Members of Congress are seeking to pass legislation that threatens the autonomy of local police and other law enforcement agencies. The bill passed the House of Representatives on March 3, 2021, by a largely party-line vote and is currently pending in the Senate. H.R. 1280, titled the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021,” is sponsored by Representative Karen Bass (D-Calif.) and has 199 co-sponsors.
H.R. 1280 aims to defund police departments and allocate those funds to leftist “community organizations,” further perpetuating the Left’s war on police. If the bill becomes law, one of its provisions would abolish “qualified immunity” for all local, state, and federal law enforcement officers. Eliminating qualified immunity will keep law enforcement officers from making crucial, split-second, life or death decisions to stop a lethal threat. Innocent victims and officers will be hurt or killed as a result.
The bill would further expand the federal government’s role and control over local municipal and state law enforcement agencies by establishing independent prosecutors in the Justice Department to investigate local police officers. Such “independent” investigations are akin to the so-called “civilian police review boards,” promoted by communists during the 1960s. Furthermore, establishing a “national standard” to govern how local police departments operate is a significant step toward nationalizing police.
Social justice movements to defund the police have grown since George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis. More than twenty major cities have reduced their police budgets in some form, though the scale and circumstances vary. Homicides and violent crime have skyrocketed in many of these cities following these budget cuts.
There are many dangerous challenges that confront law enforcement officers in our streets today. The public forgets police officers are human beings too. Nationally, there were forty-five police officers from different racial backgrounds last year who were shot and killed in the line of duty. The Book of Proverbs tells us, “Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, ‘How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?”
Before castigating the police for the sake of social justice, it is wise to look at the data. Research conducted by a notable African-American economist at Harvard University reveals a lack of racial bias in police shootings. According to the statistics used in Professor Roland Fryer’s study, officers are more likely to fire their weapons without having first been attacked when the suspect is white. Fryer’s research analyzed more than a thousand shootings in ten major police departments.
Police use deadly force under 1,000 times out of 30 million violent felony criminal contacts per year, which is a 0.0004 percent chance of being shot by the police. In America, “there is a greater chance of being struck by lightning than to be shot by police. In 2019, the NYPD with 35,000 officers only fired their weapons in the line of duty thirty-four times.
According to Reverend El Akuchie, “Qualified immunity allows police officers to first think about others in dangerous situations. Removing it will force police officers to first consider themselves before intervening which could harm the very people they are employed to serve. If nameless and faceless vaccine corporations like Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Moderna have qualified immunity, how much more should our often underpaid peace officers, who put their lives at risk and whose only wish at the end of the day is to come home safely.”
You can show support for your local police departments by telling your senators to oppose H.R. 1280 before it comes to a vote in the Senate.