House Democrats have put together their own bill in response to call for police reforms across the country…
They have had to walk a tightrope in doing so…
While some protestors in the street want to do away with cops on the whole?
That is simply NOT gonna happen…
And some of their ‘demands’ would actually make things worst for American’s dealing with those who they rely on to keep the piece…
House leader Pelosi HAS made sure to consult with minorities and others along with the police unions and other law enforcement stake holders to put together her bill, which has no chance of getting thru the Senate in it’s original form…
Republicans are rushing to put something together also, as is the Trump White House it is reported…
Labor leaders are coming under pressure from within their own ranks to sever ties with law enforcement groups amid the nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustices.
The effort to oust police unions took shape this week when a major writer’s union passed a resolution calling on the AFL-CIO to expel the International Union of Police Associations.
The request by the Writers Guild of America, East, was rebuffed, with the AFL-CIO saying “police officers, and everyone who works for a living, have the right to collective bargaining,” and that it was preferable to engage police unions rather than isolate them.
But it’s unlikely to be the last attempt to separate police unions from the broader labor movement.
“There’s a debate that’s going on within labor and we’re trying to support the folks within labor that understand that police unions are not trying to protect the humanity and dignity of all people,” said Scott Roberts, senior director of criminal justice campaigns for Color Of Change.
The civil rights group, which worked with the Writers Guild on its resolution, said it was in talks with at least five other AFL-CIO affiliated groups to press for the removal of police unions.
For decades, labor has largely been a bastion of support for Democrats. So has the African American community. But that dynamic is now being tested.
At a Thursday hearing on police reform, sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus, witnesses repeatedly pointed to the role of police unions as an obstacle to passing significant reforms.
“Police unions are powerful forces shaping government, lobbying for more and more resources and less and less oversight and accountability. This must end, and we need you to be active participants in dismantling what does not serve us,” Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza said at the hearing.
Activists point to strong union contracts that have shielded rogue cops from punishment, prevented abusive officers from losing their jobs after violent incidents and helped build what critics call a “culture of impunity” among police.
“Our progress, our work, has not managed to end the entrenched warrior culture of immunity that has a Praetorian Guard in the unions, the police unions,” said Connie Rice, who co-founded the Advancement Project, a racial justice advocacy group.
Rice argued that police unions were partly responsible for putting qualified immunity “on steroids.”
The legal doctrine can protect officers from civil lawsuits.
“Qualified immunity says that public servants ought to be able to do their jobs without being able to get pummeled with lawsuits that are frivolous,” Rice said. “What has happened is both the police union infrastructure through the police bill of rights and the courts have made it an ironclad shield that allows murder to be committed almost with impunity.”
The tension between supporting traditional labor rights and calls to weaken police unions has put congressional Democrats in a tough spot.
So far, lawmakers have declined to press the issue legislatively….