Biden says officers must be held ‘fully accountable’ in George Floyd’s death

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Biden addresses George Floyd's death

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden says George Floyd's death was 'not an isolated incident, but a part of an ingrained systemic cycle of injustice that still exists in this country' during virtual conversation with Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf.

Former Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday insisted that the police officers involved in the case of a black man in Minnesota who died after being pinned to the ground with a knee to his neck need to be held “fully accountable.”

And the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee called for an “independent Department of Justice civil rights investigation … to get to the root of all this.”

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The controversy exploded Monday night with a video showing police arresting 46-year-old George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn. The video shows a white police officer kneeling on Floyd's neck as he was pinned to the ground for several minutes.

“I can’t breathe! Please, the knee on my neck,” Floyd is heard saying in the video. “Please, I can’t breathe.”

He died a short time later at a nearby medical facility.

The video – recorded by a bystander – went viral across the nation on early Tuesday – sparking protests.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said on Tuesday that all four officers at the scene were terminated and that he had asked the FBI to investigate.

Biden – speaking at the top of a virtual event with Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf – highlighted that he’s “glad the mayor of Minneapolis stepped up right away in the police department and took swift action to fire the officers involved.”

But the former vice president emphasized that “I don't think that's enough. They have to be held more fully accountable, including the FBI investigation and independent Department of Justice civil rights investigation, because we have to get to the root of all this.”

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Biden compared Monday’s incident with the death six years ago of Eric Garner, who lost his life after he was put in a chokehold by the New York City police officers who arrested him.

“Watching his life be taken in the same manner, echoing nearly the same words of Eric Garner more than five years ago, 'I can't breathe,' is a tragic reminder that this was not an isolated incident, but part of an ingrained systemic cycle of injustice that still exists in this country,” Biden stressed. “It cuts at the very heart of our sacred beliefs that all Americans are equal in rights and in dignity. And it sends a very clear message to the black community and black lives that are under threat, every single day.”

Biden insisted that Floyd's family needs to receive “the justice they're entitled to,” but added that as a nation “we have to work relentlessly to eradicate these systemic failures that inflict so much damage on not just one family, one community, but on the people of color all across this nation. I don't think we can move forward unless we take aggressive action to rip out the insidious race-based inequalities that corrupt every part of our society.”

Biden’s comments came the day after he took to Twitter to emphasize that “George Floyd deserved better and his family deserves justice. His life mattered.”