Negotiations on police reform sought by BLM protesters fail in Congress

Leading Democrats said that negotiations with Republicans failed to reach a compromise and urged President Biden to take action.

After the main negotiators of the Democratic Party failed to reach an agreement with the Republican Party, negotiations in the U.S. Congress on police reform aimed at preventing police from killing black Americans ended in failure.

Democratic Rep. Karen Bass said on Wednesday that negotiations between her and Democratic Senator Cory Booker and Republican Senator Tim Scott proved fruitless.

“We accepted a major compromise, knowing that this is a difficult selling point for our community, but still believe that we will move forward on this issue,” Bass said in a statement on Wednesday.

“But every time we asked for more, so much so that the bill we were discussing did not make any progress,” Bass said.

The US House of Representatives passed a comprehensive police reform bill in March that would prohibit choking and combat racial profiling. However, a proposed law named after George Floyd, a black man killed by the police in Minneapolis, was opposed by the Republican Party. The death of Freud in 2020 triggered nationwide protests against police brutality and revitalized the “Black People’s Fate” movement established in 2013.

Buss and Booker have negotiation A narrow bill proposed by Scott may win enough Republican support to pass in the U.S. Senate, where the differences are small.

Republican Senator Tim Scott (left) and Democrat Senator Cory Booker failed to agree on meaningful reforms of American policing [File: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo]

A key sticking point is “Qualified immunity“A legal principle adopted by U.S. courts that often protects the police from civil lawsuits in cases of abuse or death. Republicans oppose the Democratic Party’s compromise proposal to allow such lawsuits to proceed.

The House bill drafted by the Congressional Black Caucus passed a party vote with 220 votes to 212 votes. It needs the support of at least 10 Republicans to pass the equally distributed U.S. Senate.

In addition to prohibiting suffocation like killing Freud, Democratic Act A national database could have been established to record complaints and disciplinary actions against police officers who used excessive force against civilians.

Democrats are also trying to ban no-knocking orders in drug cases, such as the gun ban used in the Louisville, Kentucky raid, in which a black woman, Brenna Taylor, She was shot and killed by the police in the apartment where she was sleeping when the arrest warrant was executed.

Representative Bass called on President Joe Biden to advance executive orders to implement amendments to the US police service.

Buss said: “Because our colleagues are unwilling to compromise, we have no choice but to explore more ways to stop police brutality in this country.”

According to data tracked by the reform advocacy organization Zero Movement, more than 1,120 people were killed by the police in the United States in 2020. As of mid-September, the police had killed 745 people in 2021.

U.S. civil rights leader and Freud’s family appeal to Biden and members of Congress Police Reform Act.

“We are disappointed, the president is disappointed,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at a media conference on Wednesday. “Unfortunately, Republicans rejected reforms that even the previous president supported and refused to participate in key issues that many law enforcement officials were willing to solve,” Psaki said.

Pasaki said that White House officials will consult with Biden on the administrative actions the president can take to advance police reforms that are “overdue”.

Biden said in a statement late Wednesday that Freud’s death was “a stain on the American soul.”

Biden stated that the White House will consult with the families of victims, law enforcement and civil rights leaders to “determine the way forward,” including “potential further administrative actions.”

The US Department of Justice under Biden has launched investigations into the excessive use of force by police in Minneapolis, Phoenix, and Louisville. Last week, the department issued a new policy restricting the use of lock-throats and no-knocking orders by federal law enforcement agencies.