In response to the massive protests that have developed around the United States in recent weeks, US lawmakers are now pushing for monumental police reforms that seek to limit legal protections for violent cops, and strip police departments of their military equipment. The measures are being introduced or supported by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
US Representative Justin Amash, a long-time conservative who has been a vocal critic of Trump and a friend of the Libertarian party has gained bipartisan support for his “Ending Qualified Immunity Act,” which hopes to hold police accountable for the crimes they commit on duty and would finally allow for civil lawsuits against police.
“The brutal killing of George Floyd is merely the latest in a long line of incidents of egregious police misconduct. This pattern continues because police are legally, politically and culturally insulated … That must change so that these incidents stop happening,” Amash said in a letter to congress, according to the NY Times.
As National Guard and SWAT teams have been deployed to protests throughout the country, Senator and former presidential candidate Cory Booker introduced a list of sweeping reforms to police departments nationwide, which would include stripping them of their military weapons and gear.
Booker’s bill would also push for an end to qualified immunity for police, and the creation of a national police misconduct registry, and a ban on the use of chokeholds for police.
“Cities are literally on fire with the pain and anguish wrought by the violence visited upon black and brown bodies. There’s no one singular policy change that will fix this issue tomorrow. We need an entire set of holistic reforms to improve police training and practices, and ensure greater accountability and transparency,” Booker said.
Despite Donald Trump’s harsh words for the protesters, his usually supportive Republican cohorts have been open to discussing police reform. Even Senator Mitch McConnell called the death of George Floyd unacceptable and recognized the anger that people are feeling was legitimate.
“In no world whatsoever should arresting a man for an alleged minor infraction involve a police officer putting his knee on the man’s neck for nine minutes while he cries out ‘I can’t breathe’ and then goes silent. Our nation cannot deafen itself to the anger, the pain and the frustration of black Americans. Our nation needs to hear this,” McConnell said.
Similar legislation is being proposed by numerous other lawmakers, including Democratic Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii, who said that police having military gear only serves to further escalate tensions between the police and the people.
“It is clear that many police departments are being outfitted as if they are going to war, and it is not working in terms of maintaining the peace,” Schatz said.
Representative Ruben Gallego, a former Marine, agreed that military weapons are not needed to police communities in the United States.
“As a combat veteran and proud Marine, very little of my equipment or training was relevant to policing Phoenix or other American communities. Our neighborhoods aren’t war zones,” Gallego said.
I do like Justin Amash, was sad when he took his name out of the running for the Libertarian nod this year.
yes please
Some times restoring sanity in the country needs the use of weapons. However, the police use of these weapons should be well regulated otherwise a few policemen can as well use them wrongly and spoil the image of the entire police department.
There is no need to use weapons in a peaceful protest but where people are so violent, burning up properties of innocent people, and stealing. The police ought to apply some extra force in order to stop crime.
Thanks so much for the information.
I like this idea
This is OA! What? They forgot that the residence "people" have their own weapon and guns? I beg to disagree! The police officers must know the proper use of weapons and when they will use it. Lack of training and discipline of police in the US even in other parts of the country.
All of this depends on the leader on how they will be implemented. The leader must be tough and well-disciplined!
Regarding the death of Mr. Floyd Mayweather, I mean George Floyd! LOL, This is really inhuman! The police have no heart to understand the situation! I am very sad for the family of George Floyd... Be strong...
For the people who protest! Oh, my vegetable salad!!! All of you are crazy! Protest in the right way without harming and destroying properties! I am against these people who abusing the situation!
Do you not know that agents provocateurs are being infiltrated into protests, that uniformed police officers have been photographed unloading bricks in areas where protests are scheduled, that pallets of bricks in cities across America have been conveniently left where protests are scheduled - for the use of agents provocateurs in the conduct of the looting and violence you ascribe to protestors?
It isn't the protestors that are instigating violence. It's the cops, not only when clad in riot gear and gassing crowds of peaceful protestors, but also in plainclothes, mixed in amongst the protestors, and by recruiting teams of agents provocateurs to mix into the crowds and start looting and burning and violence.
It's not the protestors that are crazy. It's the government agents that are using the protests as cover for starting violent riots that are then claimed to prove cops need more arms, more latitude to violently suppress protests, more surveillance, and more jails to hold peaceful protestors in, and they're not crazy, they're evil.
Oh, and people blaming the victims of covert ops for the violence the covert government agents commit. They're crazy. They should pay more attention, and perhaps withhold comment until they're well informed.
But, you do you.
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Outfitted in combat gear, cops see everyone as an enemy combatant. Is this the purpose for which Americans institute government, to fund and effect the arms and personnel to wage war against us?
No? Well, government is arming and training combat personnel to wage military aggression against unarmed civilian non-combatants in America.
So, the question becomes, how do we un-authorize government when it gets shit this wrong? Vote? Does that disarm combatants? Does it shield our bodies from bullets, or our children's eyes from pepper spray and poison gas?
This is why we have a second amendment. The authors of the Bill of Rights had just un-authorized the British government that claimed to rule by Divine Right. They needed personal arms and to undertake war to un-authorize government, so they wrote the Second Amendment to ensure Americans could un-authorize government when it became onerous and oppressive - which it sure fucking has.
If you're surrounded by nails, and have no hammer, you can't do shit.
Get the tools you need to do the job that needs to be done.
Make America Free Again!
We just passed a similar law here in canada, which will strip military weapons from police over the next 2 years. Its a blanket ban, but the amount of citizens that need military style weapons in any country should be zero anyway, including the police. I mean, you're always going to have criminals with weapons, and they will always meet the police with equal or greater force. It takes decades for the lasting impact to take full effect, but it will over time.