George Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, believes that the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden deserves to win the election.
“I think that he [Biden] really deserves a chance to prove himself worthy. Everyone has a chance, but I really believe that this time he deserves it,” Philonise Floyd told ABC 13 in Houston, the Texas city where Floyd grew up.
Members of the Floyd family traveled to various parts of the country, including Houston and Chicago, to encourage people to vote in the run-up to the election.
“I want people to know that you have a voice, that you have to get out and use it every year, not just for the presidency… You have to use the right leaders at all times,” Philonise told ABC13.
At the time of writing, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, North Carolina and Georgia still had over a million votes to count, according to data compiled by Edison Research for the New York Times.
Preliminary estimates from the exit polls conducted in Pennsylvania, Nevada, North Carolina and Georgia showed that about 80 to 92 percent of black voters supported Biden, while 7 to 17 percent voted for Trump.
Each of the polls conducted by Edison Research for the National Election Pool was conducted among 3,000 to 4,600 voters.
While Floyd’s brothers continue to hope for Biden’s victory, they fear that the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020 will not enter into force because the Senate is expected to remain under Republican control.
The bill, which was passed by the Democratically Controlled House of Representatives, “addresses a wide range of policies and issues related to police practices and the accountability of law enforcement agencies,” the government’s website says.
Philonise said: “Justice is on the ballot, equality is on the ballot. The Justice for George Floyd Act must be passed … I don’t have to watch someone else suffocate to death.
Rodney, another of Floyd’s brothers, told ABC13: “That’s not going to happen. This bill has been sitting on their desk gathering dust.
Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old black man, died in May in a Minneapolis police arrest after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, held Floyd down with one knee to the neck for nearly eight minutes.
Floyd’s death led to the arrest of the four officers involved in the incident, including Chauvin, who faces charges of murder and manslaughter in connection with Floyd’s death. Chauvin was released from custody last month after posting bail.
Floyd’s murder revived the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and led to a series of protests around the world against police brutality and racial injustice.
BLM protesters formed a united front against President Donald Trump to oust him from office. But neither Biden nor Trump agreed to cut police budgets.
Biden is aiming for a “revitalization of community oriented policing” with an investment of $300 million to boost the existing program of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), which he led according to Biden’s campaign website.
The Trump administration requested $1.51 billion for more than 50 programs to fund state and local law enforcement, according to the U.S. Department of Justice budget plan for fiscal 2021.
Biden has promised to address several problems facing black Americans, including racial inequality in the country’s education system, closing the racial wealth and income gap, and other inequalities, according to the Biden campaign website.
The following chart, provided by Statista, illustrates the key issues that Americans voted on in the 2020 election
The chart below, also provided by Statista, illustrates how close the presidential election was in the past.
