The U.S. House of Representatives late Wednesday night passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, the biggest police reform effort in decades. The 220-212 vote came nine months after Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, had his neck kneeled on and was killed by Minneapolis police officers last spring. No Republicans supported the bill.
The legislation bans chokeholds and no-knock warrants, eliminates qualified immunity for law enforcement, mandates data collection on police encounters, prohibits racial and religious profiling and redirects funding to community-based policing programs.
“Never again should an unarmed individual be murdered or brutalized by someone who is supposed to serve and protect them,” said the bill’s sponsor Rep. Karen Bass. “Never again should the world be subject to witnessing what we saw happen to George Floyd in the streets in Minnesota.”
Last year, the House passed similar legislation, but it failed in the Republican-controlled Senate. Senate Democrats will have to sway at least 10 Republican members for the bill to pass this year.
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