Failure of criminal justice reform talks a ‘frustrating experience,’ says NJ Sen. Cory Booker
The breakdown of bipartisan negotiations on criminal justice reform is a “frustrating experience,” with so many Americans hoping for changes, New Jersey’s Sen. Cory Booker said on Sunday.
Months of talks aimed at cobbling together reform legislation collapsed last week with Democrats unable to win Republican agreement on strengthening police accountability, collecting national data on cops’ use of force and other measures.
“It was a frustrating experience in the sense that we had the biggest civil rights demonstrations in this country’s history asking for change,” the Democrat said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“We wanted to have more transparency, higher professional standards and real accountability. If you break the law, you shouldn’t be shielded from that,” Booker added.
Last year’s police killings of unarmed Black people including George Floyd prompted calls for reform from both ends of the political spectrum.
In spite of numerous lobbying visits to Washington by family members of victims of police violence, Democrats and Republicans failed to make progress.
Democratic proposals including a measure to make cops personally liable for abuse emerged as insurmountable obstacles during the talks.
When the efforts fell apart last Wednesday, President Biden issued a statement calling Floyd’s killing “a stain on the soul of America.”
Floyd died May 25, 2020 when a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on the Black man’s neck for several minutes. The officer has since been convicted of murder and sentenced to prison.
A bystander’s video of the deadly incident spread around the world, prompting protests and demands for police departments to be overhauled and reformed.
“We will be remembered for how we responded to the call,” Biden said.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the top Republican negotiator, blamed Democrats for the failure. He said Dems wanted to cut police funding — a non-starter for the GOP.
“We said simply this: ‘I’m not going to participate in reducing funding for the police after we saw major city after major city defund the police,’” he told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“When you tell local law enforcement agencies that you are ineligible for money, that’s defunding the police,” Scott said.
With News Wire Services
