The families of George Floyd and Trayvon Martin, two high-profile cases that have been used by Black Lives Matter, have come out in opposition of BLM’s call for defunding the police. Trayvon was shot to death in 2012 by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer. Trayvon’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, who is running for county commissioner in Miami-Dade County, Florida, said, “I think we need more police. We need police with better standards, and police with better ethics and better work habits. I want residents to feel safe. I want to bridge the gap between the law enforcement and the community” (“Trayvon Martin’s Mother,” Washington Examiner, June 11, 2020). George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer who brutally kneeled on the helpless man’s neck for nearly nine minutes. George’s brother, Philonise, told a House Judiciary Committee hearing on police accountability and Fox News Sunday, “What I would like is for all police around America to get their jobs and do it the right way, the correct way.” Floyd family attorney Ben Crump added, “What we want is people from both sides of the aisle, people from communities of color, community partners to get with law enforcement and come up with solutions. That (defunding the police) has not come from Philonise Floyd’s family or anybody working with us. We need to try and work together. We need to restructure and work together. This is not a black problem or a white problem. This is an American problem and the only way we can heal this country is by working together” (“Floyd family attorney,” Fox26 Houston, June 15, 2020).
(Friday Church News Notes, June 19, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)