Reforms have been pretty slow coming after last years’ global BLM protests against structural racism and and abuse of power in policing. But the House’s George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, passed yesterday, has moderate ambitious. In addition to a national registry of police misconduct Axios advises:
“Why it matters: The legislation overhauls qualified immunity for police officers, bans chokeholds at the federal level, prohibits no-knock warrants in federal drug cases and outlaws racial profiling.
Axios
Nadler comments on George Floyd Policing Act
In a press briefing yesterday, House Judicial Chair Jerrold Nadler, noted that it’s been 30 years since Rodney King was brutalized by members of the LAPD, “we are still trying to transform policing in the United States. And since George Floyd was murdered a year ago, there have been over 100 officer-involved shootings, there have been numerous examples of officers not being charged.”
Police unions are most focused on keeping the qualified immunity protections that make it almost imposible to prosecute these crimes, and we have seen similar state provisions dropped from bills before passing.
Some of the other proposed regulations may be just well intentioned, but ineffective. John Oliver explains that banning “no knock raids” slows them down only long enough to knock and scream in many cases. Sunday’s episode made the case for banning all but the most essential raids and as always it’s entertaining while enlightening.
