US Democrats in Congress have proposed sweeping legislation to reform American police, following weeks of protests against police brutality and racism.
The bill would make it easier to prosecute police for misconduct, ban chokeholds, and addresses racism.
The Justice in Policing Act of 2020 was introduced by top Democratic lawmakers House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, black senators Kamala Harris and Cory Booker and members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
The bill forces federal police to use body and dashboard cameras, ban chokeholds, eliminate unannounced police raids known as “no-knock warrants”, make it easier to hold police liable for civil rights violations and calls for federal funds to be withheld from local police forces who do not make similar reforms.
It also makes lynching a federal crime, limits the sale of military weapons to the police and gives the Department of Justice the authority to investigate state and local police for evidence of department-wide bias or misconduct.
The move comes as Minneapolis lawmakers vowed to disband the city’s police force.
The death of George Floyd at the hands of a white officer has sparked national pressure for change.
However, it was unclear whether Republicans, who control the US Senate, would support the proposed Justice in Policing Act of 2020.
US President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter that “the Radical Left Democrats wanted to defund and abandon the Police.
In a break with his party, Republican Senator Mitt Romney had tweeted pictures of himself marching towards the White House with protesters, with the caption “Black Lives Matter.”
Meanwhile Democratic US presidential candidate Joe Biden has said the late George Floyd would change the world.
Speaking after a private meeting with Mr Floyd’s family in Houston to offer his sympathies, Mr Biden told reporters that his death was “one of the great inflection points in American history.
He regretted that the killing of African American George Floyd at the hands of a white officer had fueled global protests.
