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Democrats Unveil Bill Targeting Police Misconduct and Racial Bias
Democrats Unveil Bill Targeting Police Misconduct and Racial Bias Lawmakers around the country continued to consider new policies on policing. New York legislators defied police unions and began to approve a package of bills targeting police misconduct, including a ban on chokeholds. In Congress, Democrats unveiled legislation that would make it easier to prosecute police officers for misconduct, and require law enforcement agencies to report data on the use of force. Trump denied that systemic problems existed, declaring that as many as 99.9 percent of police officers are “great, great people.” Democrats Unveil Sweeping Bill Targeting Police Misconduct and Racial Bias WASHINGTON — Democrats in Congress on Monday unveiled sweeping legislation aimed at combating excessive use of force and racial discrimination by the police and making it easier to identify, track and prosecute misconduct, the most expansive federal intervention into law enforcement that lawmakers have proposed in recent memory. Introduced as a direct response to the recent killings of unarmed black Americans as protests of police violence and racial discrimination continue across the country, the bill proposes significant changes to the rules that govern how police officers operate and how they can be held accountable for wrongdoing. It comes as tens of thousands of Americans have taken to the streets to call for a nationwide reckoning with systemic racial discrimination, particularly by law enforcement. The legislation would curtail protections that shield police officers accused of misconduct from being prosecuted and impose a new set of restrictions on law enforcement officers to prevent them from using deadly force except as a last resort. It includes many measures that civil rights activists have been pushing for decades, which have met with strong opposition from police unions and law enforcement groups. Its prospects are uncertain on Capitol Hill, where Republicans — despite expressing outrage at some recent episodes of police violence toward black Americans and endorsing calls for change — have yet to indicate what steps if any, they are willing to embrace. And elements of the measure have already drawn resistance from President Trump, who has called for a military crackdown on the protests and offered unqualified praise of law enforcement, including encouraging rough police tactics in the past. The legislation now proposed by House and Senate Democrats would amend the federal criminal code to make it easier to prosecute police officers for misconduct. Prosecutors now must prove that an officer “willfully” violated an individual’s constitutional rights; the bill would lower that standard, to actions undertaken with “reckless disregard” for the individual’s rights. It would also create a national registry to track police misconduct and require law enforcement agencies to report data on the use of force. Among other reforms, the legislation would also require all uniformed federal officers to wear body cameras and mandate that state and local agencies use federal funds to “ensure” their use. It would also condition some federal grants on the adoption of anti-discrimination training and practices. The legislation would not defund or otherwise dismantle police departments, a call that many protesters and some of the most progressive Democrats in Congress have taken up in recent days, arguing that police brutality can end only if departments are taken apart and revamped. That has not stopped Mr. Trump and some Republicans in Congress from falsely seeking to paint all Democrats as supporting the defunding movement and all proposals for change as extreme and dangerous. The president spent much of Monday morning tweeting about “LAW & ORDER,” including in a post in which he said that “now the Radical Left Democrats want to Defund and Abandon our Police.” Many of the proposals outlined by congressional Democrats are likely to face stiff opposition from police unions and national law enforcement groups who enjoy significant political power, both in local governments and in Congress. Some are also likely to face charges of federal overreach because most police departments are under state and local control. Still, the legislation amounts to the most comprehensive reimagining of policing by Congress in years. The proposal would limit the transfer of military weaponry to state and local departments and ban “no-knock” warrants in federal drug cases that allow police officers to enter residences without warning. Democratic leaders also hope the legislation can serve as a final push to designate lynching as a federal crime. Efforts to pass a stand-alone bill to do so have been blocked by Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, who has sought to narrow the bill’s definition of lynching, arguing that the measure’s language is overly broad and could lead to excessive sentencing. Source: The New York Times |
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6/10/2020 6:11 am |
Other than the fact that Rand Paul is Mitch's lover, I really struggle with his resistance to that anti-lynching bill. He seems to be suggesting that there are degrees of lynching, and that some circumstances should be treated differently than others. That is seriously fucked up thinking that only an extreme right wing racist could conjure up.
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6/10/2020 6:06 am |
I think that's a great bill that the Democrats have come up with to combat all the violence from the police. You know not all cops are bad but just a few bad ones give all of them a bad name. It's so sad, we need policing but the rules of policing must change. I hope you have a terrific Tuesday my friend..
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Other than the fact that Rand Paul is Mitch's lover, I really struggle with his resistance to that anti-lynching bill. He seems to be suggesting that there are degrees of lynching, and that some circumstances should be treated differently than others. That is seriously fucked up thinking that only an extreme right wing racist could conjure up.
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I think that's a great bill that the Democrats have come up with to combat all the violence from the police. You know not all cops are bad but just a few bad ones give all of them a bad name. It's so sad, we need policing but the rules of policing must change. I hope you have a terrific Tuesday my friend..
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6/9/2020 5:58 am |
Lawmakers around the country continued to consider new policies on policing. New York legislators defied police unions and began to approve a package of bills targeting police misconduct, including a ban on chokeholds. In Congress, Democrats unveiled legislation that would make it easier to prosecute police officers for misconduct, and require law enforcement agencies to report data on the use of force. Trump denied that systemic problems existed, declaring that as many as 99.9 percent of police officers are “great, great people.” Democrats Unveil Sweeping Bill Targeting Police Misconduct and Racial Bias WASHINGTON — Democrats in Congress on Monday unveiled sweeping legislation aimed at combating excessive use of force and racial discrimination by the police and making it easier to identify, track and prosecute misconduct, the most expansive federal intervention into law enforcement that lawmakers have proposed in recent memory. Introduced as a direct response to the recent killings of unarmed black Americans as protests of police violence and racial discrimination continue across the country, the bill proposes significant changes to the rules that govern how police officers operate and how they can be held accountable for wrongdoing. It comes as tens of thousands of Americans have taken to the streets to call for a nationwide reckoning with systemic racial discrimination, particularly by law enforcement. The legislation would curtail protections that shield police officers accused of misconduct from being prosecuted and impose a new set of restrictions on law enforcement officers to prevent them from using deadly force except as a last resort. It includes many measures that civil rights activists have been pushing for decades, which have met with strong opposition from police unions and law enforcement groups. Its prospects are uncertain on Capitol Hill, where Republicans — despite expressing outrage at some recent episodes of police violence toward black Americans and endorsing calls for change — have yet to indicate what steps if any, they are willing to embrace. And elements of the measure have already drawn resistance from President Trump, who has called for a military crackdown on the protests and offered unqualified praise of law enforcement, including encouraging rough police tactics in the past. The legislation now proposed by House and Senate Democrats would amend the federal criminal code to make it easier to prosecute police officers for misconduct. Prosecutors now must prove that an officer “willfully” violated an individual’s constitutional rights; the bill would lower that standard, to actions undertaken with “reckless disregard” for the individual’s rights. It would also create a national registry to track police misconduct and require law enforcement agencies to report data on the use of force. Among other reforms, the legislation would also require all uniformed federal officers to wear body cameras and mandate that state and local agencies use federal funds to “ensure” their use. It would also condition some federal grants on the adoption of anti-discrimination training and practices. The legislation would not defund or otherwise dismantle police departments, a call that many protesters and some of the most progressive Democrats in Congress have taken up in recent days, arguing that police brutality can end only if departments are taken apart and revamped. That has not stopped Mr. Trump and some Republicans in Congress from falsely seeking to paint all Democrats as supporting the defunding movement and all proposals for change as extreme and dangerous. The president spent much of Monday morning tweeting about “LAW & ORDER,” including in a post in which he said that “now the Radical Left Democrats want to Defund and Abandon our Police.” Many of the proposals outlined by congressional Democrats are likely to face stiff opposition from police unions and national law enforcement groups who enjoy significant political power, both in local governments and in Congress. Some are also likely to face charges of federal overreach because most police departments are under state and local control. Still, the legislation amounts to the most comprehensive reimagining of policing by Congress in years. The proposal would limit the transfer of military weaponry to state and local departments and ban “no-knock” warrants in federal drug cases that allow police officers to enter residences without warning. Democratic leaders also hope the legislation can serve as a final push to designate lynching as a federal crime. Efforts to pass a stand-alone bill to do so have been blocked by Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, who has sought to narrow the bill’s definition of lynching, arguing that the measure’s language is overly broad and could lead to excessive sentencing. Source: The New York Times
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