Joe Biden to meet with family of George Floyd in Houston before funeral

Mr Biden will meet with the family of Mr Floyd, who died in police custody last month, in private so as not to disturb the funeral ceremony with extra security

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will travel to Houston on Monday to meet privately with the family of George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis last month while he was being detained by police.

Mr Biden will meet with the family of Mr Floyd in private so as not to disturb the funeral ceremony with extra security.

"Vice President Biden will travel to Houston Monday to express his condolences in-person to the Floyd family. He is also recording a video message for the funeral service," a spokesman for the former vice president told CBS News on Sunday.

Mr Biden's tone in response to the anti-police-brutality protests that have gripped the nation since Mr Floyd's death on 25 May has contrasted with the militant statements of Donald Trump, who has consistently been calling for "LAW & ORDER!" over the last week as some of the earlier protests broke out into riots.

Mr Biden, who served for eight years as vice president under Barack Obama, has promised to try to pass legislation "that will give true meaning to our constitutional promise of legal protection under the law".

The former vice president has advocated for a ban on police using choke holds, the discontinuation of police units using "weapons of war," and a more robust oversight and accountability regime for police departments across the country.

"I'll seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued our country, not use them for political gain. I'll do my job and I'll take responsibility — I won't blame others," Mr Biden said at a speech in Philadelphia last week.

Both Mr Biden and Mr Trump have spoken with Mr Floyd's family. The 46-year-old's death last month gained national media attention when video of it was posted online.

"I tried to give them some solace in terms of how the memory, the memory and meaning of George's life, would live with them," Mr Biden said in a subsequent interview with CNN.

Hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of Americans across the country have taken to the streets since Mr Floyd's death to protest police brutality and institutional racism.

The first big weekend of protests saw several pockets of looting and vandalism throughout the country before governors called in National Guard units. In Washington, DC, Attorney General William Barr deployed more than a dozen government agencies to, in the president's words, "dominate" the streets with law enforcement units.

Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who knelt on Mr Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes even as he was gasping for air and telling officers he couldn't breathe, was arrested and charged with third-degree murder. That charge has since been upgraded to second-degree murder.

The other three officers on the scene have also been charged with felonies related to Mr Floyd's death.