The impact has been immediate following George Floyd’s death and the resulting protests against racism, inequality and police brutality. Policy changes have been approved around the country as local and state governments move to be more accountable and make the police less violent.
Here are 10 policy changes that have happened in the three weeks since the multi-factor rebellion triggered by George Floyd’s May 25 murder while in police custody.
The Minneapolis City Council voted to disband the city’s police department and replace it with a community-led public safety system.
The city’s school district, the University of Minnesota and other agencies, organizations and businesses severed ties with the police department in weeks since Floyd died while being arrested by four responding officers. All four have been fired, face criminal charges, and are in custody.
The “Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act” was named for the Staten Island man who died in 2014, suffocated in a chokehold by the police arresting him. Like Floyd, “I can’t breathe” were among Garner’s last words. The chokehold ban was part of a slate of police reform bills being voted on, New York Daily News reported.
Attorney General Bill Barr told Fox News, “I think we should ban chokeholds, lateral chokeholds,” except, Barr said, except when “confronted with potentially lethal force.”
Barr also said he supports “strong federal participation” to help set standards “to make sure that there are systems in place that hold officers accountable.”
Democrats in Congress unveiled a sweeping police reform bill that would make it easier to charge officers with using excessive force, curtail “qualified immunity” for police involved in wrongful injuries or deaths, make lynching a federal crime and ban chokeholds, Vox reported.
The U.S. Marine Corps officially banned displaying the Confederate battle flag in public and workplaces on its military bases. The U.S. Navy is expected to soon follow suit.
The mayor of Birmingham had a five-story monument to Confederate troops removed, asking protesters, “Allow me to finish the job for you.” He did so despite the Alabama Attorney General threatening legal action against him, NPR reported.
The Los Angeles City Council filed a motion to reduce the LA Police Department’s $1.8 billion operating budget by up to $150 million in the next fiscal year and redirect those funds to “disadvantaged communities and communities of color,” LACBS Local reported.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 72: Jamarlin Martin Part 2. J. Edgar Hoover, the first director of the FBI, may not be around but his energy is present in new Black politics.FBI agents and informants were used to weaken Marcus Garvey, the Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers — in many cases for money and career advancement. How could this energy metastasize into the “New Blacks” politics in 2020? Jamarlin goes solo to discuss who is doing the trading and what is being traded to weaken the aggregate Black political position.
“We are … in the midst of a social and racial justice crisis of epic proportions, where the good people of Los Angeles as well as the nation are asking their leaders to re-examine our priorities and to commit to taking a giant leap forward in recognizing and ending racism against black Americans,” said Council President Nury Martinez.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a four-step “Say Their Name” agenda for police reform that would make false race-based 911 reports a hate crime, make police disciplinary records transparent, ban chokeholds, and require the New York Attorney General to be an independent prosecutor for police officers accused of murder.
Officials in Louisville, Kentucky, banned no-knock warrants. “Breonna’s Law” is named after EMT Breonna Taylor, who was shot dead by plainclothes police officers in a botched drug bust. Taylor was sleeping in bed at the time, and was shot at least eight times, CBS News reported.
The University of California’s governing board voted unanimously to support restoring affirmative action programs, repealing a controversial statewide ban that was blamed for a decline in equality in the university system.
Voters in 1996 approved Proposition 209, a law that banned “preferential treatment” for Black people and people of color applying to state colleges and government jobs.
