The Medical Civil Rights Act that could be heard Tuesday by the state Legislature has heavy-duty support: Selwyn Jones, the uncle of George Floyd, and Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner.
The act, approved last year in Connecticut but so far by no other state, would legally guarantee the right to medical care for people confronted by law enforcement in the street or while imprisoned. Jones and Carr spoke in support of the bill before an April 18 symposium called “Channeling Grief Into Activism” at Harvard University’s JFK School of Government.
“We just want change. This bill is all about saving and preserving life. We’re trying to make sure that what I saw my nephew have to go through doesn’t happen to anyone else’s family ever again,” Jones said in a press release.
Jones and Carr are focused on the positive approach suggested by the symposium topic; a publicist declined to transmit questions about an ongoing backlash that has undone some of the activism and progress of the Black Lives Matter-powered period after the death of their family members.
Floyd, 46, was killed May 25, 2020, by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill.
Six years earlier on July 17, 2014, Eric Garner, 43, was pinned to the ground by New York Police Department officers and put into a chokehold – against policy – for selling cigarettes illegally. Garner’s plea to police, “I can’t breathe,” became a movement slogan.
Traveling with Jones and Carr was Dinetta Scott, the mother of Army Sgt. James Brown, who in 2012 lost his life in police custody. Brown, a combat veteran who served two tours of duty in Iraq, had been fulfilling a weekend drunken-driving conviction. Originally, his death was attributed to natural causes; Scott’s efforts to uncover the truth led a county forensic pathologist to ultimately rule his death a homicide resulting from being restrained.
At first “in a dark place”
Carr said she remained “in a dark place” for a long time after her son’s killing, wanting to just go to sleep and wake up from the nightmare. She has since been at the forefront of pushing for legislation such as The Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act, passed by the New York State Assembly in June 2020, that codified the crime of aggravated strangulation.
She also travels across the country uniting mothers in similar situations, organizing gatherings where they can talk about children they have lost to police violence.
“There’s so many similar tragedies that never have any media, never have any time on TV,” she said before the symposium. “So as mothers or as family we have to reach out.”
Carr said she had never had problems with police and had not experienced racism, because she grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and attended school with people of all races.
Journey to activism
After her wakeup call about police brutality and discrimination, though, she decided to become an activist for peace.
“If I had been there when they were killing my son, they would have had to kill both of us, because there’s no way that I would have stood by and let them hurt my son,” Carr said. But she said she’d found a better, nonviolent route. “What I decided to do was to turn my mourning into a movement, and turn my sorrow into a strategy.”
“We are all human, and we all want safety for our children,” she added. “And you can’t just sit around. You have to do something before it happens.”
Turning away from violence has been more than just metaphor. Carr said she has never watched the full video of her son’s death. “If it is on while I am speaking at an event, I leave the room.”
Jones also spoke about the shock of hearing of his nephew’s death. “Everything that’s ever been said to me and every bad thing that’s ever happened to me, it just came into my brain,” he said. “Everything that happened when I was a kid – any racist, bigoted dislike, hatred, because of the color of one’s skin.”
He went on to co-found Hope929 – a reference to the 9 minutes, 29 seconds that Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd’s neck – to provide education, employment and mentorship opportunities.
Violence continues
Another 10,000 people have been shot and killed by police since the Garner and Floyd deaths, 27 percent of them Black, said symposium moderator Sandra Susan Smith, the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim professor of criminal justice at the JFK School.
“We know that Black people are significantly more likely to be killed,” she said.
For Jones, the answer to that problem is his activism – “I hope that it changes lives,” he said – and the activism of others, including the Harvard students attending the talk.
Carr said the goal was to “go from demonstration to legislation.”
“This is how we make a change,” she said.
The “Channeling Grief Into Activism” symposium can be streamed here.
This post was updated April 29, 2024, to clarify that some included information came from a press release.
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.
Genuinely insane that the right to medical care for people confronted by law enforcement in the street or while imprisoned doesn’t already exist.
“Cops are there to protect you” yeah right…