newswire: 7/10/2020
- The debate over policing in America continues, with both Democrats and Republicans introducing their own reform proposals. Yet with little bipartisan consensus over what’s in the bills, it appears likely that the issue is going to stall in Congress until next fall. (NPR)
- NH: Local and national officials have begun the messy process of translating calls for police reform into policy. On the local side, a handful of cities, including Houston, San Diego, and Denver, have banned chokeholds. New York City passed a package of bills meant to curb police brutality and will cut $1 billion from the $6 billion NYPD budget. Los Angeles is scaling back its police department to the lowest number of officers since 2008, with plans to divert the funds to enrichment programs for black and Latino youth. And after pledging to disband the city’s police department at the start of June, the Minneapolis City Council has started taking the first steps towards creating an alternate public safety department.
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In Congress, Democrats and Republicans have put forth markedly different visions of reform. House Democrats developed the Justice in Policing Act, a sweeping bill that restricts the use of lethal force and would create a national database to track police misconduct. It would also eliminate qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that largely shields government officials from civil lawsuits.
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The bill from Senate Republicans, the Justice Act, is narrower in scope. It focuses on encouraging local and state police departments to keep better records and improve training protocols. Instead of creating federal mandates, it offers incentives to police departments that implement best practices (like banning chokeholds) and would reduce federal funding to those that don’t. The bill does not address qualified immunity or outright ban any policing tactics. The only provision where both bills match exactly is in making lynching a federal crime.
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On June 25, the House approved the Democrats’ bill mostly along party lines. But Democrats rejected Republicans’ Senate bill on the grounds that it doesn’t go far enough. The votes weren’t entirely partisan: Three Republicans voted for the Democrats’ bill, while two Democrats and one independent voted for the Republicans’ bill. Still, the House Democrats’ bill isn’t expected to gain much traction in the Senate, meaning that federal progress on police reform is effectively stalled.
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The main sticking point is ending qualified immunity. Democrats won’t budge on eliminating it, but Republicans don’t want to. Public opinion, at least, favors the Democrats and many of the changes that have been taking place at the local level. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 72% of Americans--including 59% of Republican voters--support “allowing victims of police misconduct to sue police departments for damages.”
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The poll also showed strong bipartisan support for other new laws, including chokehold bans and requirements for body cameras. One reform proposal that doesn’t attract majority support is dismantling police departments. A HuffPost/YouGov survey showed similar results.
- What explains Republicans’ reluctance to support more forceful reforms? In general, the party prefers to give police powers to states and localities. Some may also think that eliminating qualified immunity would undermine police moral and lawful law enforcement. When crime rates go up, public support for tough policing tends to increase. With murder rates rising sharply in several cities in recent months, Republicans may be banking on the tide to turn and for their position to become more popular.
