Congressional Democrats are putting police reform front and center as President Joe Biden prepares to deliver his State of the Union address in the wake of Tyre Nichols’s death.
Members of Congress are bringing as guests the parents of black men who died at the hands of police, and the Congressional Black Caucus is calling on Biden himself to make the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act a focal point of his Tuesday night address.
TYRE NICHOLS DEATH SPARKS LONG-SHOT PUSH FOR POLICE REFORM
“We’re very clear that we have to get something done here, and all the leaders who were in the room were committed to doing that,” Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) said after he and other members of the CBC met with Biden on Thursday. “We need folks in both houses, on both sides of the aisle, in conjunction with the White House, to respond. This is a moral moment in America. Tyre Nichols should be alive.”
Nichols was severely beaten on Jan. 7 by a group of Memphis police officers who stopped him during a traffic violation. Video released showed five black officers holding Nichols down repeatedly and kicking, punching, and hitting him with a baton as the 29-year-old cried out for his mother. Nichols died from his injuries three days later.
The officers have been fired and charged with second-degree murder, and the U.S. Justice Department is reviewing the Memphis Police Department’s handling of Nichols’s case.
His family, invited by Steven Horsford (D-NV), the chairman of the CBC, is expected to attend the State of the Union address. Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at his funeral and said protections are needed to make sure officers don’t go rogue and are held to the principles of protecting and serving the community.
Michael Brown Sr. is also expected to attend the Tuesday address. Brown’s 18-year-old son, Michael, was killed on Aug. 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri, by police officer Darren Wilson during an altercation that captured the nation’s attention and lead to the Black Lives Matter movement that swept the country.
Brown’s body was left on the street for four hours in the heat, prompting complaints that the police were purposely mistreating his remains. Following an investigation, the Justice Department cleared Wilson of civil rights violations but found a pattern of racial discrimination by the city of Ferguson.
“The police killing of Michael Brown in 2014 is what propelled me and many others into lives dedicated to building a world where Mike would still be here with us — a world where his life could not be taken from him. A world where Tyre Nichols and the thousand of other black people killed by police could live strong, healthy lives full of joy,” Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who invited Brown Sr. to the State of the Union, told Politico.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), another progressive member of Congress, is similarly inviting the father of Amir Locke, a black man Minneapolis police killed one year ago while executing a no-knock warrant.
Democrats are pushing to resurrect the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, something Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) has called a “nonstarter” in bipartisan negotiations on police reform. Scott, who led talks with Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) in the last session of Congress, has advocated pared-down reforms that conceivably could garner Republican support.
