Tuesday marked one year since the painful death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of white police officers in Minneapolis and vigils, moments of silence and rallies were what the world had to offer in his memory.
Well, to be fair, Floyd’s family were also invited to meet with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris along with several lawmakers at the White House. That should count for something, right?
After all, Biden and Harris both got to urge Congress pass a new policing bill. Congressional leaders also found an opportunity to pose with the family of the man whose death shaped an important chapter in America’s recent history, to the point that some observer describe last summer’s Black Lives Matters protests as one of the main reason former President Donald Trump failed to win reelection.
So, by the same measure, it is safe to assume that Biden partially owes his victory to Floyd and yet he has done little to show how much he cares about his death.
And those months-long protests nationwide? They were nowhere to be seen on Tuesday.
Yes, Floyd’s sister Bridgett and other family members held a moment of silence at a “Celebration of Life” event at a downtown Minneapolis park that included music, food trucks, an inflatable bouncy house and a vaccination stand.
Dozens of people also gathered around a fist sculpture at the intersection where Floyd was murdered to kneel for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, symbolizing the time an officer pinned Floyd down and put a knee on his neck.
But is any of this enough? Is this what everybody thought a year after Floyd’s death would look like?
A year has passed and Congress has shown little interest in the matter. The Biden administration has also failed to differentiate its policies in this regard from those of the previous administration.
That is correct. A year after Floyd’s murder, we have only managed to bring his killer, former officer Derek Chauvin, to justice and that is nowhere near a job done.
