House Democrats passed their police reform package 236-181 after 5 1/2 hours of debate, basically along party lines on Thursday, with 3 Republicans…
House Democrats passed their police reform package 236-181 after 5 1/2 hours of debate, basically along party lines on Thursday, with 3 Republicans voting in favor of the bill.
The vote on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act comes amid ongoing protests against alleged police brutality and racial injustice that have wreaked havoc in major cities across the nation. Floyd, a Black man, died in custody after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for almost 8 minutes as three other police officers watched on without intervening.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a press conference on the steps of the Capitol on Thursday morning, “Today, we have the opportunity and the obligation to ensure that his [Floyd’s] death and the death of so many others are not in vain.”
The Justice in Policing Act, which was spearheaded by Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Karen Bass, comes a day after Democrats blocked a vote on the GOP’s police reform package—the JUSTICE Act—in the Senate.
Bass helped design the Democrats’ police reform package to include a ban on no-knock warrants in drug cases and amending what qualifies police for immunity, which would make it easier for courts to find officers personally liable for any violations of an individual’s civil rights. The bill also seeks to amend federal civil rights law so that it no longer requires prosecutors to prove that an officer’s harmful actions were “willful,” and create a national registry of complaints, disciplinary records, and termination records of police officers.
