Lauren Comele Morris
Austin, Texas
March 26, 2021
George Floyd Representatives Speak in Austin
A peaceful, emotional morning, ended in profane and intimidating demands as legislators, black activist groups, and “fight the power” revolutionaries gathered at the Capitol of Texas to lobby for passage of the Texas HB88 known as the George Floyd Act.
The chamber hearing scene was so tense, Capitol law enforcement officers ushered the enraged individuals outside, their shouts booming throughout the building to a crowd of startled onlookers.
Notable attendees were Travis Cains, a close friend of George Floyd, Mustafa Carroll, Director of CAIR Texas, the State President of the NAACP-Gary Bledsoe, peace non-profit Campaign Nonviolence, and police reform non-profit Next Generation Action Network of Dallas.
The event was hosted by Chas Moore of the non-profit Austin Justice Coalition who are credited for de-funding the Austin Police Department, the creation of police oversight reforms, and unprecedented leverage over the Austin City Council.
CAIR's Mustafa Carroll-L, AJC's Chas Moore-R
Local grieving mothers embraced one another. Parents giving Glory to God insisted their deceased brothers and sons were innocent and compliant and yet they were murdered victims of police brutality.
Activists who declared that George Floyd changed the world, warned “If this bill doesn't happen, there will be no justice, no peace in the streets, because brick by brick, wall by wall, we will make this system fall, and this generation right here won't be passing down generational struggle”.
“Go to their offices, and if that doesn't work, go to their houses”.
H.R.7120 George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020 purports to hold law enforcement accountable for misconduct in court, eliminates qualified immunity, and improves transparency of police misconduct through data collection. Eliminating state and federal racial profiling, police training and safety innovation will be established through grants and programs. The U.S Congress passed the Bill on March 4, 2021.
The Bill prohibits choke holds and reduces militarization, while establishing new body camera and other forms of police accountability protocol. Critics say however, that the core claims of racial disparity are absurdly unfounded in contrast with actual crime statistics, and that the Bill would funnel federal dollars to the ACLU and the NAACP.
George Floyd, a Texas native from Houston died at the hands of police on May 25, 2020. He was 46 years old. His death kicked off worldwide protests taking the United States by fire and political storm.
Texas HB88 is “Relating to interactions between law enforcement and individuals detained or arrested on suspicion of the commission of criminal offenses, witnesses to the commission of those offenses, and other members of the public, to peace officer liability for those interactions, and to the confinement, conviction or release of detained or arrested individuals”. HB88 still undergoing revisions, amends current sections of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure.
HB88 is expected to be adopted by each law enforcement agency as a policing model no later than March 2, 2022 and the Act itself takes effect September 1, 2021.
AT THE HEARING:
Qualified participants testified on Thursday at the House Committee on Homeland Security and Public Safety. Family members told their stories of deadly police encounters and the trauma they suffer.
The day was controlled until one grieving mother used profane language during her testimony and was cut off from continuing. The room erupted in a standoff style of fists in the air, profanities and demands hurled by three women and one man in a Superman t-shirt.
The man in a Superman t-shirt shouted, “my ancestors built this mother fucking building”, and “we're tired of begging man”. One woman broke out her phone and stomped around the room with her fist in the air, others followed suit, and the shouting escalated until most attendees in the room were on their feet from the tense situation.
Empathy and Bully Tactics
Numerous Department of Public Safety Officers descended on the group to escort them from the building.
The man in the Superman t-shirt walked through the lobby to a large crowd of onlookers shouting at the top of his lungs: “We’re gonna get every mother fucking thing you all bitches owe us, man”. He angrily rejected Moore's attempts to calm him down saying: “You keep messing with these people man”.
The women waltzed through the lobby provoking officers on the way out as the F-bombs flew.
Austin Independent Journalist Hiram Gilberto live streamed the chaos which has not been shown by other media outlets at the time of this article.
OPINION
The George Floyd Act presents as a roadmap for police reform and a concession to demands for justice for police brutality.
However, Black Separatists and Marxists are often at the core of the movement’s profile of victimization from perceived systemic racism, white supremacy and oppression.
Police reform campaign non-profits and established organizations like the NAACP could achieve money and power outcomes via a reparations agenda that they declare is just the beginning.
QUESTIONS: Are their methods of empathy and demands sincere for their community? Are they bully tactics meant for power grabs? Are they Marxist Black Lives Matter activists out to destroy capitalism? Comment below.