I think the focus from hereon shouldn't be on this one case. It's great they finally got it right, and a bad cop was found to be guilty of murdering an innocent man.
The bigger picture is all the hard work that's still ahead, to continue implementing police reform measures, passing legislation, eroding the clout & power of police unions, expanding community outreach programs. The fight for civil rights and a just & fair justice system must go on.
In Congress, there should be a bipartisan effort to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, without further ado.
The legislation, described as expansive, would:
- Grant power to the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division to issue subpoenas to police departments as part of "pattern or practice" investigations into whether there has been a "pattern and practice" of bias or misconduct by the department[8]
- Provide grants to state attorneys general to "create an independent process to investigate misconduct or excessive use of force" by police forces[9]
- Establish a federal registry of police misconduct complaints and disciplinary actions[9]
- Enhance accountability for police officers who commit misconduct, by restricting the application of the qualified immunity doctrine for local and state officers,[8][10] and by changing the mens rea (intent) element of 18 U.S.C. § 242 (the federal criminal offense of "deprivation of rights under color of law," which has been used to prosecute police for misconduct) from "willfully" to "knowingly or with reckless disregard"[11]
- Require federal uniformed police officers to have body-worn cameras[9][4]
- Require marked federal police vehicles to be equipped with dashboard cameras.[9]
- Require state and local law enforcement agencies that receive federal funding to "ensure" the use of body-worn and dashboard cameras.[4]
- Restrict the transfer of military equipment to police[9] (see 1033 program, militarization of police)
- Require state and local law enforcement agencies that receive federal funding to adopt anti-discrimination policies and training programs, including those targeted at fighting racial profiling[4]
- Prohibit federal police officers from using chokeholds or other carotid holds (which led to the death of Eric Garner), and require state and local law enforcement agencies that receive federal funding to adopt the same prohibition[4]
- Prohibit the issuance of no-knock warrants (warrants that allow police to conduct a raid without knocking or announcing themselves) in federal drug investigations, and provide incentives to the states to enact a similar prohibition.[4]
- Change the threshold for the permissible use of force by federal law enforcement officers from "reasonableness" to only when "necessary to prevent death or serious bodily injury."[4]
- Mandate that federal officers use deadly force only as a last resort and that de-escalation be attempted, and condition federal funding to state and local law enforcement agencies on the adoption of the same policy.[4]
What is there not to like? These are all rational measures that encourage transparency and help ensure the safety and well-being of all citizens, who police officers are sworn to protect.
Write to your Congressman or woman now, and tell them to throw their full support behind this.
You want to keep people off the streets from protesting police brutality? End police brutality. Fix some basic issues in the justice system. No law-abiding citizen should have to live in constant fear of an overzealous police force.
