Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, tonight expressed deep satisfaction at the passage of the groundbreaking George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which he believes will help build trust between police departments and the communities they serve. The measure contains major elements of bills Congressman Cohen authored, including the National Statistics on Deadly Force Transparency Act, the Police CAMERA Act, and Police Training and Independent Review Act.
The vote on passage was 220 to 212.
Before the vote, Congressman went to the floor of the House to urge its passage. He said:
“I rise in strong support of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. I started my career as the legal advisor to the Memphis Police Department. There were many fine policemen. Most of them never used a chokehold, never used their guns, and operated admirably. Some did not. The disproportionate rate at which African Americans have suffered from killings by police shows we need to act. You can’t think of George Floyd being choked with a knee and killed for eight minutes – you can’t think of Eric Garner being wrestled down like a prized trophy animal and killed on Staten Island, or young Tamir Rice, shot without an officer taking a second to think about it. These deaths require us to act. This is not ‘defund the police.’ This is ‘reform the police,’ and save human lives. We should pass this bill today. We should have passed it 40 years ago when I was a police attorney. Pass it now.”
Original source can be found here.
