After video footage of the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols stunned the nation, calls to revive the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act are growing louder.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) plans to reintroduce the act after the State of the Union address on Feb. 7, according to Ben Crump, the Nichols family’s attorney. A “duty to intervene” element, in honor of Nichols, will be added, too, Crump said during Nichols’s funeral Wednesday.
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act — named after the 46-year-old Black man killed by Minneapolis police in 2020 — passed the Democratic-controlled House in March 2021. But negotiations broke down in the Senate soon after. Facing fizzled-out police reform efforts, President Biden last year signed an executive order with some initiatives similar to those in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. However, Biden’s order applies only to federal law enforcement agencies, and executive orders can be reversed by future presidents.