Weeks before President Joe Biden made his first address to Congress in 2021, a graphic video was released of a Black man being killed at the hands of police.
\nThe country watched the now hauntingly familiar scene play out across its screens. Family members tearfully pleaded for change. Lawmakers in Washington pledged to pass meaningful reform.
\nBiden pumped momentum into talks during the nationally televised address telling Congress to \u201cget it done\u201d by the next month, the anniversary of a Minneapolis police officer\u2019s killing of another Black man, George Floyd.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve all seen the knee of injustice on the neck of Black Americans,\u201d the Democratic president said. \u201cNow is our opportunity to make some real progress.\u201d
\nAnd then, as before, negotiations fell apart along partisan lines, pushing the issue of police brutality to the back of the line of legislative priorities, underscoring again how Congress often fails to deliver solutions even when there is broad agreement on the problem.
\nNearly two years later, as Biden begins his third year in office, there is another deadly sequel. A video released last week showed the violent Jan. 7 encounter between Tyre Nichols and the Memphis, Tennessee, police officers who savagely beat the 29-year-old Black FedEx worker for three minutes while screaming profanities at him.
\nNichols was hospitalized and died days later. Five police officers, who also are Black, have been fired and charged with second-degree murder and other offenses in his beating and death. On Monday, two more Memphis police officers were disciplined and three emergency medical technicians were fired in connection with the case.
\nNichols\u2019 parents are set to attend Biden\u2019s State of the Union address next week, hoping to increase pressure on the president and Washington.
\nAnd the same lawmakers who were close to a deal the last time are now looking to see if any remnants of a compromise have the chance of passing a newly divided Congress.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t speak on this floor very often,\u201d Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said on the Senate floor Monday. \u201cBut this is my 10th speech on policing in America in eight years.\u201d
\nScott went on to call out Democrats for asking him to \u201ccome back to the table\u201d following the release of the Nichols video over the weekend despite blocking his legislation from passing two years ago.
\n\u201cI never left the table,\u201d the only Black Republican senator said in an emotional speech.
\nScott emerged as one of the lead negotiators in the Senate after the brutal police killing of Floyd in 2020. He and Democratic Sen. Cory Booker \u2014 two of the three Black men serving in the chamber \u2014 embarked on a nine-month, painstaking negotiation.
\nThe talks focused on writing compromise legislation curbing law enforcement agencies\u2019 use of force and making them more accountable for abuses. But negotiations stalled over Democrats\u2019 demands to make individual police officers accused of abuses liable for civil penalties.
\nIt\u2019s currently difficult to pursue such actions, called \u201cqualified immunity,\u201d in all but the most egregious cases. Republicans and law enforcement groups like the Fraternal Order of Police have resisted easing those limitations.
\nStill, the group walked away in agreement on banning chokeholds, curbing the transfer of military equipment to police and increasing funds for mental health programs, which address problems that often lead to encounters with law enforcement officers.
\nThose agreements are now the foundation for any negotiations in the wake of Nichols\u2019 death. \u201cIt\u2019s such a tragedy that they got so damn close,\u201d Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said of the past negotiations. \u201cThe good news is there are plenty of pieces that were there that they can pick back up.\u201d
\nThe conversations between Scott and Booker began over the weekend and are expected to continue through this week. In the House, Rep. Steve Horsford, D-Nev., the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, reached out to set up a meeting with Scott. The group of Black lawmakers is expected to go to the White House on Thursday to meet with Biden.
\n\u201cDespite the dysfunction in Washington, D.C., this is something that all of us can agree that regardless of party, of the region of the country, bad policing shouldn\u2019t exist anywhere in America,\u201d Horsford said.
\nOn Monday, several Democrats indicated that they are open to negotiations on even the most hard-fought police reform proposals, even if they fall short of the proposal the party passed in the House after Floyd\u2019s death.
\nBut whether Republicans will agree remains unclear. Republicans now control the House and are moving forward with legislation that would call out any effort to \u201cdefund the police.\u201d And Democrats have a very slim majority in the 100-seat Senate.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know if there are 60 votes for anything in the Senate,\u201d Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Monday. \u201cI have been pretty open-minded about trying to do reasonable police reform. It made sense to me then, and it does now, but we\u2019ll see where the space is.\u201d
\nGOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who helped pass a modest police reform bill last year, also was dismissive of the idea an accord could be reached, saying he thinks any agreement \u201cis probably less likely to happen now with divided government.\u201d
\nVice President Kamala Harris attended Nichols\u2019 funeral in Memphis on Wednesday and demanded that Congress pass the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, legislation she co-authored during her time in the Senate.
\n\u201cJoe Biden will sign it,\u201d Harris said. \u201cAnd we should not delay, and we will not be denied. It is non-negotiable.\u201d
\nNichols\u2019 loved ones echoed that sentiment.
\n\u201cWe need to take some action because there should be no other child that should suffer the way my son \u2014 and all the other parents here have lost their children \u2014 we need to get that bill passed,\u201d RowVaughn Wells said Wednesday as they buried her son. \u201cBecause if we don\u2019t, that blood \u2014 the next child that dies \u2014 that blood is going to be on their hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apnews<\/p>\n
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