2021 marks the one-year anniversary of the death of George Floyd. What has spun out of the tragedy of that event has been a rapid rise in anti-Law Enforcement activism across the United States. Across this country we see the complete demoralization of entire police forces in major cities, mass resignations, early retirements, and budgets getting slashed by the millions. It is a movement being spearheaded by radical Left politicians and their complicit media partners.
One of the foundational pillars of this attempt to “reimagine policing” is legislative action being designed by progressive politicians and groups to bend law enforcement to the will of their political agendas. The most sweeping piece of legislation offered by the government thus far is The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, introduced by Democrats in the House of Representatives last year.
The Philadelphia Tribune notes the following:
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021 includes provisions to overhaul qualified immunity for law enforcement, prohibitions on racial profiling on the part of law enforcement and a ban on no-knock warrants in federal drug cases.
It would also ban chokeholds at the federal level and classify them as a civil rights violation, as well as establish a national registry of police misconduct maintained by the Department of Justice.
While this measure failed to pass last year, it has now been reintroduced by federal lawmakers this year.
The Tribune also covered comments by House Judiciary Committee Chairman, Democrat Jerry Nadler, upon the bill’s reintroduction:
This legislation addresses police misconduct and excessive force, while creating greater transparency within law enforcement, and grants victims more direct avenues for redress. With this legislation, the federal government demonstrates its commitment to fully reexamining law enforcement practices and building better relationships between law enforcement and the communities they are sworn to protect and serve.
The American Police Officers Alliance has previously covered the slew of George Floyd-inspired legislation at state and local levels which have successfully been used to implement these anti-law enforcement statutes over the last twelve months.
But institutionalizing leftist police reforms at the national level would prove to be far more dangerous.
While advocates and pundits spin these measures as long-overdue commitments to “transparency” and “equity,” they will only serve to further politicize law enforcement and restrict police efforts to deal with dangerous subjects.
Restricting certain restraints, ending qualified immunity, and creating national databases will only make police more vulnerable. Law enforcement will become less effective in dangerous situations for fear of prosecution or civil liability, putting the lives of officers and communities at greater risk, all the while gathering even more power into the federal government at the expense of local autonomy.
“Defund the Police!” has become a rallying cry synonymous with the far-left political revolution working to “reimagine” the traditional foundations of American society. Eliminating police funding and gutting the number of staff in many metropolitan precincts is now hailed as social justice.
