Congressman Al Green Attends Congressional Black Caucus Press Conference, Cosponsors Bicameral Justice in Policing Act

(Washington, D.C.) – On Monday, June 8, 2020, Congressman Al Green released the following statement:    

“I proudly stand in solidarity as an original cosponsor of the Justice in Policing Act of 2020 with several of my congressional colleagues and the Congressional Black Caucus in honor of those whose lives were negatively impacted by or taken at the hands of police brutality,” stated Congressman Al Green following the press conference to announce this landmark legislation. “Triggered by the tragic deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, I join dozens of lawmakers who are fed up with not only the recurrence of these unjustifiable acts of policing but also the lack of accountability and justice that have followed for too long. We are demanding police officers be held accountable in a court of law because no one should be above the law, improved transparency as well as better data collection and reporting on acts of police misconduct, and improved police training and practices.”

“We want an end to the use of chokeholds as was used against Mr. George Floyd. We want an end to no-knock warrants as was used in the events that led to Ms. Breonna Taylor’s tragic death. We want mandatory use of body cameras when officers engage with the public to prevent a lack of evidence in instances of questionable police actions. We want the establishment of a federal crime specific to lynching to dissuade the pursuit and killing of any individual as was the inhumane case for Mr. Ahmaud Arbery.”

Green – a Houston area Democrat who recently called for a war on racism and invidious discrimination – added, “We cannot wait for another of these atrocities to occur before we begin uprooting the systemically racist conditions in which societal problems such as police brutality thrive. The Justice in Policing Act includes measures that are consistent with some of the things that the Department of Reconciliation I have proposed would address on an ongoing basis. This Cabinet-level department would address and help to end racism and invidious discrimination in our country. America has yet to reconcile its original sin and every form of invidious discrimination that stems from it. Until we reconcile, we will forever address instances of police brutality and hateful vigilante justice in isolation instead of seeing them as fruit borne from the same poisonous tree.”