Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has been busy lately – making a rare public appearance in the face of the coronavirus epidemic on Memorial Day, and apologizing after an interview with Charlemagne tha God from The Breakfast Club where he equated a vote for him with Blackness.
READ MORE: Biden reinforces plan for Black America after ‘Breakfast Club’ backlash
He’s now spoken out again on the death by police of Minneapolis resident George Floyd who echoed the late Eric Garner when he told police he “couldn’t’ breathe” while being arrested on Monday. The arrest was recorded and one of four police officers at the scene was shown with his knee on Floyd’s neck as he audibly gasped for breath and moaned for help. By the time an ambulance arrived, it was too late to save his life.
The officers were quickly fired after the video went viral but protests have been happening the streets of the usually tranquil city ever since.
As reported by CBS Minneapolis, Biden spoke on the Floyd case while on a live stream with Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
“George Floyd’s life mattered. It mattered as much as mine, it matters just as much as anybody in this country — at least it should have,” Biden said.
“[It’s] part of an ingrained systemic cycle of injustice that still exists in this country. And it cuts at the very heart of our sacred belief that all Americans are equal in rights and in dignity.”
Biden said that the officers need to be held “fully accountable” and that should include a Department of Justice investigation civil rights investigation and an FBI investigation. Biden added that Floyd’s family needs to get “the justice they are entitled to.”
Protests in Minneapolis became increasingly violent in the night hours reports CBS as anger spilled into the streets. While the coronavirus pandemic has raged around the world and crime has been reduced in many big cities, stories of racism continue unabated.
READ MORE: Former NBA star Stephen Jackson mourns ‘brother’ George Floyd killed by Minneapolis police
The shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and the recent video of a financial executive calling the police on an African-American male bird watcher in Central Park has only fanned the flames of the racial division leading up to the 2020 presidential election.
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