Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner to lead influential national Black mayors group
10 May 2021
The mayor of the city where George Floyd was raised is taking over a group that represents 500 Black mayors in the U.S. amid national pressure to revamp police departments.
Why it matters: Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner will become the new president of the African American Mayors Association as municipalities across the country examine police reforms and deal with the economic fallout from the pandemic.
Details: The African American Mayors Association will announce Tuesday that Turner will succeed Newport News, Va,. Mayor McKinley Price to lead the only organization exclusively representing Black mayors in the United States.
- The group's recently adopted "PEACE Pact for Community-Centered Policing" calls for reexamining police collective bargaining agreements and banning chokehold and no-knock warrants.
- Around 25% or more of the group's mayors represent cities over 100,000 that are concentrated in the South East.
The intrigue: Turner said earlier this year that work is underway to restructure his city's civilian police misconduct review board, which was under scrutiny for not holding officers accountable for excessive force.
- He had been a visible figure as the city gathered for memorial events following the death of Floyd, a Houston native.
- Turner is expected to guide the organization as cities seek to get their portions of any infrastructure bill from Congress.
Don't forget: Turner is only Houston's second elected Black mayor where 60% of residents are Hispanic, Black, or Asian American.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.