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President Biden signed an executive order Wednesday aimed at preventing and punishing police misconduct, a move that came on the second anniversary of George Floyd’s police assassination, but did not comply with large-scale reform legislation the White House had hoped would be the law so far. .
The order authorizes the establishment of a national accreditation system for police departments and will create a national database of federal officials who have disciplinary records or face legitimate complaints of misconduct. Federal law enforcement agencies will also update their policies on the use of force to emphasize de-escalation.
““It’s a measure of what we can do together to heal the very soul of this nation, to deal with the deep fear and trauma – exhaustion – that black Americans in particular have experienced for generations,” Biden said. “And to channel this personal pain and public outrage into a rare sign of progress for years to come.”
Biden was joined by civil rights leaders, police officers, members of Congress and family members of victims of police violence, including Floyd and Breona Taylor, a black woman killed by Louisville police in 2020. The event came amid tensions that of several mass shootings, including one in which black Buffalo residents were attacked at a grocery store.
The order is the result of a months-long process that began in earnest after the collapse last September of Congress’ efforts to draft a bipartisan bill. Police groups condemned an expired project in January that cited “systemic racism” in the criminal justice system, and the order went through several repetitions after that, based on contributions from police groups and civil rights activists, according to White House officials.
Wednesday’s version reflects a careful balance. It noted that “most law enforcement officials do this difficult work with honor and integrity,” while adding that “fatal encounters have affected unequally black and brown people and other people of color.”
Two years after Floyd’s death, little reform movement
Earlier in the day, Biden referred to the massacre in Texas on Tuesday when an 18-year-old killed 19 children and two elementary school teachers, saying he and First Lady Jill Biden would visit the community in the coming days.
“I am sick and tired. I’m just fed up with what’s happening and what’s happening, “Biden said, before escalating his rhetoric about the constitutional right to bear arms.
“The second amendment is not absolute,” he said. “When it was adopted, you couldn’t own – you can’t have a cannon. You cannot own certain types of weapons. It’s just that there have always been restrictions. But guess what? These actions that we have taken before have saved lives. And they can do it again. “
Proponents are urging the White House to take broad action to tackle systemic racism, focusing on police and criminal justice reviews. They fear Biden has lost his sense of urgency over police reform following the collapse of legislation named after Floyd, a black man whose death below the knee of a Minneapolis police officer in 2020 sparked demonstrations of social justice across the country.
Biden said he would sign the executive order earlier, but was worried it would ruin Senate talks. “Our Republican counterparts have opposed any significant reform,” he said. “So we have to work on this executive order.”
He also hinted at the concern of black leaders that the order did not meet the requirements. “I know that progress can be slow and disappointing. “And there are concerns that the two-year-old’s reading of the race is beginning to fade,” he said at the end of his speech, urging activists and lawmakers to continue to insist.
A year ago, on the first anniversary of Floyd’s death, the man’s family was also in the White House. At the time, Biden assured Floyd’s relatives that he still hoped to sign a police reform law named after their brother, father and uncle.
During that meeting last year, Biden told them he was disappointed that the legislation had not been passed, but he said he said he was ready to be patient and “make sure it’s the right account, not a hasty one.” . ”
George Floyd’s Police Justice Act, passed by the House of Representatives but not the Senate, would introduce a broader set of changes, including a ban on suffocation and non-coup orders and a ban on racial profiling. The biggest problem was the termination of “qualified immunity”, which makes it difficult for individual law enforcement officials to judge their actions during work.
Without legislation, Biden does not have much power to directly control the practices of the 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies. And while he could change the policies of federal law enforcement agencies like the FBI, those changes could be overturned by a future president.
So Biden’s actions on Wednesday were designed in many ways to provide guidance and incentives for local police.
The enforcement order authorizes the Department of Justice to use federal grant funding to encourage local police to further restrict the use of strangulation and non-shock orders, steps that federal law enforcement agencies have already taken. The order also establishes new restrictions on the transfer of military equipment to local law enforcement agencies.
It says federal agents have a duty to intervene if they see other law enforcement officials using excessive force. This language reflects changes made by the Ministry of Justice last week to its policy on the use of force, which was updated for the first time in 18 years.
Similarly, the order will encourage all law enforcement agencies to participate in the new database on misconduct and adopt de-escalation policies similar to those that federal agencies will introduce.
The White House does not have the authority to make some of the changes long demanded by lawyers, such as the abolition of qualified immunity, which protects police officers from individual prosecution for misconduct and was included in the federal bill. Dozens of bills that would remove such immunity have also been rejected.
Other changes, such as a ban on suffocation or the adoption of stricter policies on when the police can use force, similarly require action at the state or local level.
But Biden and Vice President Harris, while acknowledging that Wednesday’s action did not go as far as they wanted, called it an important moment. When Harris introduced Biden, she turned to the family members of the dead.
“You felt so much pain and suffered unimaginable grief. “You have experienced the grief of losing someone you love and value,” she said. “Yet you are here as you were in the days of your tribulation, standing selflessly, full of grace and steadfastness, to speak, to speak, often against odds, great chances to fight for a world in which no one should to experience what you have been through. “
After signing the order, Biden called Floyd’s daughter, Jana.
“You’re getting up so much!” he told the 10-year-old.
He also told what she told him nearly two years ago. “My father will change history,” Biden recalled. “And he will, my dear. He will.”
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