By Aaron Miller-
New police reforms brought in by he U.S House has vowed to implement a bill banning choke holds by police and repealing ‘qualified immunity’ laws, among several other provisions.
Congressional Democrats announced a comprehensive police reform package on Monday aimed at ending police brutality.
The package is designed at achieving greater accountability regime for police departments across America.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Congressional Black Caucus chairwoman Karen Bass, senator Kamala Harris and unveiled the reform bill in the wake of the death of George Floyd which shocked the world.
The package released on Monday indicates that the federal level mandate new policies and training programmes to change years of bad police practise , often at the expense of Afro Americans
The bill will create a national misconduct registry for officers to ensure officers with lengthy and questionable records cannot simply change departments to avoid accountability, and reform “qualified immunity laws” to make it easier to prosecute police and other government agent misconduct.
Chokehold Ban
It will ban chokeholds and no-knock warrants in drug cases at the federal level, and incentivise local departments to adopt similar measures by withholding funding for those that don’t.
“They haven’t been talking to Republicans about this. So, I’m not sure what they’re going to be rolling out,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise said in an interview on Fox & Friends on Monday.
Donald Trump has not yet reviewed the legislation, but there “are some non-starters in there,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters on Monday.
New policies in the city of Baltimore already require officers to report use of force incidents, and compels them to intervene if they see another officer improperly using force.
The policies also require them to wear body camera.The death of George Floyd has led Minneapolis city to force the department to ban chokeholds, and impose a duty for officers to intervene if their colleagues are excessive force.
The new practise will almost definitely guarantee a new culture of discipline in the U.S police force.
Closed System-
The BBC today highlighted the general culture in police practise in the U.S.A. They described it as work in what social researchers call a “closed system” where there is little external oversight and loyalty is highly prized. Officers usually back up their colleagues even when they are wrong. Such loyalty leaves victims without any credibility in the face of support provided to police officers by their colleagues
It remains to be seen how quickly police will adjust to the new rules from this period on; many remain doubtful that major changes will be noted soon, but the steps taken by police will