From NBC: Congressional Democrats unveil sweeping police reform bill that would ban chokeholds, no-knock warrants in drug cases

Now that police reform seems to be on the policy agenda, it goes to the legislature for the policy formation stage. This allows you to take a look ahead to the governing institutions, which we will cover next week. In this case, Congress.

Notice that much of what is discussed here deals with due process issues, searches and seizures specifically.

- Click here for the article.  

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other top Democrats in the House and Senate on Monday unveiled far-reaching legislation to overhaul policing in the U.S. as protests over excessive force by law enforcement have gripped the nation.

The bill, called the “Justice in Policing Act,” would ban chokeholds, including the kind used by a police officer in the Minneapolis death of George Floyd last month, as well as no-knock warrants in drug cases, as was used in the incident leading to the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, in March, according to a a House Democratic aide and a bill summary obtained by NBC News.

The legislation, which has more than 200 Democratic co-sponsors in the House and Senate, would require local police departments to send data on the use of force to the federal government and create a grant program that would allow state attorneys general to create an independent process to investigate misconduct or excessive use of force, according to the five-page summary of the bill. Further, the bill would make it easier for people to recover damages when police departments violate their civil rights and, for the first time, would make lynching a federal hate crime.

"The martyrdom of George Floyd gave the American experience a moment of national anguish as we grieve for the black Americans killed by police brutality today," Pelosi said at a news conference on the bill. "This moment of national anguish is being transformed into a movement of national action as Americans from across the country peacefully protest to demand an end to injustice."

Select key terms: 
- House Speaker
- legislation
- excessive force
- law enforcement
- police officer
- no-knock warrant
- House Democratic Aide
- co-sponsor
- Senate
- local police departments
- federal government 
- grant program
- state attorney generals 
- damages
- civil rights
- lynching
- federal hate crime

- protest
- hearings
- mark up
- Democratic leaders
- Senate Majority Leader
- Senate Minority Leader
- criminal justice system
- police budgets
- reforms
- Congressional Black Caucus
- chairwoman
- press conference
- accountable
- transparency
- House Majority Whip
- D - S.C.
- law and order
- racial bias
- bill
- House Judiciary Committee
- vice presidential pick
- Democratic  nominee
- federal prosecutor
- independent investigations
- district attorneys
- use of force