George Floyd police reform bill reintroduced in House

Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday reintroduced the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, seeking to bring sweeping reform to police departments around the country.

The bill passed the House last Congress with bipartisan support, but stalled out in the then-GOP-controlled Senate.

It was originally introduced in the House last June after Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

Floyd’s death sparked national unrest and summer-long Black Lives Matter protests. Derek Chauvin, the officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck, is set to stand trial on second degree murder and manslaughter charges next month.

“For more than 100 years, Black communities in America have sadly been marching against police abuse and calling for the police to protect and serve us as they do others,” Bass said in a statement. ”[W]e marched, we voted, and today we re-introduce the bill with renewed hope that it will become law. Never again should an unarmed individual be murdered or brutalized by someone who is supposed to serve and protect them. … Never again should the world be subject to witnessing what we saw happen to George Floyd in the streets in Minnesota.”

The proposal would bring about widespread changes to national policing guidelines.

Facial profiling at every level of law enforcement would be prohibited; chokeholds, carotid holds and no-knock warrants would be banned at the federal level; qualified immunity for officers would be overhauled and a national police misconduct registry would be created so officers who were fired for such discretions could not be hired by another police department.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is expected to bring the bill to the floor for a vote next week, according to the statement released by Bass’ office.

The bill would still face an uphill climb in the 50-50 Senate.