Black lives don't matter in US: George Floyd's brother

A garden around a makeshift memorial to George Floyd, built by a nonprofit youth empowerment group, is pictured near the site where he died in police custody, in Minneapolis. Pic/AFP

The brother of George Floyd, the unarmed African-American man killed last month under police custody in Minneapolis, said that "black lives do not matter in the United States of America".

"The officers showed no mercy, no humanity, and tortured my brother to death in the middle of the street in Minneapolis with a crowd of witnesses watching and begging them to stop- showing us black people the same lesson yet again- black lives do not matter in the United States of America," Philonise Floyd told a UN Human Rights Council debate on Wednesday via video conference.

"My family and I have had to watch the last moments of his life when he was tortured to death including the eight minutes and 46 seconds one officer kept his knee on my brother's neck.

"My brother begged the officers for his life, cried out for our mama who was already dead, and said over and over again, 'I can't breathe'," he recalled.

Philonise Floyd told the UN rights body that none of the police officers were fired for murdering his brother until masses of people in the US and around the world protested the injustice.

"When people dared to raise their voice and protest for my brother they were tear-gassed, run over with police vehicles, several people lost eyes and suffered brain damage from rubber bullets, and peaceful protesters were shot and killed by police," he added.

Saying that his brother was one of many black men and women that have been murdered by police in recent years, he told the Council that "the sad truth is that his case is not unique".

He asked the Council to establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate police killings of black people in the US, and the violence used against peaceful protesters who were reminding the world that "Black Lives Matter".

George Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes on May 25. His death has triggered protests against racism and police brutality across the globe.

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