California Democrats failed to pass any major police reforms before the end of the legislative session despite having supermajorities in both houses of the state legislature, adjourning early Tuesday morning with little to show.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported:
Legislators did not advance a spate of policing bills introduced following nationwide protests over racial inequality after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.
The most far-reaching proposal, SB731 by Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena (Los Angeles County), sought to strip badges from police officers who break the law and eliminate their legal immunity for killing a suspect.
…
A separate measure to open up investigative records about police misconduct, SB776 by Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, also died when the Senate adjourned without giving it final approval. The bill would have made public the records for complaints of excessive force, sexual assault, dishonesty on the job, discrimination or wrongful arrests and searches.
The Chronicle blamed “tensions” among legislators, as well as the difficulty of operating during the coronavirus. Laurel Rosenhall of CalMatters.org wrote that “even as the nation roiled after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd — and lawmakers introduced several bills in response — advocacy inside the statehouse largely withered. Activists filled the streets but couldn’t fill the Capitol.”
In Washington, Democrats killed efforts at bipartisan police reform when Senate Democrats filibustered a bill proposed by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), refusing to allow it to be debated on the floor.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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