Kamala Harris says Chauvin verdict ‘will not heal the pain that existed for generations’

• Vice President Kamala Harris said on Sunday that Derek Chauvin’s trial verdict “will not heal the pain that existed for generations.”
• Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, was found guilty of murdering George Floyd.
• On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Harris called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
• See more stories on Insider’s business page.

Vice President Kamala Harris said the guilty verdict against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is “but a piece of” policing and criminal justice reform.

“There is no question that we’ve got to put an end to these moments where the public questions whether there’s going to be accountability; questions whether there’s going to be the kind of fairness that we should all expect and deserve in all of our lives and in particular as it relates to people of color,” Harris said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday.

“This verdict is but a piece of it, And it will not heal the pain that existed for generations among people who have experienced and first-hand witnessed what now a broader public is seeing because of smartphones and the ubiquity of our ability to videotape in real-time what is happening in front of our faces,” she said. “And that’s why Congress needs to act, and that’s why they should pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.”

-State of the Union (@CNNSotu) April 25, 2021

Last week, Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and manslaughter for killing George Floyd. Last May, Chauvin was captured on video pinning his knee of Floyd’s neck, sparking anti-racism protests across the country and worldwide.

“We all watched that video. Many of us watched it multiple times, and people are in pain over what we all saw in that video,” Harris said, adding that “in large part” the case led to the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

The House passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in March, which would ban the use of neck restraints at the federal level, get rid of “qualified immunity” for police officers, and prohibit no-knock warrants in federal drug cases, Insider’s Kelsey Vlamis previously reported.

“I really do hope that the United States Senate will take it on and have the courage to take it on,” Harris said.