In response to the police killing of George Floyd, House Democrats are set to vote on a comprehensive package of police legislation next week.
Their bill, The Justice in Policing Act of 2020, would in part ban chokeholds by the police, set up a national database for tracking police misconduct, and make it easier to pursue legal damages against police by ending “qualified immunity.”
Rep. Karen Bass of California, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus is leading the House’s attempt at police-reform. “A profession where you have the power to kill should be a profession where you have highly trained officers that are accountable to the public,” Bass said at a press conference last week. The bill would also bar certain types of “no-knock warrants” (which allow police to enter a property without notifying occupants), limit transfer of military hardware to police and distribute funds for mandatory bias training.
The bill does not go as far as some activists want. They have demanded redistribution of resources away from police departments. “We need to be funding more social workers, educators, and public health workers instead of funneling more money toward the police,” Kandace Montgomery and Miski Noor, members of Black Visions Collective in Minneapolis, wrote for Vox.
Bass has been critical of protestors’ demands, telling the Washington Post that “defund the police” is “probably one of the worst slogans ever.” Rather than heeding calls to shift money from police to social services, Bass proposed community organizations take advantage of grants.
Senate bill
Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina — the only black Republican in the Senate — plan to unveil their reform bill on Wednesday. Sources have told Axios that the Senate bill has some similar elements to the House bill, including creating a national database of police officers accused of misconduct.
The bill may also propose limiting the use of chokeholds by limiting federal grants to departments that continue to approve of the practice, make lynching a federal crime (legislation the House passed in January of last year), provide new funding for body cameras and offer new funding for de-escalation training.
Scott has said that Republicans are unwilling to negotiate on ending qualified immunity and it will likely not be included in the Senate bill, calling any such provision a “poison pill.”
Qualified immunity shields individual government officials like police from liability claims, essentially making it impossible to sue individual officers. Changes to qualified immunity this Congress were first proposed by Rep. Justin Amash, Libertarian of Michigan, along with Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Democrat of Massachusetts. Only one Republican, Rep. Tom McClintock of California, signed onto that bill before it was added to Democrats’ larger package.
On CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Scott also said that “de-certification” of officers who have committed misconduct — revoking an officer’s license to practice in a state — is out of the question, since he believes law enforcement unions would not be supportive.
Senate Republicans have said it is unlikely that they will take up the bill before their upcoming two-week July 4 recess. That means that senators would vote on legislation after July 20.
“If the House is voting next week — I think it is — I think us waiting a month before we vote is a bad decision,” Scott told reporters on Monday night. In addition to the legislation, President Donald Trump is set to announce an executive order today on policing Tuesday, which will offer modest police policy changes supported by police unions, such as a database for officers with multiple instances of misconduct.
Comments (4)
a database? if there isn’t one already, there should have been one since about 1950. a database absent real consequences for deadly police violence isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. this won’t do.
Pass legislation that allows Police Departments to get rid of bad cops. Yes, you will have to fight the Police Union to do so. As with many Public sector unions, getting out the bad or incompetent employees is all but impossible. Thank goodness this defunding the police is being looked at a little more closely, what are the ramifications of defunding? Even the Mayor of Minneapolis (who does everything to appease the masses), said no to defunding. Reform not defunding is needed.
The optics of the wording “Defund the Police” are terrible and Republicans are going to make hay with it during the election.
A re-wording is in order. Might I submit as one possibility “Rethink Policing”
They are already using it. “Defund the police” is a gigantic self-own. I see a lot of people explaining what it means, and while it does make sense, if you are explaining, you are losing. You can’t give a good idea a horrible name and expect it to work.