Police reform bill

Texas's state Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would force municipalities to put any proposed funding cuts to local police departments on the ballot before they are implemented. Senate Bill 23 passed Tuesday by a vote of 28-2, with most Democrats joining Republicans to support it. If passed by the House, the bill would require that local governments "hold an election in accordance with this chapter if the municipality or county proposes to adopt a budget" that cuts police funding, allocates funding from one agency to another or reduces the number of police on a force. The bill is supported by police unions in the state, one of which told The Texas Tribune that it would have stopped Austin lawmakers, who moved to reduce funding to the city's police force “when the masses made a run on City Hall and made a call for the defunding of the police" following the police killing of George Floyd last summer. ADVERTISEMENT Left-leaning activists across the country have … [Read more...] about Texas Senate passes bill requiring cities to get voter approval before cutting police budgets

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Chicago on Friday evening demanding police department reform a day after the city released body camera footage from the fatal police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo . Video and photos posted on social media showed demonstrators lining the streets of the Logan Square neighborhood, holding signs that read “Justice for Adam” and “No more killer cops.” Hundreds have gathered in Chicago to protest the police killing of 13-year-old Adam Toledo pic.twitter.com/53CVZK8MzG — philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) April 16, 2021 ADVERTISEMENT Photo that better represents just how man people are here already. #Chicago #AdamToledo pic.twitter.com/9egbwaqask — Tyler LaRiviere (@TylerLaRiviere) April 16, 2021 Local ABC affiliate WLS reported that while some protesters had planned to march to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Lori Lightfoot Bodycam footage of officer fatally shooting 13-year-old released … [Read more...] about Protesters demand police reform after shooting of 13-year-old in Chicago

close Video Fox News Flash top headlines for April 17 Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. CNN’s Chris Cuomo Friday during "Cuomo Primetime" said that police and gun reform won’t happen until  "White people’s kids start getting killed." "Shootings, gun laws, access to weapons. Oh, I know when they’ll change," said the anchor . "[When] your kids start getting killed. White people’s kids start getting killed." Cuomo put on a hypothetical accent and pretended to be a White parent. "What’s going on with these police? Maybe we shouldn’t even have police," he said. "That kind of madness. That kind of mania. That will be you. That will be the majority. Because it’s your people," Cuomo said, apparently directed at the White members of his audience. "How many more?" Cuomo asked. "Die of the pandemic, dying from police shootings. George Floyd, Daunte Wright. I wonder if you'll remember their names six … [Read more...] about Chris Cuomo says there won’t be police reform until ‘White people’s kids start getting killed’

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks said that “there is racial bias in policing” but that progress can be made with reforms like eliminating chokeholds, cutting down on pretextual stops, better data collection, and removing barriers to investigating police. Brooks said, “Well, the first thing that needs to change is, we do need to accept that there is racial bias in policing.” He added, “The good news is, if you do take some reforms, you can make some progress. There’s been a sharp drop in the number of shootings of unarmed people. Armed people, it’s still pretty stable, but unarmed people, we’ve made some progress. So, there are things that can be done. And those are things like removing chokeholds. Those are things like — a little idea that I kind of like is, you have to have written permission to search a car, these things called pretextual stops, where they stop a car on the pretext of one thing, when they’re really looking for something else. … [Read more...] about Brooks: Police Should Need ‘Written Permission’ for Car Searches to Cut Down on Pretextual Stops

Julian Zelizer, a CNN political analyst, is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University and author of the book, " Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party." Follow him on Twitter @julianzelizer . The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN. (CNN) Over the past few weeks, the nation has seen another series of horrific videos documenting both violent treatment and deaths of Black and brown people at the hands of police. Even as the world was reliving the killing of George Floyd — as videos of his death under the knee of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin were shown repeatedly at Chauvin's televised trial — images were surfacing of Daunte Wright being shot by an officer during a traffic stop in nearby Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. Julian Zelizer And days later, Chicago police released body camera footage of a 13-year-old boy named … [Read more...] about The fierce urgency of action on racialized police violence