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George Floyd’s family praised U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s “sincerity” when he called to tell them of the federal civil rights charges filed against the officers involved in Floyd’s death.
“You could hear that he was very intensely moved by what happened to George,” Rodney Floyd said Saturday at a news conference in Houston. “It put a smile on my face, knowing that he’s going to give this his all.”
Floyd’s comments came a day after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, and three other officers who were at the scene last year when Chauvin pinned a handcuffed George Floyd to the ground for more than 9 minutes, were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges they violated his civil rights.
The indictment shows the Department of Justice is reviving its role in upholding civil rights, said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas). “I’m grateful for the indictment,” she said. “This puts a ‘Now Open’ sign on the Justice Department’s door.”
“The winds of change are blowing,” added Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) of the DOJ indictment.
While Chauvin’s conviction last month in a Minnesota court was a signal of progress, Green said, the federal indictment sends “a powerful message to those who believe they can act with impunity because the long arm of law enforcement is behind them.”
“It was very evident the first time you watched that video that they had violated the constitutional rights of George Floyd,” said civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who arranged the news conference.
“When you think about this indictment, you think not just about George Floyd, but you think about the message this sends to other marginalized minorities,” he added, naming Eric Garner, the Staten Island man killed when a police officer used a banned chokehold on him in 2014; Breona Taylor, the Kentucky woman killed in her home in 2020; and Andrew Brown, who was shot in the back of the head by North Carolina police last month.
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