Pictured are the late George Floyd, and Ohio Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), whose ninth congressional district extends from Toledo to Cleveland
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473.
Washington, D.C. — Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), a Toledo Democrat whose ninth congressional district extends to Cleveland, announced Wednesday that she voted in support of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
House lawmakers on Wednesday passed the controversial measure, a reform bill that would ban choke-holds and alter qualified immunity for law enforcement, which would make it easier to pursue claims of police misconduct and excessive force.
The House vote was 220-212 vote, mostly along party lines.
The proposed legislation, which originally passed the House one month after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police Officer, takes dramatic steps to save lives and ensure accountability, and to curb excessive force and end racial profiling.
The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.
“The way our country approaches public safety must be re-imagined from the neighborhood up,” said Rep. Kaptur in a press release to Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com,, Ohio's Black digital news leaders. “That is why I voted in favor of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act."
The longest serving woman in the House of Representatives, Kaptur said that the House vote in favor of the measure "moves us forward in our fight to address racism in policing and hold offenders accountable to the public they swore to protect and serve – especially Black Americans."
Black Americans, she said, "are killed at a disproportionate rate during police interactions and their families and communities too often fail to receive the justice they deserve. "
Floyd died on May 25 of last year after since fired Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin, the arresting officer, held his knee on his neck until he killed him, and before a crowd of people as the Black man pleaded for his life and cried out that he could not breathe.
The unarmed 46-year-old Black man was pronounced dead an hour later at an area hospital.
The disturbing video of the incident, taken by a bystander, has shocked the conscience.
Chauvin and the other three involved officers who were on the scene but did nothing to help Floyd, nearly all of them White, were immediately fired.
Chauvin has since been charged with second degree intentional murder and second degree manslaughter and is out of jail on a $1 million dollars bond, the other three former officers, some also out on bond are faces felony charges of aiding and abetting and second degree murder.
All of the police officers at issue have pleaded not guilty.
Chauvin's trial begins Monday.
Protests in Minneapolis ensued behind the tragic shooting death of Floyd, and spread to over 2,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, and riots subsequently broke out in Minneapolis and in cities nationwide.
Black Lives Matter activists led Cleveland's protest last May 30 where protesters rioted and tore up downtown Cleveland.
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act comes as activists demand justice in the Floyd case and in so many others where Blacks have been erroneously killed by anxious cops, most of them White.
Policy makers and Civil Rights organizations like the NAACP are also calling for systemic changes in law enforcement and in the legal system in America.
Congresswoman Kaptur called the unnecessary deaths of Floyd and so many innocent Blacks by police tragic.
"George Floyd’s killing was a tragedy. Breonna Taylor’s killing was a tragedy. Tamir Rice’s killing was a tragedy,"
Kaptur said.
Twelve-year-old Tamir rice was gunned down by Cleveland police in November of 2014 at a park and recreation center on the city's west side while carrying a toy gun.
One of the two involved officers, Timothy Loehmann, who did the shooting, was fired, not for the Rice shooting, but for lying on his employment application with the city.
The city later reached a $6 million settlement with Rice's family
An emergency room technician at the time of her death, Taylor, 26, was gunned down by by Louisville Metro police last year on March 13 in her Louisville apartment after the three cops, all of them White, barged in via a no-knock narcotics warrant.
Her live-in boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a gun off when police entered the apartment unannounced, and Taylor, in turn, was shot and killed by police.
She was shot eight times.
No drugs were found on the premises.
The city later settled a wrongful death lawsuit with Taylor's family for $12 million.
Brett Hankison was the only officer charged in the Taylor case.
He was also fired from the police force.
A grand jury indicted him on Sept. 23 on three counts of wanton endangerment for allegedly firing errant bullets into Taylor's apartment that penetrated a wall and entered an occupied apartment next door to Taylor's residence.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
