AMY GOODMAN: Ben Crump, I wanted to also ask you about the case of Javier Ambler. The county of Williamson, Texas, has announced a settlement of $5 million in his 2019 wrongful death. The 40-year-old Black man died after being repeatedly tasered by police during a traffic stop. Police bodycam footage released last year showed Ambler telling officers, “I have congestive heart failure,” “I can’t breathe,” as they continued to tase him. And a warning to our audience: The following footage contains graphic police violence.

OFFICER 1: Other hand!

JAVIER AMBLER II: I’m about to get on my knees, sir.

OFFICER 1: Other hand!

JAVIER AMBLER II: I’m about to give it to you, sir.

OFFICER 1: Give me your hand!

OFFICER 2: Sir, I need you to comply.

JAVIER AMBLER II: Sir.

OFFICER 2: I’m going to tase you.

OFFICER 1: Flat on your stomach! Flat on your stomach!

JAVIER AMBLER II: Sir, I can’t breathe.

OFFICER 1: Flat on your stomach!

JAVIER AMBLER II: I can’t breathe!

OFFICER 1: Flat on your stomach! Flat on your stomach! Stop resisting.

OFFICER 2: Stop.

JAVIER AMBLER II: I can’t breathe!

OFFICER 1: Stop resisting.

OFFICER 2: Stop.

JAVIER AMBLER II: Sir!

OFFICER 2: You need to comply.

JAVIER AMBLER II: I’m not resisting!

OFFICER 1: Stop resisting!

JAVIER AMBLER II: I can’t breathe!

AMY GOODMAN: You can hear Javier saying, “I am not resisting.” The reality TV show Live PD caught the killing on camera but later destroyed the footage. Live PD, as well as the similar show Cops, went on to get canceled following public outrage over their glorification of police brutality. Details about Javier Ambler’s death only came to light after the Austin American-Statesman successfully forced the release of the police bodycam footage and internal reports about the killing. If you can comment on this case? Who has been arrested? Who has been charged?

BENJAMIN CRUMP: At this time, the only announcement is that a civil settlement has been reached with the family of Javier Ambler. The criminal justice system in America, as we know, continues to move slowly in our demands for justice. The question that the family has, as many citizens, is: Why don’t police believe Black men when they say “I can’t breathe”? Why is it always met with further torture? And so, we pray that the settlement and the passage of important legislation in the aftermath of the death of Javier Ambler will lead to preventing future deaths of unarmed people who are needlessly and unjustifiably, again, stopped for pretextual traffic stops.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, one of the federal legislation acts that has not been passed, like the Voting Rights Act, like the Build Back Better Act. But the significance of this? And the main sticking point is the whole issue of police liability.

BENJAMIN CRUMP: Yeah. I think we have to have some action, whether it is an executive order or whether it is the Senate finally passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The people who went out to vote for George Floyd during the presidential election and the Senate historic election, the people who went out to vote for Breonna Taylor, for Ahmaud Arbery, for Javier Ambler, the people who had them on their mind and in their hearts when they went in a global pandemic, risking their life to deliver the United States Senate and the presidency to the Democrats, expect there to be action, before we deliver another miracle in helping the Democrats in the midterm election maintain power. It is very important that we have to see you doing everything in your power to get this George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed, whether that is executive order or the passage of the bill by the Senate, because our children are dying. And it is an exigent situation. It is a state of emergency. And we must see action. If not, don’t expect action from us to come to the polls. It is a life-or-death situation when our children leave the house every day, and we need you to feel our pain. We need you to act.

AMY GOODMAN: Ben Crump, we want to thank you for being with us, civil rights attorney, part of the George Floyd family legal team, the Daunte Wright family legal team, the Javier Ambler legal team and more.

Next up, we remember the trailblazing Black feminist scholar and activist bell hooks, who died this week at the age of 69. Stay with us.