[George Floyd Justice in Policing Act]
NAACP: “While the enactment of the ‘George Floyd Justice in Policing Act’ is not going to solve all of our problems, it is a necessary first step to end brutality and save American lives.”
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The NAACP supports the U.S. House’s “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.”
All across our nation, people are beginning to speak out about the horrors and brutality of law enforcement misconduct and the fact that people of color, disproportionately African-Americans, are treated more harshly by law enforcement officers – often fatally.
People are looking to our local, state, and federal leaders for real change.
At the Federal level, our national Board of Directors on Tuesday, June 16, 2020, passed an Emergency Action Item in support of H.R. 7120, the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.” The NAACP is in strong support of the provisions in H.R. 7120, the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.”
This comprehensive bill was introduced in the U.S. House by the current Chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Karen Bass (CA) and the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerrold Nadler (NY) and in the Senate by Senators Kamila Harris (CA) and Cory Booker (NJ). Among other things, the legislation holds all law enforcement officials accountable for their actions, ends “qualified immunity” for police officers, ends racial and religious profiling, empowers our communities, establishes uniform policies for the use of force, mandates data collection on police encounters, bans chokeholds and “no knock” warrants, limits military equipment on American streets, requires body-worn cameras and classifies lynching as a hate crime, therefore making it open to Federal resources for investigations and prosecutions.
Senator Tim Scott (SC) has, on behalf of the current Senate leadership, introduced the “Justice Act,” which he says is an alternative to the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act,” and President Trump issued an Executive Order on Tuesday, June 16, 2020, which he said took “unprecedented steps to strengthen relations between law enforcement and their communities,” the NAACP finds both the Senate bill and President Trump’s Executive Order to be lacking.
While the enactment of the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act” is not going to solve all of our problems, it is a necessary first step to end brutality and save American lives.
Police reform legislation is scheduled to be considered in both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate next week. We are done dying.
