President told the late George Floyd’s daughter on the that he ‘changed the world’.
Biden invited Gianna Floyd to sit on his chair moments after he signed a police reform executive order on Wednesday afternoon, and showed her the document.
‘My daddy, he changed the world,’ Biden said, as Gianna nodded.
The president was echoing Gianna’s famous words following her father’s death on May 25, 2020, after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. Sitting on the shoulders of her father’s longtime friend, ex-NBA star Stephen Jackson, Gianna said, ‘My daddy changed the world’.
Biden signed an executive order designed to boost police accountability. It directs federal agencies to revise their use-of-force policies and bans chokeholds and restricts no-knock warrants, among other practices.
The order also calls for establishing a national database to track police misconduct and creating a new nationwide standard for accrediting police departments. In addition, it requires police departments to use new tools to catch inherent bias among officers and recruits, including those pushing white supremacist views.
It was drafted after lawmakers failed to take legislative action for such reforms. The House last year passed legislation in Floyd’s name, but it failed to garner the 60 votes needed in the evenly divided Senate.
‘I promised the Floyd family among others that George’s name is not just going to be a hashtag. Your daddy’s name is going be known for a long time,’ Biden said.
‘And as a nation, we’re gonna ensure that his legacy and the legacy of so many others we remember today. It’s not about their death, but what we do in their memory that matters.’
After a photo opportunity with Gianna sitting on the chair surrounded by administration officials, Biden said he would go into the audience at the White House to meet the families of Floyd and Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman who was shot dead by police officers.
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