Urge Congress to support the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2024 (H.R. 8525).

Background

Across the nation, police officers do vital and heroic work to keep communities safe. Yet, institutionalized racial inequity has created targeted policing and the disproportionate use of force against people of color. Today, Black and Brown people are more likely to be stopped by police, and these stops are more likely to result in frisks, searches, and arrests than those involving white individuals. In particular, Black Americans are over 2 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter than white Americans. 

In 2023, police killed the highest number of people on record. Despite years of numerous high-profile cases and horrific videos showing police brutality, Congress has failed to act. Currently, there is no federal ban on the use of racial or religious profiling by law enforcement, no national standard for police use of force, no statutory law on police use of lethal force in nine states and Washington, D.C., and a lack of robust and accessible data on police-community encounters.

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2024 (H.R. 8525), is a first step in meaningful police reform legislation. This bill:

• Prohibits racial, religious, and discriminatory profiling by federal, state, and local law enforcement.
• Establishes a national use of force standard that requires law enforcement officers to employ de-escalation techniques and only use deadly force as a last resort.
• Deems maneuvers that restrict the flow of blood or oxygen to the brain by law enforcement to be federal civil rights violations.
• Requires state and local law enforcement agencies to report use of force data, disaggregated by race, sex, disability, religion, age.

Enacting these reforms will not only make our communities safer, but also begin the process of confronting racism in policing. During this time of mourning, Congress can take meaningful action to ensure that all people are protected equally under the law, and improve the protection of communities of color.

Join us in calling on Congress to address systemic racial injustice and reform police practices.

Jewish Values

Jewish tradition teaches tzedek, tzedek tirdof, "Justice, justice you shall pursue" (Deuteronomy 16:20). The sages explained that the word tzedek is repeated not only for emphasis but to teach us that in our pursuit of justice, our means must be as just as our ends.

We are also guided by the words of Leviticus (19:15), “You shall do no unrighteousness in judgement; you shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor favor the person of the mighty; but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.” Justice must never be predicated on the color of one’s skin.

For More Information:

For more information on this issue, contact Eisendrath Legislative Assistant CJ Wechsler Sánchez at cjwechsler@rac.org.

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