The brother of George Floyd implored the United Nation’s Human Rights Council to investigate the killing of black people by police in the United States.
“The officer showed no mercy, no humanity, and tortured my brother to death in the middle of the street in Minneapolis — and [while] a crowd of witnesses watched … begging them to stop showing us black people the same lesson, yet again: Black lives do not matter in the United States of America,” Philonise Floyd said to the UN on Wednesday via video call.
George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died late last month in police custody after a white officer knelt on his neck for several minutes. Floyd’s death has sparked protests across the country.
“The sad truth is that the case is not unique,” Philonise Floyd said. “The way you saw my brother tortured and murdered on camera is the way black people are treated by police in America. You watched my brother die. That could have been me. I am my brother’s keeper. You in the United Nations are your brothers’ and sisters’ keepers in America, and you have the power to help us get justice for my brother, George Floyd.”
Floyd hoped that the council “would consider establishing an independent commission of inquiry to investigate police killings of black people in America and the violence used against peaceful protesters.”
The U.S. withdrew from the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2018. The council does, however, include nations such as Sudan, Venezuela, and Afghanistan, which have their own poor records on human rights issues.
The U.N. agreed Monday that it would hold a debate on the issue of police brutality in the United States and elsewhere.
The officer who pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck, Derek Chauvin, was fired from the department and has been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The three other officers who were involved in detaining Floyd, who was suspected of using a fake $20 bill, were also fired and charged with aiding and abetting.
The Justice Department is carrying out a civil rights investigation into Floyd’s death, Attorney General William Barr announced last month. The state of Minnesota launched its own civil rights investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department shortly thereafter.
