Rep. Karen Bass, one of the House co-sponsors of the Democrats' policing legislation, said Wednesday she feels "extremely hopeful" that the bill will make it through the Republican-controlled Senate and to being signed by President Donald Trump because they are "mimicking" her bill.
"I think my Republican colleagues, as well as the president, are mimicking our legislation," the California Democrat, who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "They have included a number of the same categories, but in my opinion, they've taken the teeth out of it."
Bass said the country is in a pivotal place, and the last thing that is needed is "something symbolic that has no teeth."
For example, Trump's executive action, signed Tuesday, bans police from using chokeholds when detaining a suspect, "unless your life is in danger."
"Well, why the heck would you use a chokehold to begin with?" said Bass. "That's already a policy that exists. The point of our bill is to ban chokeholds, is to ban no-knock warrants, is to put in place a national registry so that you don't have a Tamir Rice — a 12-year-old child lost his life six years ago by a police officer that had been fired by another agency, and all he did is move to another jurisdiction."
Bass said that 30 years ago, she worked as an activist out of concerns that public health, social, and economic issues were being criminalized, but now, that's exactly what is happening.
"We've shredded the safety net," she said. "We've divested from cities, and it's put more and more responsibility on police."
Bass said the House bill provides grants to communities so they can examine how city budgets are organized and allocate the money in ways that help the police.
"The police are not trained social workers," she said. "They don't want to do that work, and I think we need to look at that. I think the bill is bold, I think it's transformative, and I think that it helps police officers and communities at the same time."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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