The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a sweeping police bill named after George Floyd, whose death in custody sparked global protests against racial injustice.
Democrats pushed through the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act with a vote of 220-212, with the support of just one Republican.
The legislation would outlaw strangleholds and abolish “qualified immunity” for law enforcement, paving the way for lawsuits against officers accused of violating defendants’ constitutional rights.
The measure was first approved last summer, not long after Floyd’s murder by police in Minnesota on May 25, but he got stuck in the then Republican-controlled Senate.
Democrats said they were determined to pass the bill a second time. Although they now control both chambers of Congress, it seems unlikely that the legislation could pass the Senate without major changes to win GOP support.
With pole wires