"We have to make change, and we have to make change from the inside," Selwyn Jones told a group gathered at Charbenay's on the River in Warren Thursday.

Making change is what Jones has been trying to do in the four years since Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed Jones' nephew, George Floyd.

"There has been change, but will there ever be enough change?" Jones rhetorically asked. "Until people stop dying, until people stop being corrupt, until people stop having injustice applied upon them...we'll never have enough change."

Jones spoke about his efforts to get two bills through Congress and into law.

"The George Floyd (Justice In) Policing Act I think will always be stifled, because you'd have to water it down so much that it would no longer be worth the piece of paper that it's written on," Jones said.

His Medical Civil Rights Act proposal has already passed in Connecticut.
He believes if the measure were law nationwide, Tyre Nichols, Eric Garner and his own nephew would still be alive.

"When they say 'hey, my back hurts' or 'my neck hurts' or I'm in some kind of mental health crisis, they would have to get them into a prone position and seek medical attention and do it in an immediate amount of time," explained Jones.

Jones spoke during a panel in support of judicial candidate Sarah Kovoor.
She says she's fought for plaintiffs against people who have the qualified immunity that Jones believes is standing in the way of change.

"I believe in responsibility, individual responsibility and things of that sort. However, we want good police," Kovoor said. "These are the most vulnerable people, and if as a society we don't protect the most vulnerable, we've lost."