George Floyd's brother, Philonise Floyd, will testify before Congress this morning during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on "Policing Practices and Law Enforcement Accountability."
The hearing will feature 12 witnesses, some testifying in person and others virtually, including Floyd family attorney Ben Crump, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, who is also president of the Major City Chiefs Association, and Sherrilyn Ifill, the president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
“There are now protests taking place in every state as people take a stand against police brutality and racism. People are rightfully upset, they are frustrated, and they want to be heard. They want real change, not meaningless words. I want Americans to know that I hear them, and I see them. The House Judiciary Committee is working very closely with the Congressional Black Caucus to determine the best path forward to address police brutality and racial inequality," the committee's chair, Jerry Nadler, said in a news statement released last week about the hearing.
The hearing comes days after Democrats put forward sweeping legislation aimed at cracking down on police brutality and recording patterns of misuse of force across the country, the first concrete step toward action from Washington as a national movement continues to emerge.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that Congress "cannot settle for anything less than transformative structural change."
The legislation is the most expansive effort in recent years to crack down at a federal level on policing practices across the US, but it is expected to face strong resistance from Republicans, police unions and local officials who don't want Washington intervening in their policy making.