US Senate Democrats on Wednesday blocked a police reform bill, arguing that the Republican measure introduced after George Floyd died in police custody did not go nearly far enough.
Supporters of the Justice Act fell short of the 60-vote threshold 55-45, with just three Democrats joining Republicans in voting to advance the legislation.
The impasse has left the parties feuding over crafting new guidelines for police after weeks of protests.
Photo: Reuters
Attention now turns to the US House of Representatives, where Democrats yesterday were to introduce their own police bill.
The Senate deadlock highlights how difficult it might be for the US Congress to negotiate a compromise on such legislation in the months before a presidential election.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that his party’s measure was a “first step” that would allow floor debate on police reforms, but that Democrats balked.
“The only way there is any downside for Democrats to come to the table is if they’d rather preserve this urgent subject as a live campaign issue than pass a bipartisan answer,” McConnell said.
The Republican proposal would discourage, but not ban tactics such as choke holds, a flashpoint issue given that Floyd died after a Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer pressed his knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
It would provide for more de-escalation training and send officers’ use-of-force information into a national database aimed at weeding out bad cops.
It would not end or limit qualified immunity, a doctrine that protects police from being sued for misconduct, and instead of direct mandates, the measure would incentivize change by denying federal grants to police departments that do not end choke holds or no-knock warrants.
“The Republican bill does not even attempt one significant reform to bring more accountability to police officers who are guilty of misconduct,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.
The measure is so “irrevocably” flawed that “it can not serve as a useful starting point for meaningful reform,” Schumer said.
US President Donald Trump accused Democrats of sinking the Republican bill “because they want to weaken our police” and end officer immunity.
Trump also signaled his opposition to toughening the bill’s language to hold officers more accountable.
“We won’t sacrifice,” Trump said. “We won’t do anything that’s going to hurt our police.”
US Senator Tim Scott, who authored the Justice Act, said that about 70 percent of its reform provisions align with the Democratic proposals.
“I’m frustrated,” Scott said after the bill was blocked.
“The issue is: Do we matter?” he asked. “We said ‘no’ today.”
Additional reporting by AP
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS