By BlackMansStreet.Today | Trice Edney Wire(TriceEdneyWire.com/BlackMansStreet.Today) – In the four years since George Floyd’s killing sparked mass protests, U.S. cities have settled over 130 lawsuits related to police misconduct, paying out nearly $150 million to protesters, journalists, families, legal observers, and bystanders, according to a report published earlier this week. The settlements, some of the largest ever for protest-related police actions, have forced numerous reforms on departments, including restrictions on using “less lethal” weapons, reported the Guardian. “Change is needed,” Philonise Floyd, George Floyd’s brother, said at a news conference Thursday where Democratic lawmakers announced their latest effort to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The legislation passed in the then-Democratically controlled House in June 2020. But it stalled in the Senate.
