A year after George Floyd's murder, families of those slain by police want lasting change

The families came from all over the country to honor George Floyd. They all had one tragic thing in common: Their loved ones' names became synonymous with a movement only because of their deaths.

It is a fraternity, they said, of which no one wants to be a part.

On the dais at the downtown Minneapolis hotel Monday was the mother of Oscar Grant (killed in 2009 by transit police in the Bay Area). Next to her was the mother of Eric Garner (killed by a New York police officer in 2014), who was seated next to the mother of Trayvon Martin (killed by a neighborhood watch coordinator in 2012). A few seats down was the mother of Daunte Wright (killed by a Brooklyn Center police officer last month).

On the dais and in the audience for the panel discussion were even more: Family members of Jacob Blake, and Breonna Taylor, and Alvin Cole, and Botham Jean, and Corey Jones. The names have provided momentum for a movement toward police accountability and racial justice that has become more pronounced in the year since Floyd's killing by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

One year after Floyd's death and one month after Chauvin's murder conviction, these families implored Minnesotans and Americans to take last year's moment that erupted into nationwide protests and turn it into a sustaining movement to effect lasting change in courtrooms, legislative chambers and media. The "From Protest to Policy" panel discussion, moderated by civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson and livestreamed on Facebook, was part of the George Floyd Memorial Foundation's Inaugural Remembrance.

"We represent so many other families," said Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin. "Continue to support them; don't just support them when it just happened. ... A lot of people talk way too much for me. They talk a lot. But guess what? The action is what's important. If you want to be a community activist, then you need to act. Posting it on your social media, that's one thing. But the real work is in your actions."

Many police officers and their supporters have decried Chauvin's actions as ruthless and lawless, a bad apple who unfairly stained the law enforcement profession.

But this group of families spoke of a rotten system. They wanted the one-year remembrance of Floyd's death to serve as a reminder for systemic reform.

In the aftermath of Chauvin's conviction last month, celebrations erupted on the lawn outside the Hennepin County Government Center and on the street corner where Floyd was killed. The feeling among those celebrating was that a battle had been won for racial justice, but more work was needed.

Kattie Jones, the stepmother of Corey Jones, who was shot and killed by a Florida police officer in 2015, spoke about why her family continues to fight even after that officer is now serving a 25-year prison term.

"Is the conviction enough?" Jones asked. "It is the start. But it doesn't stop the modern-day lynching."

Those wins in court, these family members said, are fleeting. The bigger wins are institutional changes.

"I have talked to many politicians, and I have heard many games played by politicians," said Gwen Carr, Eric Garner's mother. "I don't believe in writing letters. I don't believe in phone calls. I like to get right up in their face. When I get there, I tell them what my demands are — not my asks, but my demands.

"This is how in New York we first got the executive order for the special prosecutor" in Garner's case, she continued. "The New York mothers, we kept asking to speak with [Gov. Andrew Cuomo]. He wouldn't have a sit-down with us. What we did, we went up to Albany with the makeshift coffins of our children and sat right in front of his door and said, 'What are you going to do about these bodies?' "

Last year, the New York State Assembly passed the Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act, which banned chokeholds that result in injury or death.

Congress is still in discussions about the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a sweeping bill about policing practices, accountability and training. But the bill almost certainly will not pass by President Joe Biden's deadline of this week.

And the debate over policing continues at the State Capitol in St. Paul, where the divided Legislature is deadlocked over a dozen police accountability proposals. The measures would bring about changes related to traffic stops and new no-knock warrant regulations. It would also allow communities to create citizen boards to provide oversight over law enforcement.

Ben Crump, the attorney representing Floyd's and Wright's families, said Floyd's death offers an opportunity like none before.

"I don't think our white brothers and sisters can even fathom our reality, because it's so foreign to them," Crump said. "When we watched George Floyd being tortured to death for 9 minutes and 29 seconds, and our white brothers and sisters saw it, they were like, 'Oh, this is real.' They couldn't fathom it. I think they couldn't imagine that happening to a human being. But for every Black person I talk to in America, they understand: 'But by the grace of God, that could be me.'

"We can't lose this momentum," Crump continued. "It's been 57 years since we had meaningful police reform in America. Everybody up here, your blood is on that [federal] legislation. Literally. We don't want to have something just to say, 'Hey, they signed a bill.' No. It's got to be meaningful."