Chauvin Verdict Reignites Calls for Police Reform

John Micek on Apr 26, 2021

Last Thursday, at the funeral for Daunte Wright, the Minnesota man who died in a confrontation with police earlier this month, the Rev. Al Sharpton said activists would continue their push for a sweeping police reform bill, approved by the U.S. House, that bears Floyd’s name. The bill would, among other things, ban certain “no-knock” warrants, and create a nationwide database of police misconduct.

“In the name of Daunte, we are going to pass the “George Floyd [Justice in] Policing Act” as federal law,” Sharpton said, according to CNN. “We are going to make it against he law across this country to keep having funerals for our young princes … God has turned the page in the state of Minnesota and we’re never going back no more.”

While many Americans continue to support law enforcement, there’s also broad support for reform, as Vox reported.

A majority of American voters want to see Congress pass the House-approved reform bill. They also support the specifics of its provisions, “including a federal ban on chokeholds (71 percent), mandated body cameras for federal officers (84 percent), a prohibition of racial profiling (71 percent), and an end to “qualified immunity” for officers in legal cases (59 percent),” Vox reported.

We’re at another turning point in our politics. A jury has spoken. The people have spoken. Policymakers need only to listen. They can’t let this opportunity for change pass them by once more.

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An award-winning political journalist, John L. Micek is Editor-in-Chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pa. Email him at jmicek@penncapital-star.com and follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek.