Black Dems want to codify police reforms

Black Democrats on Capitol Hill are intensifying their push for legislation to demilitarize local law enforcers in the wake of President Obama’s newly launched effort to do just that.

{mosads}The lawmakers are cheering the new White House reforms but want to codify them into law out of concern that future presidents could undo Obama’s executive actions.

“I’m going to continue fighting to see these and other ideas passed into law and made permanent,” Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) said Monday in a statement. “[W]e must remember that military equipment fundamentally changes the relationship between police and the communities they serve, and is the opposite of what should be happening on our main streets.”

Missouri Reps. Emanuel Cleaver (D) and Lacy Clay (D) also hailed the administration’s moves but said congressional action is still needed to rebuild trust between police and the communities they oversee.

“Our local police officers and law enforcement deserve respect, and our first responders deserve the best tools and training available to protect and serve our communities,” Cleaver said. “That doesn’t mean Main Street should be filled with tear gas, sound cannons, MRAPs [mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles], or other weapons of war.”

Announced Monday, the new administrative policies will prohibit the transfer of certain military equipment, including grenade launchers, armed aircraft and high-caliber guns and ammunition, from the Pentagon to local law enforcement agencies.

The issue spurred national debate last summer following the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo. The protests sparked by the incident led to an intense face-off with police, who responded with tear gas, armored vehicles and assault rifles. Scenes from the standoff cycled on cable news and the Internet, leading lawmakers from both parties to call for the Pentagon’s transfer program to be scaled back.

Obama responded in January by forming a task force to study the program and recommend reforms. Monday’s new policies coincided with the release of that study.

Johnson had teamed up with Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) in September to introduce legislation banning the transfer of many of the items on the administration’s new list.

Clay has pushed similar proposals, including a bill introduced this year with Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), ranking member of the Judiciary Committee’s subpanel on Civil Justice, to bolster police training and encourage third-party investigations into uses of deadly force by law enforcers.

“I witnessed first-hand, high-powered sniper rifles with night scopes being pointed at my constituents who were peacefully exercising their constitutional rights,” Clay, who represents Ferguson, said Monday. “That kind of police militarization is harmful, and it deepens the already wide gulf of mistrust that exists between communities of color and some local law enforcement agencies.”

The House Judiciary Committee will meet Tuesday to examine police strategies and protocol nationwide.