Biden signs police reform executive order on George Floyd anniversary

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Aiming to reform policing practices, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order Wednesday, which coincided with the second anniversary of George Floyd's death.

The order establishes a national registry of officers who were fired for misconduct and entices state and local police to tighten restrictions on chokeholds and so-called no-knock warrants. It also restricts the military equipment transfer to law enforcement agencies and orders all federal agents to wear activated body cameras.

Biden had been pushing to pass more comprehensive police reform legislation, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, but when the legislation failed to earn bipartisan support, the White House started last year to craft its own action. Biden called on Congress again to act before signing the order.

“I know progress can be slow and frustrating, and there’s a concern that the reckoning on race-inspired two years ago is beginning to fade,” the US president said. “Today, we’re acting. We’re showing that speaking out matters, being engaged matters, and that the work of our time, healing the soul of this nation, is ongoing and unfinished and requires all of us never to give up. Always to keep the faith.”

Police reform has been a main issue with the Democratic Party’s progressive base, especially among Black voters, but yesterday's event at the White House was overshadowed by the shooting that occurred at the Texas elementary school one day before.

In this regard, Biden called on Congress once again to pass gun reform legislation, "I’m sick and tired. I’m just sick and tired of what’s going on and continues to go on."

He began his statement by addressing the massacre that killed 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde. “We’re here today for the same purpose – to come together and say, ‘Enough,’ ” he said.

George Floyd's second anniversary

George Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020, by a white Minneapolis police officer who pinned his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes. Floyd was Black and was pleading that he couldn’t breathe.

Three ex-policemen who were present at the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis denied the unarmed man his civil rights, according to findings by a jury. 

Read more: Ex-police officers found guilty in murder of George Floyd

 

The policemen were charged with expressing "deliberate indifference to his [Floyd's] serious medical needs" during the arrest that happened in May 2020, when Derek Chauvin kept kneeling on Floyd's neck while the latter couldn't breathe and soon died as a result.

His death triggered a national movement in the face of racial injustice, but Democrats have fallen short in translating the outcry into legislative action.

Racism is deeply rooted in law enforcement in the United States; with police force brutality heavily affecting the Black community in the US.