Democrats kneeled for over 8 minutes today before unveiling new anti-police legislation in their latest 2020 kabuki theater moves:
House and Senate Democrats kneel for an 8 minute and 46 second moment of silence for George Floyd. pic.twitter.com/so3S7eBtna
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) June 8, 2020
If you watch for long enough, you’ll see Nadler is the only one standing, obviously because his knees aren’t good enough to kneel.
Democrats also held a press conference where they outright refused to criticize the defund police movement:
This is one reason it’s kabuki theater. Because if they supported the defund police movement they would be heavily criticized by Republicans and many Americans. If they refused to support the defund movement they would be heavily criticized by the defund police movement itself, which would undermine their 2020 ‘campaigning’ effort today.
The other reason it’s kabuki theater is because the legislation isn’t serious:
House and Senate Democrats introduced a sweeping police reform bill that would create a national reporting database and a ban on police use of the chokehold maneuver.
“It is time for this,” Sen. Kamala Harris, a California Democrat, said Monday.
The House bill would call for states to ban police from using the chokehold or any maneuver that places pressure on a person’s neck and restricts breathing. It would ban the use of chokeholds by federal law enforcement and condition federal law enforcement funding for states on their banning the chokehold.
The measure would also require independent investigation and independent prosecution when police misuse deadly force and require a report to be filed with the state’s attorney general.
The measure would also change qualified immunity for police, making them accountable for deaths that occur by “knowingly or reckless disregard” for a person’s safety.
Banning chokeholds would put police lives in danger. As you well know, some suspects simply don’t want to submit to police authority and fight like hell to get free. The use of chokeholds is a way for police to bring a suspects into submission. If you take away chokeholds, then police will have less non-fatal tools in their toolbox to use when faced with a suspect like this, and it will put their lives in danger.
Reducing police immunity would also do serious damage to the ability of officers to do their job and protect the community. As AG Barr said this weekend, it would cause officers to ‘pull back’:
NEWS: AG Bill Barr tells @margbrennan “you don’t need to reduce immunity… to go after the bad cops” because it would result “in police pulling back.” https://t.co/AjYu0KVsDK pic.twitter.com/uJsSUjYQGW
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) June 7, 2020
The last thing we need is for police officers to fear doing their jobs because of increased liability.
The anti-cop bill is a complete non-starter. If Democrats really wanted a bill that would pass, they would have negotiated with Republicans and the White House before putting this out. This is simply a naked move by Democrats to try and win the votes of the defund police movement and not a real move toward any change.