House Democrats are committed to addressing systemic racism, ensuring justice and accountability, and ending the loss of African American lives due to violence.
House Democrats are committed to ending systemic racism, ensuring justice, and promoting transparency and accountability in policing in order to end the unacceptable loss of African American lives at the hands of law enforcement. Black lives matter, and our policies must reflect that. We are determined to prevent others from meeting the same fate as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and so many others. To that end, House Democrats passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act on June 25. This major reform legislation would hold police accountable, change the culture of law enforcement, and build trust between law enforcement and communities. In addition to banning chokeholds and no-knock warrants, this bill limits the transfer of military-grade weapons to local police departments, requires the collection and publication of data on use of force, creates a national database on police misconduct to ensure accountability, and removes officers’ and departments’ immunity from prosecution and lawsuits when Americans’ rights are violated. This bill also incentivizes the establishment of independent investigatory bodies to handle cases in which someone dies during an encounter with police, and it promotes the adoption of best practices based on the Obama Administration’s 21st Century Policing Task Force.
The passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act follows the passage of H.R. 35 in February to make lynching – an extrajudicial killing used to instill fear in a minority community – a federal civil rights violation for the first time in our history. That bill was long overdue, named in memory of Emmett Till, who was brutally lynched at the age of fourteen in 1955. It would strengthen prosecutors’ ability to go after those who participate in modern-day acts of racial violence, which we have seen so horrifyingly in the deaths of Black individuals like Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin.
House Democrats will keep fighting to ensure that the words of our Declaration of Independence – that all are “created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” – hold true for all in our country, regardless of race. We will continue to use our House Majority to ensure that black lives matter.
The passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act follows the passage of H.R. 35 in February to make lynching – an extrajudicial killing used to instill fear in a minority community – a federal civil rights violation for the first time in our history. That bill was long overdue, named in memory of Emmett Till, who was brutally lynched at the age of fourteen in 1955. It would strengthen prosecutors’ ability to go after those who participate in modern-day acts of racial violence, which we have seen so horrifyingly in the deaths of Black individuals like Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin.
House Democrats will keep fighting to ensure that the words of our Declaration of Independence – that all are “created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” – hold true for all in our country, regardless of race. We will continue to use our House Majority to ensure that black lives matter.