In the 4 years since George Floyd was killed, Washington can’t find a path forward on police reform

Four years after George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer, the momentum in Washington to pass comprehensive reform in the Minnesota man’s name has almost completely disappeared.

O Floyd’s death, a 46-year-old black man, in May 2020 sparked outrage and calls for change. Feeling the deep anger across the United States, Democrats and Republicans in Congress have presented different accounts in response less than a month after he was killed.

But as time passes from the image of a police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes shocked the nation, there is little urgency to make the kind of sweeping changes that President Joe Biden wanted to see.

“That’s the insult, not taking action,” said Keeta Floyd, George’s sister-in-law.

What happens on this issue in the future could be decided in the 2024 elections, as Biden faces the prospect of his support waning among black voters, who are key to his effort to win the White House once again.

There have been killings by police in the years since Floyd’s death, including in early 2023 when Nichols Tire, a 29-year-old black man, died in Tennessee. Not long after, South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott gave a speech criticizing Democrats and politics for their lack of progress.

Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate, was the Republican Party’s chief negotiator on police reform and authored a bill of his own after Floyd’s death, which was blocked by Senate Democrats at a time when many in his party supported a more far-reaching effort to their own.

“I hope that when the dust settles and the issue is no longer on the front pages of our newspapers, no longer broadcast on our TVs and iPads and computers, that we do something that says to the American people: we see your pain, we are willing to put put our party labels, shirts and uniforms aside so we can do what needs to be done,” Scott said in his speech last year.

Less than a year and a half later, Scott is seen as a potential running mate for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Scott’s office declined interview requests about the fight to pass policing changes in Congress.

Biden has made addressing the crucial issues brought to light by Floyd’s murder a focus of his 2020 presidency. campaign. Although Republicans and Democrats rallied behind separate bills in the weeks after Floyd’s death, neither effort came close to becoming law with Republican Donald Trump in the White House. Early in his presidency, when Biden addressed Congress for the first time, he used one of the greatest speeches of his life to urge Congress to finally find a way forward — and quickly.

“We need to work together to find consensus,” Biden said in April 2021. “But let’s do it next month, by the first anniversary of George Floyd’s death.”

Despite bipartisan negotiations, Congress was unable to fulfill the president’s schedule. And a few months later, negotiations fell apart. Revising qualified immunity, which can protect officials from civil suits, was an issue that Democrats cared deeply about but was strongly opposed by the Republican Party.

Since then, attention on the issue in Congress has diminished considerably. Republicans, in an attempt to portray themselves as the party of law and order, continued to try to associate Democrats with the politically volatile “defund the police” slogan that became prominent after Floyd’s death, even though the majority of Democrats in Congress don’t support it. movement.

Although Congress takes no action, concerns about crime and concerns about recruitment and staff shortage for law application They’re going up.

The president has taken limited steps that he can take unilaterally. Two years after Floyd’s death, Biden signed an executive order focused on federal law enforcement that included creating a national police accountability database.

“We have made progress,” said Stephen Benjamin, a senior adviser to Biden at the White House. “Are we where we used to be? Absolutely not. [Are we] where do we want to be? Not yet. But we’ll get there.”

Away from Washington, policing these days can be a deeply personal issue.

Bridgette Stewart, a community activist in Minnesota, joined dozens of people to block outside disruptors from entering the area where Floyd was killed in Minneapolis at the height of citywide unrest. Four years later, she says community-police relations are still strained.

“Most black neighborhoods in the United States of America where a black man is killed, whether at the hands of the police or by the community, are just neighborhoods that are not thriving,” Stewart said.

For Nate Hamilton, who has said he intends to vote for Biden, reforming police practices has been a mission since his brother Dontre Hamilton was shot 14 times and killed during a confrontation with a Milwaukee police officer in 2014.

Hamilton believes police reform and accountability “is a national issue” and has expressed displeasure with the federal government, from Congress to the Department of Justice, for not doing enough follow-up work in cases like his brother’s.

“We thought they would really look at how they can support individuals who have lost their lives, but most importantly their families, because their families are still the ones who are traumatized,” he said.

There is recognition within the law enforcement community that in some parts of the country, local police responded to the outcry that followed Floyd’s death by making changes.

“There is a perception that [because] Congress has not passed a reform bill, which somehow there is no reform across the country,” said Fraternal Order of Police President Patrick Yoes. “I don’t think that’s really the case. Each of these local jurisdictions engages in discussions with the people concerned, looking for ways to improve the criminal justice system.”

But for Floyd’s family, Congress’s inaction hurts, even as Biden and other Democrats continue to call for the reform to become law.

That doesn’t mean they blame Biden as he runs for re-election this fall.

“I feel 100% comfortable saying the Biden administration did what it could,” said Keeta Floyd, George’s sister-in-law.

Members of George Floyd’s family appeared at the Capitol earlier this week to mark a renewed effort by Democrats to pass policing reform in his name. While previous versions passed the Democratic-controlled House in 2020 and 2021, the bill will almost certainly not pass this year given that Republicans now control the House.

Despite the political setbacks the Floyd family faced on this issue, George’s brother, Philonise Floyd, continued to visit Washington over the years, advocating for the change to finally be passed.

“My brother’s life was stolen,” Philonise Floyd said at the Capitol earlier this week. “So many other people’s lives were stolen from them.”