House Passes the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act
George Floyd mural near Manchester, Great Britain (Geograph).
The U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 1280, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, on March 3. The bill aims to “hold law enforcement accountable for misconduct in court, improve transparency through data collection, and reform police training and policies.”
Key items include eliminating qualified immunity, banning chokeholds and no-knock warrants, and allocating funds at the national level for community-based law enforcement programs. According to Kristen Clarke of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the act represents “important first steps” towards replacing laws that shield police from some forms of scrutiny.
George Floyd, the bill’s namesake, died at 47 during an encounter with the Minneapolis Police Department on May 25. Footage of Officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes quickly circulated social media and incited outrage and demands for reform.
Floyd’s death, along with that of 26-year-old medical worker Breonna Taylor, launched a wave of protests in the U.S. and around the world denouncing police brutality. The demonstrations aligned closely with the Black Lives Matter movement that rose to prominence after the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012.
As several states across the south reached new highs in COVID-19 transmission rates, protests underlined the disproportionate impact of the virus, both in terms of health and economics, on Black Americans.
Sponsored by Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-CA 37), the act passed in the House with a 220-212 vote. Only two Democrats opposed it, while Congressman Lance Goodman (R-TX 5) provided the sole Republican “yea.”
In an op-ed with USA Today, Congresswoman Bass expressed the urgent need for action to end police brutality, offering a reflection on her own experience witnessing the 1991 murder of Rodney King and its parallels to the Floyd incident.
“Congress must not pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to honor one man,” she writes, “But to honor all the unarmed people who have been brutalized or killed by police since his death and the many more who were brutalized or killed prior.”
The bill will now move to the Senate, where the Republican majority failed to pass it when it first came across their desks on June 25. Following the November elections, the chamber now has a 50-50 split between Democrats and Republicans. The bill enjoys the support of Vice President Kamala Harris, who may have to provide her vote in order to break a tie.
News of the bill’s passage in the House comes at the same time as jury selection for the March 8 trial of Officer Chauvin, who stands accused of second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.