Chokeholds, no-knock warrants discouraged but not banned under Sen. Tim Scott’s plan
Sen. Tim Scott, the Senate’s only Black Republican, said he was stopped by police this year “for failing to use my turn signal earlier in my lane change,” and in the past has been stopped as many as seven times in a year while driving.
So when he led Senate Republicans Wednesday in introducing legislation that critics say may not go far enough in implementing reforms to law enforcement agencies, he was adamant that he is listening to the concerns of protesters and communities of color across the country.
“To the families that I spoke with yesterday who lost loved ones, we hear you,” Scott said at a press conference. “I think this package speaks very clearly to the young person who’s concerned when he’s stopped by law enforcement officers.”
He is leading the effort by Senate Republicans to push legislation that seeks to curtail, but does not ban, chokeholds and no-knock warrants.
The bill has President Donald Trump’s backing. White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told reporters, “The president is fully in support of the Scott bill.”
Pressed on the banning of chokeholds, which neither a White House executive order on criminal justice reform nor the GOP policing bill does, she said that the White House has chosen to achieve that outcome through the use of incentives for law enforcement to stop the practice.
A different criminal justice reform plan in the Democratic-run House is expected to win passage there as soon as next week. The Senate is expected to begin consideration of the Scott bill next week and aims to finish its work by the end of the month.
If the Senate and House pass separate bills, the two chambers will then try to reconcile differences and approve a single measure that would be sent to Trump to sign into law.
A national call for reforms or even the dismantling of law enforcement agencies came after the recent deaths of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., who was shot to death in her home by police executing a no-knock warrant, and George Floyd in Minneapolis, who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes.
The Senate bill discourages the use of chokeholds and no-knock warrants by withholding federal funding to departments that continue to use them or fail to write reports related to the two practices, but does not ban either.
“If you think about the inability to have any grants if your department has chokeholds that, frankly, is by default a ban on chokeholds,” Scott said.
The bill also includes training for law enforcement officers on alternatives to use of force, behavioral health crises, de-escalation strategies and when to intervene if another officer is engaged in excessive use of force. It would also create a database of police disciplinary records that other law enforcement agencies can use when hiring.
The legislation would make lynching a federal hate crime, a provision the White House supports.
The bill does not address ending qualified immunity for law enforcement officers, which the White House opposes. The House bill would end the practice. McEnany said the White House also opposed the public release of use of force complaints.
The House bill, authored by Democrats, bans the use of chokeholds by law enforcement officers, reduces protections that prevent police officers accused of wrongdoing from being prosecuted and would require law enforcement agencies to report data on use of force to a national database.
“The Democrat bill would undermine the due process rights of every officer by making pending and unsubstantial allegations available to the public, causing reputational damage based on allegations alone,” McEnany said.
Trump’s executive order keeps those complaints private. They are submitted to a database that law enforcement can access, in order to prevent offending officers from being hired by another department.
“What the Democrat bill would do, is someone submits an allegation, well we’re going to violate the due process rights of this officer, and put it into a system. We have to balance everything in this situation,” she said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dismissed the Senate bill Wednesday as “inadequate.” The California Democrat said, “The Senate’s so-called Justice Act is not action.”
Republicans have been unenthusiastic about the House bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell referred to the legislation as “typical Democratic overreach,” adding that Senate Republicans have no interest in the bill.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., echoed McConnell at Wednesday’s press conference.
“If you want to admit that the country needs to move forward together, let’s do it,” Graham said, challenging his Democratic colleagues.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor after the press conference that there is “a glaring contrast between a strong, comprehensive Democratic bill in the House and a much narrower and much less effective Republican bill in the Senate.”
He said the Republican bill “does not rise to the moment.”
Updates with White House comments.
This story was originally published June 17, 2020 at 11:54 AM.
