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
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary
RSS