Officials took to political news Sunday to push for the renewal of police reform legislation after the fatal shooting of Goma Nichols in Memphis became public.
Nichols, a 29-year-old black man, was charged with reckless driving. The video footage shows the officers forcefully pulling him out of the car, pushing him to the ground and firing a Taser at him before fleeing. When officers arrested Nicole, they beat him with batons and kicked and punched him for three minutes.
When more officers arrived on the scene, officials said it took another 20 minutes to get Nichols medical attention. He died of his injuries three days later in the hospital.
Nichols’ death sparked national calls for change as protests erupted across the country from Memphis to New York City. Many lawmakers have called on Congress to pass police reform, with many saying it’s time to revisit George Floyd’s justice in police law.
The Council He passed the law in June 2020 following the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by Minneapolis officers. The bill introduced gag and no-knock warrants at all federal law enforcement agencies, a national police misconduct registry, and simplified the process for indicting and impeaching officers.
However, the bill stalled in the Senate, where many Republicans said federal powers were not the solution. He suggested a softer approach at the time, such as giving state and local police departments an incentive to enact their own reforms.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said on Sunday that Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Sen. Tim Scott (R.S.C.), who led negotiations on the issue, should sit down again to revive it. Efforts.
“Senator Booker, the chairman of the crime subcommittee, has been working on this for years,” Durbin told Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week.” I think he and Senator Scott should sit down quickly to see if we can renew that effort. But this in itself is not enough.
Booker said September 2021 talks with Scott were “out of reach” and faced “significant obstacles” to reaching a bipartisan deal on police reform. At the time, Scott blamed Democrats for refusing to negotiate and pushing to defund the police.
Booker by A press release He said Friday that he plans to continue legislative action on police reform, even if the process is “difficult” in the Senate.
Former Rep. Val Deming (D-Fla.) on Sunday said it was a “big step in the right direction” when she voted for the first police reform bill in 2020. She said that the government should give the police the proper tools to be successful, but there is a need to create a system to hold the police accountable.
“I definitely believe it’s a big step in the right direction,” she told Margaret Brennan on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
On Sunday, the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) requested a meeting with President Biden to discuss justice reform, including the conduct of law enforcement. CBC Chairman Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) said in a statement that Congress must begin negotiations now to address police violence.
In a statement on Friday, Biden again called on Congress to pass the police reform act and said Nichols’ family deserves a “prompt, full and transparent investigation” into his death.
But reaching an agreement is difficult, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Kinzinger said Sunday that potential talks on police reform legislation are likely to fail. He said intense partisanship in Congress could stymie any efforts to reform policing at the federal level.
Kinzinger told Dana Bash: “On the right, it’s like we have to roll back the blue and not talk about any reform, and sometimes on the left it suddenly ends up being a basic thing, you see it to the extreme, it’s defunding the police.”
Former New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie, who was governor when Booker was mayor of Newark, said Sunday that removing qualified immunity, which limits legal action against officials, would be difficult for Republicans. Congress to get on board, but praised Scott and Booker for working on the amendment in the past.
“Look, I think it’s going to be hard to pass him. I — you know, but if there are two people in the Senate who can do it, I think it’s the right choice to have Tim Scott and Cory Booker be the two people who try to do it, because Tim is the person I think about. He has great persuasive power over many people in his caucus. And Corey has experience, I know personally from being a mayor of a big city, where there was significant violence, he did some significant police reform when he was mayor of Newark.
“There are many good things in this bill that should become law. And so the question is how are you going to do it? He added.
Scott, one of the few Republicans to comment on the footage released Friday, called for “swift, decisive” action after the release of the Nichols video. “An American cannot remain silent,” he said, and lawmakers at all levels should see his death as a call to action.