Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Thursday that Democrats will introduce far-reaching legislation crafted to fight racial inequities in the criminal justice system, healthcare system, and education.
The package, which is currently being written by members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), will feature provisions designed to eliminate racial profiling, limit excessive use of police force, and eliminate the qualified immunity doctrine, which protects police officers from lawsuits over actions they perform in the line of duty.
Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol on Thursday that the legislation is focused on “Protecting equal justice and including a number of provisions ending racial profiling ending excessive use of force, ending qualified immunity, and again, addressing the loss of trust between police departments and communities they serve.”
Pelosi emphasized that the legislation will encompass many other reforms.
The Speaker said the CBC is taking the lead with the additional provisions and they will be all-encompassing and bold not incremental.
“Monday, well be making our announcement as to what how we go forward in this particular aspect of it, but it is about other injustices too. Its about health disparities. Its about environmental injustice. Its about economic injustice. Its about educational injustice. So, we want to see this as a time where we can go forward in a very drastic way not incrementally, but in an important way to redress those problems.”
“We will not relent until that is secured, that justice is secured.”
The Democrats are taking these legislative steps in response to a number of recent killing of unarmed African Americans at the hands of law vigilantes and police.
The most recent took place in Minneapolis on May 25, when George Floyd, 46, was arrested by police outside a south Minneapolis grocery store on Memorial Day for alleged fraud. A citizens cellphone video showed an officer—who has since been identified as 44-year-old Derek Chauvin—kneeling on Floyds neck for almost nine minutes as Floyd repeatedly said he couldnt breathe and begged officers not to kill him. He eventually became unresponsive, with one witness noting that his nose was bleeding. The footage spread quickly on social media.
“What happened with George Floyd, it is so heartbreaking but its pivotal, its an inflection point, it is a threshold that our country has crossed,” added Pelosi.
“Were taking our lead from our distinguished Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Karen Bass. AsRead More From Source
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