Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Lawmakers In Both Parties Recognizing Need For Police Reform, But What That Looks Like Is Unclear
The Washington Post: Lawmakers Grapple With Policing And Race As Focus Shifts From The Streets To The Capitol
The national response to the police killing of George Floyd began transitioning from America’s streets to the halls of Congress on Wednesday, as lawmakers held their first hearing on a Democratic policing reform proposal and Republicans promised soon to release legislation of their own. It marked the first time in years that leaders from both parties expressed determination to offer legislative remedies for racial injustice in policing, but their ability to find common ground remained far from a sure bet. (Olorunnipa and Bailey, 6/10)
Politico: Democrats Stiff-Arm GOP's 'Cosmetic' Police Reforms
Senate Democrats are voicing deep skepticism toward the GOP’s newfound embrace of police reform. And they may soon have to decide whether they’ll accept incremental measures or nothing at all. Though careful not to pre-emptively dismiss South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott’s work designing a police reform package, Democrats said in interviews Wednesday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is unlikely to endorse the type of far-reaching legislation needed to respond to police killings of black people and nationwide unrest. (Everett, 6/11)
Politico: ‘I'm Tired': George Floyd's Brother Pleads For Police Reforms
The brother of George Floyd, an unarmed black man killed last month by a Minneapolis police officer, pleaded with lawmakers Wednesday to implement sweeping restrictions on the use of force by police. Philonise Floyd described the anguish his family felt after videos surfaced of an officer, Derek Chauvin, putting his knee on his brother's neck for nearly nine minutes as his brother cried for air until he drew his last breath. That anguish quickly consumed a nation already paralyzed by coronavirus lockdowns and economic turmoil. (Cheney, 6/10)
Reuters: George Floyd's Brother Decries 'A Modern-Day Lynching' In Testimony To Congress
The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee held the first congressional hearing to examine racial injustice and police brutality following George Floyd’s May 25 death after a Minneapolis policeman knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. His death prompted a wave of protests in U.S. cities and abroad. “They lynched my brother. That was a modern-day lynching in broad daylight,” Philonise Floyd, 42, of Missouri City, Texas, near Houston, told the committee, his voice breaking with emotion. (Morgan and Cowan, 6/10)
NPR: Philonise Floyd Tells House Judiciary Justice Has To Be Served
Democrats have promised to hold hearings to shine light on the lost trust between communities of color and the police as part of a broader plan to overhaul law enforcement policies. Wednesday's hearing is the beginning of that effort in the House. Throughout the hearing, lawmakers on the panel staked out their positions on the state of policing — diverging on issues of police funding and what types of reforms are needed. Members of both parties condemned the killing of Floyd. (Naylor and Snell, 6/10)
The Washington Post: Beleaguered And Besieged, Police Try To Come To Grips With A Nation's Anger
The crowds have thinned and the smoke has cleared, with more than a week of nationwide protests leaving in their wake a nation increasingly resolved to change a broken law enforcement system. But they also have left police officers badly shaken, and in some cases physically bruised. Nationwide, police leaders say the rank and file are struggling to come to grips with the level of animus they encountered on the streets, as epithets, bricks and bottles all came hurtling their way. (Witte and Miroff, 6/10)
The Wall Street Journal: More Cities Ban Chokeholds, Similar Restraints In Wake Of George Floyd Protests
A growing number of cities and states are moving to ban the use of neck holds by police following protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. That city, along with Houston, Raleigh, N.C., San Diego, Denver and others have all taken or announced actions against chokeholds or other kinds of neck restraints that can incapacitate someone by cutting off airflow or blood flow. A sweeping Democratic-backed police-reform bill in the U.S. House includes a chokehold ban. (Kamp and Calvert, 6/10)
Los Angeles Times: Disband The Police? Camden Already Did That
When Gabe Rodriguez started as a rookie cop in this impoverished New Jersey city, his training officer gave him a tip. If a comrade radios for backup, just park your patrol car in a vacant lot and let someone else handle it. The police had given up trying to control Camden’s rampant violent crime, so seven years ago the state gave up on the city’s police. Officials took the unprecedented step of disbanding the department and starting over. The old logo came off police headquarters and a new one went up in its place. (Megerian, 6/10)
Politico: Minneapolis Police Chief Ends Negotiations With Police Union In A Bid For Reform
Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo announced on Wednesday that he would withdraw from contract negotiations with the force’s police union in an effort to kick-start reform amid criticism over the police killing of George Floyd. The move comes amid heightened awareness of the role police unions sometimes play in stifling reform efforts that aim to combat police brutality. (Cohen, 6/10)
The Washington Post: Remember Neli Latson, The Black Teen With Autism Who Seemed ‘Suspicious’ Sitting Outside A Library? Ten Years After His Arrest, He Still Isn’t Fully Free.
Neli Latson’s life changed in the same swift way the lives of so many other black people have: with a stranger’s call to the police. He was 18, sitting outside a library in his Virginia neighborhood, waiting for it to open, when that call was made. It came into a sheriff’s office at 8:37 a.m., and suddenly it didn’t matter that Latson was a special-education student with autism who often took long walks by himself and saw the library as a social outlet. (Vargas, 6/10)
Houston Chronicle: Houston OKs $5.1B Budget That Increases Police Spending Despite Calls To ‘Defund’ HPD
City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved Mayor Sylvester Turner’s $5.1 billion budget for the next fiscal year, slightly increasing funds for the Houston Police Department even as some cities are under pressure to cut law enforcement spending amid nationwide protest over police violence and the death of George Floyd. As the council took up budget, chants of “Black lives matter” and “No justice, no peace” could be heard from protesters outside City Hall. Dozens of police reform advocates had asked city council the day before to divert funding from HPD’s massive budget to other services, such as health care and affordable housing. (McGuinness and Scherer, 6/10)
Boston Globe: Providence City Council Hears Debate Over ‘Defunding The Police’
The public safety commissioner said he is saddened by stories of police misconduct, but he called policing a “noble profession" that includes people working hard under difficult conditions. The police union president warned that defunding the Providence police would result in higher crime rates, lower property values, and an exodus of businesses. The police chief said public safety officials have denounced what happened to Floyd and racism in general, but he defended the city police force. (Fitzpatrick, 6/11)
WBUR: Boston City Council Hears Calls To Move Money From Police
Boston residents are calling on the city to reallocate some of the more than $400 million spent on policing, in favor of other community services they say could respond better. The calls come amid nationwide protests, including in Boston, over racial injustice and police brutality. (Becker, 6/10)
San Francisco Chronicle: Marchers Gather Outside Oakland Mayor’s Home, Call For Defunding Police
Public dissatisfaction with the role that police play in communities — a concern brought into sharp focus by the killing of Minneapolis resident George Floyd on Memorial Day by a police officer there — played out Wednesday in cities across the Bay Area. This included a march at dusk toward the home of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf that drew hundred of mostly young protesters. But there also were events as disparate as a “virtual town meeting” in Redwood City on the topic of community policing and a pledge by nine mayors in Sonoma County to review their cities’ policies with regards to how public safety. (Kawahara and King, 6/10)
Dallas Morning News: George Floyd Wasn’t The First Victim Of Police Violence. Families Of North Texas Victims Want To Remind Us Of That
With each day of social reckoning since the world watched George Floyd’s 8 minutes and 46 seconds of agony on a Minneapolis street, I can’t shake this question: What about Atatiana Jefferson, Jordan Edwards, Botham Jean and other North Texans killed by police officers who were sworn to protect their lives? Those names became social media hashtags. Community members railed to local leaders about the circumstances of their deaths. Multiple news stories were devoted to each and opinion writers called out the injustice. (Grigsby, 6/10)
USA Today: For Black Mayors, Police Reforms are a Personal Mission to Make Sure 'Another Black Man Doesn't Die the Way George Floyd Did'
Mayor London Breed has a spacious office in an ornate building, but for all the pomp of her position, her roots remain in the city’s rough Western Addition neighborhood. Her sister died of a drug overdose, her brother is in jail and a cousin was killed by local police. For Breed, and other African American mayors, the current cry for a policing reform after the death of George Floyd — a 46-year-old black man in Minneapolis who was pinned to the ground by officers after being accused of passing a fake $20 bill at a store — is deeply personal.“ The black people in communities with black mayors know we understand these experiences like no one else can,” says Breed. “There’s no way we’re not going to hold law enforcement accountable like never before.” (della Cava and Stanley, 6/11)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Lawmaker Wants To Cut Athens Police Department In Half
An Athens-Clarke County commissioner is looking to shrink the local police department by 50% during the next decade and replace that personnel with mental health and social work first responders. Mariah Parker, who chose a copy of Malcolm X’s autobiography, rather than a Bible, for her 2018 inauguration, is proposing spending $50,000 on a study on how to make that transition, a proposal that is set for a June 16 vote. (Darnell. 6/10)
