Dueling bills look to reform law enforcement in the wake of Chauvin trial

Lawmakers announced Wednesday that bills previously stalled in Congress last year are now "closer than ever to consensus," according to WXIA-TV.

Representative Karen Bass of California said that the Tuesday guilty verdict launches "a new phase of a long struggle to bring justice to America," and urged the passing of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. "This is the human rights issue in the United States of America."

Biden urged Congress to continue with negations on Tuesday, saying "we can't stop here."

The Democrat-led House has twice passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which includes some of the biggest changes to policing in recent memory.

It would allow officers to get sued and damages be awarded to people who had their constitutional rights violated. It would also limit qualified immunity protections currently in place for officers. Chokeholds would be banned under the bill as well, and a national database of police misconduct would be created to prevent officers with past histories of misconduct from being hired at another department.

The Justice Act, proposed by Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, was shot down last year when Democrats and Republicans would not compromise on the bill.

The bill would require law enforcement to submit use-of-force reports to a national database, as well as require reports for no-knock warrants.

Both bills do contain some common ground, including making lynching a federal hate crime.

The biggest difference between the bills, and the one being focused on centers around the public's ability to sue with the limiting of qualified immunity. An alternative proposed would allow departments to be held responsible, instead of individuals.

"I think that is a logical step forward," Scott said.

In the wake of Floyd's death as wells s numerous others, many Black advocates are saying both bills do not go far enough to address the origins of police brutality in the nation's history.

Reform can’t "happen around the edges," said Maurice Mitchell, National Director of the Working Families Party and a Movement for Black Lives strategist.

The movement for Black Lives is pushing for congress to instead consider the BREATHE Act, which would shift funding towards communities and completely overhaul the United States criminal justice system.

"Democrats should be on notice that talk is cheap and that Black folks are very clear that our vote put them over the top and put them in the position to govern," said Mitchell. "And now they need to govern and lead with the clarity that it is the Black community, the Black vote and Black movements that were an essential part of the electoral coalition that brought them into this position."