DEMOCRATS PROPOSE POLICE OVERHAUL:
Democrats proposed a far-reaching overhaul of police procedures and accountability, a sweeping legislative response to the mass protests denouncing the deaths of black Americans at the hands of law enforcement. In response, President Trump characterized the Democrats as having “gone CRAZY!”
WASHINGTON — Democrats proposed a far-reaching overhaul of police procedures and accountability Monday, a sweeping legislative response to the mass protests denouncing the deaths of black Americans in the hands of law enforcement.
The political outlook is deeply uncertain for the legislation in a polarized election year. President Donald Trump is staking out a tough “law and order” approach in the face of the outpouring of demonstrations and demands to re-imagine policing in America.
“We cannot settle for anything less than transformative structural change,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, drawing on the nation’s history of slavery.
Before unveiling the pack- age, House and Senate Demo- crats held a moment of silence at the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall, reading the names of George Floyd and many others killed with police interactions. They knelt for 8 min- utes and 46 seconds — now a symbol of police brutality and violence — the length of time prosecutors say Floyd was pinned under a white police officer’s knee before he died.
Trump, who met with law enforcement officials at the
White House, characterized Democrats as having “gone CRAZY!”
As activists call for restructuring police departments and even to “defund the police,” t he president tweeted, “LAW & ORDER, NOT DEFUND AND ABOLISH THE POLICE.” He declared later, “We won’t be disman- tling our police.”
Democratic leaders pushed back, saying their proposal would not eliminate police departments — a decision for cities and states — but establish new standards and oversight.
Joe Biden, the presumed Dem o cratic presiden- tial nominee, “does not believe that police should be defunded,” said spokes- man Andrew Bates.
The Justice in Policing Act, the most ambitious law enforcement reforms from Congress in years, confronts several aspects of policing that have come under strong criticism, especially as more and more police violence is captured on cellphone video and shared widely.
The package would limit legal protections for police, create a national database of excessive-force incidents and ban police choke holds, among other changes.
It would revise the federal criminal police miscon- duct statute to make it easier to prosecute officers who are involved in “reckless” miscon- duct and it would change “qualified immunity” protections to more broadly enable damage claims against police in lawsuits.
T he legislation wou ld ban racial profiling, boost requirements for police body cameras and limit the trans- fer of military equipment to local jurisdictions.
Overall, the bill seeks to provide greater transparency of police behavior in several ways. For one, it would grant subpoena power to the Justice Department to conduct “pattern and practice” investigations of potential miscon- duct and help states conduct independent investigations.