GOP’s only black senator takes lead on police reform. What to know about Tim Scott
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has picked Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican senator, to lead the GOP’s bill on police reform, media outlets reported.
The GOP’s plan would address the “obvious racial discrimination that we’ve seen on full display on our television screens over the last two weeks,” McConnell said on Tuesday, according to NPR.
Scott said the GOP’s plan would consider more de-escalation training to try to lessen the use of deadly police restraints, but wouldn’t ban outright chokeholds, such as the one used on George Floyd, no-knock warrants in drug cases like in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, or reform qualified immunity, like in the Democratic legislation, according to NPR. Scott also said there’s “talk about bringing more police departments under reporting requirements to the FBI and Justice Department,” the news outlet reported.
Qualified immunity, a doctrine developed by the Supreme Court in the late 1960s, is used to determine if lawsuits against police officers go to trial if they meet two criteria: if the officers used excessive force and if they knew they were violating a “clearly established” prior court ruling, according to NPR.
Floyd, 46, an unarmed black man died while in police custody on Memorial Day and his death sparked an avalanche of protests across the nation. He died after now-fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, as three other officers didn’t intervene.
Breonna Taylor, 26, an ER technician, died on March 13 after police in Louisville, Kentucky, executed a “no-knock” warrant at her apartment during a narcotics investigation, shooting her at least eight times. As three officers forced their way into Taylor’s apartment, her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot and wounded Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, who along with detectives Myles Cosgrove and Brett Hankison, fired more than 20 rounds.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled the Democrats’ legislation, called the Justice in Policing Act, on Monday, NBC News reported.
The Justice in Policing Act would ban chokeholds, no-knock warrants, and require police departments to submit use of force data to the federal government, according to NBC News. State attorneys general could then use the data to investigate excessive use of force or misconduct. The bill would also designate lynching as a “federal hate crime.”
Scott said that the GOP bill would most likely include anti-lynching legislation, more police body camera funding, and reviews to no-knock warrants, The Hill reported.
Scott was previously elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate in 2013.
Scott has slammed Joe Biden for his comments saying “you ain’t black” if you’re considering supporting President Donald Trump in the upcoming election, McClatchy News previously reported.
“1.3 million black Americans already voted for Trump in 2016,” Scott wrote on Twitter May 22. “This morning, Joe Biden told every single one of us we ‘ain’t black.’ I’d say I’m surprised, but it’s sadly par for the course for Democrats to take the black community for granted and brow beat those that don’t agree.”
Biden has since apologized for his remarks, The Hill reported.
“I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy. I shouldn’t have been so cavalier,” Biden said, according to The Hill. “I don’t take it for granted at all and no one should have to vote for any party based on their race, religion or background. There are African Americans who think Trump is worth voting for. I don’t think so and I’m prepared to put my record against his, that was the bottom line and it was really unfortunate, I shouldn’t have been so cavalier.”
This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 11:41 AM with the headline "GOP’s only black senator takes lead on police reform. What to know about Tim Scott."