House Judiciary Committee shines spotlight on policing practices, praise and reforms

Both Republican and Democratic leaders on the House Judiciary Committee walked a fine line Wednesday between calling for reforms to policing practices in America and praising officers.

Chairman Jerrold Nadler, New York Democrat, opened the hearing on police brutality by arguing the frustrations boiling over in the country are rooted in decades- and centuries-old racism and injustices that influenced modern policies.

“Every day, African Americans, and other people of color, live in fear of harassment and violence at the hands of some law enforcement officers. This is their reality,” he said. “Our country’s history of racism and racially motivated violence — rooted in the original sin of slaver — continues to haunt our nation.”

“And to those who do not believe it, please look at the tragic statistics. African Americans are more than twice as likely to be shot and killed by police each year. And Black men between the ages of 15 and 34 are approximately 10 times more likely to be killed by police than other Americans,” he added.

The deaths of Mr. Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville and Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia have ignited more than a week’s worth of unrest and protests across the country and fueled this renewed debate about racial tensions and police accountability.

The hearing comes as lawmakers on Capitol Hill move quickly to respond to the outrage and demands for change.

The Democrats’ bill, introduced on Monday, would mandate anti-bias training, impose national use-of-force standards and make it easier to sue officers for misconduct in the line of duty.

It includes chokehold and “no-knock” warrant bans as well as an anti-lynching provision. It goes further by proposing a national use of force standard and limits qualified immunity.

Mr. Nadler stressed that the package is “not an indictment of all police officers.”

“We must always remember that most law enforcement officers do their jobs with dignity, selflessness and honor, and they are deserving of our respect and gratitude for all they do to keep us safe,” he said. “We owe a debt that can never be paid to the too many officers killed in the line of duty every year.”

Mr. Jordan, Ohio Republican, acknowledged that Congress needs to embrace this debate and offered his condolences to Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd; and Angela Underwood Jacobs, the sister of David Patrick Underwood, a Federal Protective Services officer who was killed during protests in Oakland, California.

“The American people understand that its time for a real discussion, real debate, real solutions about police treatment of African Americans,” he said. “There is a big difference between peaceful protest and looting there’s a big difference between peaceful protest and violence and attacking innocent people and there is certainly a big difference between peaceful protest and killing police officers.”

Mr. Jordan strongly denounced the calls to “abolish” or “defund” the police from far-left groups looking to fundamentally restructure how policing works in local communities.

“This Congress started off with the Democrats folks on the left saying we should abolish ICE then move to we should abolish the entire Department of Homeland Security, and now they’re talking about abolishing the police,” he said.

The Democrats’ bill does provide grants for local communities to “re-envision” policing in their neighborhoods, but party leadership has stayed away from endorsing any of those liberal proposals.