The bill would ban chokeholds and create national standards for policing, as well as outlawing “qualified immunity” for law enforcement.
A prominent Black Lives Matter (BLM) activist has warned a new bill named after George Floyd goes “nowhere near far enough” in tackling institutional racism and brutality which critics say are rife within U.S. police forces. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which passed through the House on Wednesday, would ban chokeholds and create national standards for policing, as well as outlawing “qualified immunity” for law enforcement. Gary McFarlane, a BLM activist, said that while banning chokeholds, ending qualified immunity and introducing national standards would all be “welcome reforms”, they “go nowhere near far enough in uprooting racist practices in the police.” In an emailed statement to Newsweek, McFarlane said: “It is the mass movement of people – black and white – that has forced this change at the top and it will definitely require further mobilisations to end police deadly racist impunity.
