the people have spoken.'"

Pelosi went on cite Abraham Lincoln, who famously said "public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail."

"People have spoken," she said. "They have been seen, they have been heard. And they've done so day in and day out for weeks. So the injustice of it all is readily apparent. the need to make the change is clear and the proposals to do so have been in the hopper for a while."

Watch part of Philonise Floyd's opening statement:

Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said he believes his department is capable of policing justly, he tells CNN's Sara Sidner's during a sit down interview. 

"There are certainly parts within the policing agencies across this country that are broken and in Minneapolis police department, there are areas that we must change it must get better," Arradondo said.

"Without a doubt, we have absolutely tapped into our currency of trust with our communities and we have to build that reserve back up," Arradondo said.

Arradondo said that though he sued his department more than 10 years ago, he still believes in it.

"I can stand here and sit here before you today to tell you that what I experienced 10 years ago, there has been change, there has been progress in those 10 years. The fact that I'm sitting before you here is the chief of police from 10 years ago, there has been progress there has been change. But it's not gonna happen overnight," the chief said.

Earlier today: Arradondo announced that he is withdrawing from negotiations with the city's police union to conduct a "thorough review" of the city's contract with its officers.

"Beginning today as chief I am immediately withdrawing from the contract negotiations with the Minneapolis police federation," Arradondo said today during a news conference. 

The chief outlined how he plans the contract review will go:

Speaking before a House committee, George Floyd's brother, Philonise Floyd, made an emotional plea for justice and called for the conviction of the Minneapolis police officers involved in his brother's death.

Floyd described the ongoing pain he and his family have felt in the weeks following his brother's death.

"My family, they just cry, cry every day and just ask, why? Why? He pleaded for his life. He said he couldn’t breathe. Nobody cared. Nobody. People pleaded for him, and they still didn’t care,“ Floyd said.

“I just wish..I wish I could get him back. Those officers, they get to live,” Floyd said through tears. 

Where the case stands: Ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes, was arrested last month and initially charged with third-degree murder and other crimes. Last week, prosecutors added a second-degree murder charge. His bail was set at $1.25 million during a Monday hearing.

The other three officers involved in Floyd's death — Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao — were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

They are each being held on $1 million bail and are scheduled to be in court June 29, according to inmate records. Their bails can be lowered to $750,000 with conditions.

Chauvin's next scheduled court date is June 29 as well.

The White House is completing “final edits” on a body of police reform proposals and could unveil them in the coming days, the White House press secretary said on Wednesday.

President Trump has spent the past 10 days “quietly and diligently” working on the proposals to address policing issues being raised by protesters around the country, according to Kayleigh McEnany.

She said the proposals may not be ready to unveiled by Thursday, when Trump participates in a roundtable in Dallas, but that it’s nearing completion.

Trump is also weighing law enforcement reform provisions included in legislation authored by GOP Sen. Tim Scott, but hasn’t determined which of them he would support.

At least 12 cities and municipalities in the United States are starting to ban or have banned the use of chokeholds in policing, according to information gathered by CNN.  

Those include: Phoenix, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, Broward County (Florida), Miami, Chicago, Washington, DC, Minneapolis, New York City, Denver, and Houston.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has directed police in the state to stop training officers to use "carotid holds," and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has said he wants police across the state to restrict the use of chokeholds. 

Internationally, France has banned chokeholds by their police departments.

Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, repeatedly told reporters at the White House Wednesday that he does not believe systemic racism exists in the United States.

“I do not,” Kudlow responded when asked if systemic racism was an issue in the country.

“At all in the US?” the reporter followed up. “I do not,” Kudlow repeated.

“Any systemic racism against African Americans in the United States?” the reporter asked again. “I will say it again. I do not,” Kudlow said.

“I think the harm of when you have some very bad apples on the law enforcement side,” he continued, “what was done to Mr. Floyd was abysmal. Abysmal. I believe everyone in this country agrees with that."

“As part of this coming back together, and since the President is a law and order man, law and order is good for growth,” Kudlow said. “Law and order is good for families, law and order is good for people of all colors. It’s a unifying message. But there will be reforms regarding police and other areas.” 

Some context: Kudlow's comments come as officials have told CNN that the White House is working on an executive order on police reform, but it's not clear yet which provisions it may include as President Trump has not yet signaled what he's willing to support.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany suggested this was possible earlier this morning.

“We do believe that we will have proactive policy prescriptions, whether that means legislation or an executive order,” she said on Fox News. 

With over 1,400 signatures from personnel from the NFL, NBA and MLB, including the likes of Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich among a bevy of sporting superstars, the Players Coalition sent a letter to Congress on Wednesday seeking to put an end to qualified immunity. 

The Players Coalition, a social justice and racial equality advocacy group founded by NFL players Anquan Boldin and Malcom Jenkins, said in a Wednesday statement that the group is demanding accountability for police brutality.  

The bill was introduced by Reps. Justin Amash and Ayanna Pressley, who say it would help restore the public trust in government and law enforcement by ending qualified immunity for public officials, including police officers, and would ensure that whenever a citizen’s constitutional rights are violated, he or she will have recourse in a court of law.

Some context: The protests and clashes unfolding across the country in response to the killing of George Floyd have upheld a resonant message for courts to consider: law enforcement accountability is missing in the justice system.

The Supreme Court could decide soon whether it will take a closer look at a legal doctrine it created nearly 40 years ago that critics say is shielding law enforcement and government officials from accountability. Defenders argue that it protects an officer's ability to make a snap decision during potentially dangerous situations.

In recent years, legal scholars, judges and justices on all sides of the ideological spectrum have criticized the legal doctrine known as "qualified immunity," arguing that it is not grounded in the proper legal authorities and too often shields officials from accountability.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey slammed the leader of the Minneapolis Police Union during his press conference Wednesday. 

“The rhetoric that Bob Kroll has put out is detrimental not only to our city but to the police department. For somebody that complains so much about the lack of support and trust of police officers, he’s the primary, one of the primary reasons for that lack of trust and support,” Frey said. 

Some background: Kroll has drawn fire in recent weeks over a letter he sent to police officers that criticized Minneapolis leadership, questioned George Floyd’s criminal history, and called the protests in Minneapolis a “terrorist movement,” according to CNN affiliate WCCO. Frey tweeted about the letter on June 1 and said Kroll was a man “shockingly indifferent to his role in undermining” the trust and support between the public and police department. 

Frey specifically called out the police union as being an impediment to progress and one of the “buckets that need to be changed.”

“If we’re going to ignore the elephant in the room, we’re going to continue to not see the progress that is necessary to be made. And what I’m talking about very clearly, that inhibition to progress, that elephant in the room, it is the police union, the collective bargaining agreement. It is the mandatory arbitration provisions that are going through state law,” the mayor said. 

Frey said the police department needs to be able to fire officers who do not display compassion or attributes needed to restore the trust between police and citizens. 

Asked about the tactical aspect of withdrawing from contract negotiations with the police union, Frey said he did not want show his hand and interfere with their leverage. 

“We’ve got a lot of leverage right now. We want to be able to channel all of this anger and sadness and frustration towards a shift in the way we do business and right now is the time,” he said. 

Asked if he thought there was a reason why his brother was held down by Derek Chauvin’s knee for nearly nine minutes, Philonise Floyd said he did not know why the ex-officer did it, but he said he believes the action was premeditated. 

“No sir, I don’t really know why he did it. But personally, I think it was personal because they worked at the same place. So, for him to do something like that, it had to be premeditated and he wanted to do it,” Floyd said during a House hearing on police reform.

Floyd said that given the prior conduct complaints against Chauvin during his career in the Minneapolis police force, the officer should “have been off the force.”