June 10 Black Lives Matter protests

The process of removing some of the fencing surrounding White House grounds began Wednesday morning.

Crews began removing concrete barriers behind the metal fencing on 15th Street early in the day. By the 9 o’clock hour, the barrier transfer machine had rounded the corner, lifting barriers on Constitution Avenue.

While fencing around the Ellipse is expected to be removed throughout the day, other areas of fencing along the 1.75 miles around the White House complex are expected to stay intact for the immediate future.

Fencing on H Street, near Lafayette Park and where protesters were forcibly removed from St. John’s Episcopal Church ahead of a presidential photo opportunity, remains up at this time, and the park is closed to pedestrians.

That fencing went up late last Monday evening after Trump’s photo opportunity, with the additional Ellipse fencing added later in the week.

Since then, it’s become a gathering place for protesters, signage, street art, and protest messages in bright colors in direct contrast to the metal fencing.

As CNN’s Kristin Wilson reported, activists and residents from the DC area gathered in the overnight hours and began removing signage from the fencing outside Lafayette Park, and moving it to the scaffolding at a construction zone across the street.

Cleanup efforts were also underway after much property damage to the area as some protests became violent. Teams were seen on scaffolding with flame torches around some of the metal and stone sculptures in Lafayette Park. And on 15th Street, where the side of the US Treasury Building was vandalized, two men in masks, helmets, and neon uniforms worked to clean graffiti off the building.

Fencing at the intersection of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue remained intact, with a small opening for staff and press.

On that fence, yellow caution tape, reading, “CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS.” It was not immediately clear whether the tape was official – or a sign of protest. 

In his congressional testimony, Philonise Floyd remembered his brother George Floyd as “our gentle giant.”

“I was reminded of that when I watched the video of his murder. He called all of the officers ‘sir.’ He was mild mannered. He didn't fight back. He listened to all the officers. The man who took his life, who suffocated him for eight minutes and 46 seconds, he still called him ‘sir’ as he begged for his life,” he said.

WATCH:

Democratic lawmaker Karen Bass told a House hearing today she hopes America will pass meaningful police reform before the end of the year.

"I hope that we work for passage of this legislation in the House, that it gets through the Senate, the President signs it and in the year 2020 we never, ever, ever see again what we saw a few weeks ago."

She said she told George Floyd's brother that George's name "will live on history because the tragedy that he suffered has been the catalyst for what I believe will be profound change."

George Floyd’s brother Philonise Floyd delivered an emotional testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, urging lawmakers to listen to "the call" for change from the Floyd family and protesters across the country.

"George called for help and he was ignored. Please listen to the calls I’m making to you now, to the calls of our family, and to the calls ringing out in the streets across the world. People of all backgrounds, genders and race have come together to demand change. Honor them, honor George and make the necessary changes that make law enforcement the solution and not the problem," Floyd continued.

"The people elected you to speak for them, to make positive change," Floyd said. "George’s name means something. You have the opportunity here to make your names mean something, too. If his death ends up changing the world for the better. And I think it will. Then he died as he lived. It is on you to make sure his death isn’t in vain."

WATCH:

Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, said he's testifying before Congress today to "make sure that his death would not be in vain."

Floyd's killing at the hands of police last month has sparked protests across the country.

Human rights activist Martin Luther King III said that protesters are finally now being heard, after he recently tweeted, “As my father explained during his lifetime, a riot is the language of the unheard.”

King said that the protests after George Floyd’s death will not change racial inequities in America right away, but can be impactful within a short period of time. 

King said that there needs to be dialogue between civil rights leaders and the White House, citing when his father, Martin Luther King Jr., held meetings with Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson. 

After delays across Georgia during its primary yesterday led to voters spending hours in line, King added that “there's no question” that voter suppression exists and that it disproportionally affects black Americans.

“If we don't deal with voter suppression, it's going to be interesting to see what happens in the election in November … We should be making it much easier for people to vote, and we're not as a nation,” he said.

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House Judiciary Committee committee chair Jerry Nadler opened today's hearing on police reform urging Congress to bring change on police reform following George Floyd's death, saying lawmakers have an "obligation" to do "everything in our power" to deliver that change.

Nadler expressed his condolences to Philonise Floyd for the loss of his brother and thanked him for testifying and discussing his brother's life.

Speaking to reporters ahead of today's hearing, House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler said he doesn’t know whether there will be bipartisan consensus on police reform legislation but “we must have real reform."

"Frankly, anybody who stands in the way is going to get bulled over," he said.

Nadler added: “There's going to be very heavy pressure from the American people” and he hopes Republicans will be “responsive” to that pressure.

Asked what he expects to hear from George Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, who is testifying today in front of the committee, Nadler replied, “We will hear some of the experience, some of his feelings, that will help inform what we do.”

Also, asked the same question, House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy said, “I’m here to listen, to find a solution.”

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican in the US Senate, presented his ideas for policing reform to colleagues during a closed-door lunch Tuesday. 

Republican senators — confronted by marches in cities and small towns across America — are growing more vocal that the party must act on policing reform, a stark contrast to just a week ago when many members dismissed the idea of the Senate acting at all.

There is now a five-person task force that will lead Republicans in their effort to craft legislation including Scott, Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, also of South Carolina, John Cornyn of Texas, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.

All of the members are working just days after Democrats unveiled their own proposal, which went further in dictated specific changes that state and local police forces should make including banning chokeholds.

Here are the main differences between both plans: