One Year Since George Floyd Was Murdered

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: George Floyd’s daughter Gianna when they met last year and what she told him. She said, “My daddy changed the world.” How do you feel that the world has changed since his murder?

REP. KAREN BASS (D-CA): Well, first of all, it is absolutely the case that the world has changed in terms of looking at the issue of discrimination and systemic racism. I worked on these issues for decades. And I will tell you that I have never encountered a period like this, where people are taking the murder of an individual and connecting it up to larger systemic issues in our country. And so it’s a racial reckoning in the United States. But I also know that it’s been that case in terms of Europe. Last year, I chaired the Congressional Black Caucus. And the European Union, all 27 ambassadors met with us. We met with the European Parliament, the E.U. Parliament, looking at issues of race on — in Europe within the E.U.

GOLODRYGA: And in terms of consequences and the reckoning, obviously, there’s a lot of attention this new legislation that is still being worked out, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. This is a time when it is very difficult to find any bipartisanship in Congress. There does seem to be some optimism that you are closer to a deal. Is that the case?

BASS: Yes, I think that that is accurate. We have been having conversations, senators, members of the House. And I do believe that we will have a bill on President Biden’s desk. Now, the president asked for it to be done by today. We obviously are not meeting that deadline. But I think what’s more important than a deadline, a specific date, is that we have a substantive piece of legislation that really takes a first step toward transforming policing in the United States. That is what needs to happen. Police are one of the few professions that have very little, if any transparency, very little accountability. Those are the things that need to change. We are tired of seeing videotape after videotape of brutality and sometimes even murder. And so what is going to bring about a change? We have to begin to professionalize policing in the United States, we have 18,000 police departments and 18,000 ways of policing America.