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US House passes police reforms ahead of Floyd murder trial
WASHINGTON, March 4, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – A sweeping police reform package
that bans choke holds and combats racial profiling cleared the US House of
Representatives Wednesday, five days before the trial of a white officer
charged with murdering African-American George Floyd.
The bill is named after Floyd, who died last May 25 when then-Minneapolis
police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee on the victim’s neck for eight
minutes and 46 seconds.
The shocking killing was caught on video and sparked mass protests across
the nation in the midst of the 2020 election.
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act cleared the House last year but
was blocked in the Republican-led Senate.
With President Joe Biden in office since January, and the Senate narrowly
controlled by Democrats, the bill was reintroduced last week and it passed
Wednesday largely along party lines, 220 to 212.
Just one Republican supported the measure, while two Democrats opposed it.
“Nearly one year ago, George Floyd gasped his last words, ‘I can’t
breathe,’ and ignited a nationwide reckoning on the racial injustice and
police brutality in America,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said before the
vote.
“This legislation will not erase centuries of systemic racism and
excessive policing in America,” but it takes a “tremendous step” toward
stopping the violence and improving relations between law enforcement and the
communities they serve, she added.
The bill now heads to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain given that
the chamber is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans.
A watered down version of the bill has a higher likelihood of reaching
Biden for his signature.
The president told Democrats Wednesday that he “strongly” supports the
full bill.
The measure bans choke holds and no-knock warrants, combats racial
profiling, limits the transfer of military equipment to local police forces,
expands police training, and establishes a database to track officer
misconduct.
Its most controversial provision is likely the restriction of officer
immunity. The longstanding legal doctrine shields police from civil lawsuits
— something which Pelosi and other Democrats have criticized as unfairly
protecting police from accountability.
Republicans have argued that the measure would strip police forces of
funding, tie the hands of officers and make communities less safe.
House Republican Debbie Lesko warned that the bill “leaves police
unequipped to deal with dangerous or life-threatening situations and limits
the tools that police can use in the field.”
Floyd’s family heralded the bill’s House passage in a statement from their
lawyers Wednesday evening.
“This represents a major step forward to reform the relationship between
police officers and communities of color and impose accountability on law
enforcement officers whose conscious decisions preserve the life or cause the
death of Americans, including so many people of color,” attorneys Ben Crump
and Antonio Romanucci said in the statement.
The trial of Chauvin, charged with second-degree murder of Floyd, begins
Monday in Minneapolis.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 0933 hrs