San Francisco to New York. Portland to Baltimore. From Boston to Los Angeles, and everywhere in between.
Protesters took to the streets again over the weekend to condemn police brutality following the release of video capturing the violent Memphis police beating that resulted in the death of Tyre Nichols, 29.
Nichols’ family attorney noted the outrage in a simple but pointed message to Washington on Sunday morning.
“It will be a shame if we don’t use [Nichols’] tragic death to finally pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act,” Ben Crump said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
President Joe Biden mentioned the failed legislation in his statement about Nichols on Friday, and many leaders are acknowledging a potential role for federal legislation, including the chairs of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.
The Congressional Black Caucus has asked Biden to meet with them this week in order to press for negotiations. “We are urging our colleagues in the House and Senate to begin negotiations immediately and join us in addressing the public health epidemic of police violence that disproportionately affects many of our communities,” CBC Chair Steven Horsford, a Nevada Democrat, said in a statement on Sunday.
During a press conference in Memphis on Sunday evening, Gloria Sweet-Love, president of the Tennessee State Conference NAACP, urged Congress to take action. “By failing to craft and pass bills to stop police brutality, you’re writing another Black man’s obituary. You have the blood of Black America on your hands. So get up and get to work.”
However, with Congress as divided as ever, it appears that public outrage is once again colliding with Washington partisanship.