PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Tuesday is the one-year anniversary of George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis. His family will meet with President Joe Biden in the afternoon as negotiators in Congress say they're hopeful they can reach a deal on sweeping criminal justice reform legislation.
Biden had been pushing Congress to pass police reform, specifically the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, by the anniversary of Floyd’s death. That has not happened, but there is optimism among the three Black lawmakers leading the negotiations that an agreement could come sooner rather than later.
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Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and U.S. Rep. Karen Bass of California, both Democrats, and Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina released a joint statement on Monday.
"One year ago, George Floyd's murder awakened millions of people around the world who had never before witnessed the deadly consequences of the failures in our policing system. This anniversary serves as a painful reminder of why we must make meaningful change. While we are still working through our differences on key issues, we continue to make progress toward a compromise and remain optimistic about the prospects of achieving that goal."
Booker, who is also meeting with the Floyd family, says the time to act is now.
"We have to make progress here. We cannot lose this moment. Millions of Americans went out into the streets in one of the greatest demonstrations for justice that we’ve had in the history of our nation," he said.
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Booker spoke on CNN over the weekend about how personal this effort is.
"I don’t know a Black male in my circle that doesn't have stories of unfortunate encounters with police or, frankly, painful or humiliating ones — including the person negotiating on the other side with me, Tim Scott," Booker said.
There is agreement on boosting police training, limiting the use of police choke holds, standards for no-knock warrants and a limit on the military grade equipment used by police departments.
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A major sticking point that has yet to be fully addressed is a legal principle called "qualified immunity," which protects individual police officers from being held personally liable for violating a someone’s civil rights. Democrats are pushing to get rid of it, but Republicans are hesitant. They argue that doing so could lead to consequences for officers who act in good faith.
Booker, on CNN, argued that the issue is not about the good cops that are out there.
"We have to have a nation where, ... when folks have done wrong, violated someone's fundamental, constitutionally protected rights, that there is not a shield in the judicial system but true accountability — where they are not above the law but are held accountable by it."
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