House Democrats hustled Wednesday to pass the most ambitious effort in decades to overhaul policing nationwide, which came nine months after George Floyd‘s death.
What We Know:
- Minneapolis has become the epicenter of the Black Lives Matter Movement. In honor of the 46-year-old man George Floyd who died last Memorial day, the House of Representatives approved the legislation to prevent police brutality. Mr. Floyd’s Death has sparked a nationwide uprising against racial injustice and police brutality.
- According to the Washington Post, it states the bill passed 220 to 212 along mostly party lines, with two Democrats, Reps. Jared Golden (Maine) and Ron Kind (Wis.), voting against it, and one Republican, Rep. Lance Gooden (Tex.), accidentally voting for it.
- Floyd’s death triggered a wave of activism that has spread to more than 50 countries. The legislation passed the policing bill that aims to hold law enforcement accountable for chokeholds, enhance data collection, eliminate discriminatory policing such as racial and religious practices, and prevent problem officers from moving from one department to another. This bill will set to end police practices such as excessive use of force under the scrutiny of all of the Black Americans’ lives lost last year. Later on Wednesday, the house also passed the For the People Act, which establishes Election Day as a federal holiday.
- An NPR interview states, “Never again should an unarmed individual be murdered or brutalized by someone who is supposed to serve and protect them,” said Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif. in a statement. “Never again should the world be subject to witnessing what we saw happen to George Floyd in the streets in Minnesota.”
- USA Today reported the final vote on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act was 220-212, with one Republican, Texas Rep. Lance Gooden, joining Democrats in supporting the measure. However, following the vote, Rep. Gooden wrote on Twitter that he “accidentally pressed the wrong voting button and realized it too late” and will be submitting to change his vote.
This motion gives the saying “to make the community safe, Police must give the community members a reason to trust them” some newfound light. The other officers involved in Floyd’s case will have their separate hearing later on in August. Now the bill has to go through the Senate Democrats to get it fully succeeded.