This anniversary must be more than hashtags, performative statements, and remembrance.

George Floyd should be alive today. Like every Black man, he deserved to grow old, to laugh with his children, to love and be loved.

But five years ago today, George Floyd was murdered in broad daylight by police — a harrowing reminder of the brutal, state-sanctioned violence that Black folks in America have endured for generations and that we continue to endure to this day.

In the days and weeks that followed, America underwent a so-called ‘reckoning’ on racial injustice. People from every corner of this country mobilized, demanding justice, accountability, and transformative change. 

But five years later, meaningful policy change remains stalled in Congress, corporations are backing away from their commitments to racial equity, and a white supremacist once again occupies the White House — continuing his unprecedented assault on Black America, rolling back policies that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, and advancing harmful executive actions to ‘unleash law enforcement’ and threaten Black lives. Without meaningful policy and budget change, the unjust status quo will persist, and we will continue to be robbed of innocent lives.

This anniversary must be more than hashtags, performative statements, and remembrance. So this week I’ve reintroduced the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, my People’s Justice Guarantee, and the Ending Qualified Immunity Act. 

The People’s Justice Guarantee is a comprehensive, decarceration-focused resolution that outlines a framework for a fair, equitable and just legal system that calls for decarceration and the dramatic reduction of jail and prison populations, eliminating wealth-based discrimination and corporate profiteering, transforming the experience of confinement, and investing in historically impacted communities.

And the Ending Qualified Immunity Act would eliminate the unjust and court-invented doctrine of qualified immunity and restore the ability for people to obtain relief when state and local officials, including police officers, violate their legal and constitutionally secured rights. 

We’ll never have true justice for George Floyd. True justice would be George Floyd alive today, at home with his fiancée, children, and siblings. As we mark this somber anniversary, we owe it to George, his family, and everyone killed at the hands of law enforcement to continue governing like lives depend on it and building a more just America where everyone can thrive and live free from fear.

Ayanna