Are you ready to build future leaders?H.R. 1280 The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act
Date Introduced: February 24, 2021
About George Floyd:
George Floyd was born on October 14, 1973 in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He had several past
arrests and convictions in Texas–the most serious offense being an aggravated robbery in 2007.
After serving several years in prison, he was released and worked to rebuild his life by finding
jobs, going to church, and most importantly, starting anew in Minneapolis.
Background:
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act was introduced after George Floyd, a forty-six year old
African American man, was murdered in 2020 by a white police officer in Minnesota. A store
clerk from the CUP Food grocery store suspected Floyd had used a counterfeit twenty dollar bill,
to which his arrest led to a police officer knelt on his neck for nine minutes and twenty-nine
seconds. Floyd had repeatedly stated that he was unable to breathe. His death was captured on
video and quickly spread on social media, sparking protests and calls for police reform.
Summary:
The bill proposes major reforms to the police department to increase safety measures,
fairness, and accountability in policing activities. Such examples include, but are not limited to,
banning chokeholds, requiring body cameras and dashboard cameras, creating a national
database to track misconduct by the department, and requiring anti-bias training.
If passed and implemented, the bill would’ve, most likely, increase police accountability in
communities, help reduce excessive force usage and racial profiling, improve trust between law
enforcements and citizens, especially marginalized communities of people of color.
However, the bill was ultimately unable to be passed as a law due to its unsuccessful passage in
the Senate despite passing the House of Representatives. It failed due to disagreements between
Democrats and Republicans over many reasons, the biggest being qualified immunity, which is a
legal rule that protects police officers from being sued unless a clear violation of constitutional
rights had occurred. The Democrats wanted to limit the immunity to increase transparency and
accountability in the police department. Conversely, the Republicans opposed their argument
saying that it could discourage proper policing. Overall, despite negotiations, the two parties’
dispute and inability to reach a compromise lead to the bill being unable to gain enough votes to
pass in the Senate.
Sources:
? George Floyd Justice in Policing Act - Wikipedia
? Golden Statement on H.R. 1280, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act
? George Floyd - Wikipedia
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