Dems unveil police reform overhaul, kneel at Capitol
WASHINGTON — Democrats proposed a sweeping overhaul of police oversight and procedures Monday, a potentially farreaching legislative response to the mass protests denouncing the deaths of black Americans in the hands of law enforcement.
Before unveiling the package, House and Senate Democrats had a moment of silence at the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall, reading the names of George Floyd and others killed during police interactions. They knelt for 8 minutes 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.
“We cannot settle for anything less than transformative structural change,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, drawing on the nation’s history of slavery.
The Justice in Policing Act would limit legal protections for police, create a national database of excessive-force incidents and ban police chokeholds, among other changes, according to an early draft. It is the most ambitious change to law enforcement sought by Congress in years.
Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, which is leading the effort, called it “bold” and “transformative.”
“The world is witnessing the birth of a new movement in this country,” Bass said.
Despite worldwide protests, with tens of thousands of demonstrators taking to the streets in cities across America and abroad since Floyd was killed May 25, the idea of broad-based U.S. police reforms remains politically polarized and highly uncertain in this election year.
While Democrats are expected to swiftly approve the legislation this month, it does not go as far as some activists want to “defund the police.” The outlook for passing the package in the Republican-led Senate is slim.
President Donald Trump, who was scheduled to meet with law enforcement officials Monday at the White House, was quick to characterize the Democrats as having “gone CRAZY!”
As activists call for restructuring police departments the president tweeted, “LAW & ORDER, NOT DEFUND AND ABOLISH THE POLICE.”
The package confronts several aspects of law enforcement accountability and practices that have come under criticism, especially as more and more police violence is captured on cellphone video and shared widely across the nation, and the world.
The legislation would revise the federal criminal police misconduct statute to make it easier to prosecute officers who are involved in misconduct “knowingly or with reckless disregard.” The package would change “qualified immunity” protections for police “to enable individuals to recover damages when law enforcement officers violate their constitutional rights.”
The legislation would seek to provide greater oversight and transparency of police behavior in several ways. It would grant subpoena power to the Justice Department to conduct “pattern and practice” investigations of potential misconduct and help states conduct independent investigations. It would ban racial profiling and boost requirements for police body cameras.
And it would create a “National Police Misconduct Registry,” a database to try to prevent officers from transferring from one department to another with past misconduct undetected, the draft said.
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., will convene a hearing Wednesday.