Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Today George Floyd will be laid to rest. His death at the hands of a Minneapolis police

officer has served as a catalyst for protest far beyond where he lived. Looking back,

our obituaries editor reflects on how a big Texas man with an even bigger smile found

plenty of work in Minnesota, and on how he ultimately found himself beneath a policeman's

knee. Looking forward though, Mr. Floyd's legacy is yet to be written. His death may at last

be the force for change in policing that thousands upon thousands of deaths before his have not.

It might not even have made the Minneapolis local news. Another black man killed in police

custody, a scenario that plays out week after week across the country. But the death of George Floyd

15 days ago tapped into an almighty fury. First locally, then nationally, now internationally.

Thousands of protesters across the world have shown their support for the Black Lives

Matter movement. As anger has given way to grieving in America, street protests are subsiding,

and talk has turned from the endless cycle of symptoms to treating the disease, reforming the police.

Yesterday, Democrats in the House of Representatives put forward a sweeping new bill to start those

reforms to crack down on police brutality and to keep tabs on officers who resort to unnecessary

force. The martyrdom of George Floyd gave American experience a moment of national anguish as we

agree for the black Americans killed by police brutality today. This moment of national

anguish is being transformed into a movement of national action.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi read the names of black men and women who in recent years have

died at the hands of police.

Armin Arbery, bottomed John, Terrence Procure, Kalandro Castle. She said Congress would

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