Four Democratic members of color, all women, have introduced a resolution condemning police brutality. Reps. lhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Barbara Lee and Karen Bass of California introduced the resolution "Condemning all acts of police brutality, racial profiling, and the use of excessive and militarized force throughout the country" Friday morning.
"No more brutality. No more murder. No more hashtags. Just justice. May it rain down like a mighty river," Pressley tweeted Friday. "Congress must ACT," she continued. “We need the House to vote on this immediately. There has been no justice. Accountability starts now."
They are responding to the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. And the murder of Breonna Taylor by police in Louisville. They are responding to the excessive use of force by police in cities across the country where protests of these murders are taking place.
"[P]olice brutality and the use of excessive and militarized force are among the most serious ongoing human rights and civil liberties violations in the United States and have led to community destabilization, a decrease in public safety, and the exacerbation of structural inequities," the resolution reads, laying out a condemnation of the system racism in law enforcement in three pages of legislative text. "Whereas the House of Representatives has a moral and constitutional obligation to protect the civil rights and liberties of all people from police abuses," the resolution continues, "be it resolved that the House of Representatives" answers.
They call for "the adoption of sound and unbiased law enforcement policies at all levels of government that reduce the disparate impact of police brutality and use of force on Black and Brown people and other historically marginalized communities."