Skip to main content

Boyle Statement on the Killing of George Floyd

May 28, 2020

PHILADELPHIA - Congressman Brendan F. Boyle (PA-02) released the following statement regarding the killing of George Floyd:

America in 2020 is aflame, fighting a two-front war.

On one front, we fight a new virus. On the other, we fight an enemy as old as the republic itself.

More than a million Americans have suffered from COVID-19. Millions more suffer from a different sickness, racism.

The evidence is overwhelming that George Floyd is a victim of the latter. His essential right to breathe was taken by the hands of another. And he is not the first.

Unique among nations, America was born not out of one race or religion. Rather, in its very founding document was a radical commitment to the full equality of all people. It is foundational to the American Experiment.

Racism is not just an assault on the individual of a different race. It is a grievous blow against the very idea of America.

We will soon discover a vaccine for virus COVID-19. But we must also, at long last, once and for all, eradicate all forms of racial prejudice and discrimination.

Only then can America fully breathe.