George Floyd Act Mostly Fails In Texas Legislature, After Being 'Chopped Up' Into Smaller Bills
Efforts to change policing in Texas in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer last year have mostly failed.
The Legislature had been considering the George Floyd Act – an omnibus bill announced last summer, and introduced by Rep. Senfronia Thompson and Sen. Royce West at the beginning of the session. But Rice University political science professor Mark Jones tells Texas Standard that the bill was “chopped up” into smaller bills, many of which have failed to progress.
“Once it started going through piecemeal … there were just lots of barriers,” he said.
The strongest resistance came from police unions. Jones says their biggest concern was protecting so-called qualified immunity – something the bill would have removed. Qualified immunity protects officers from state civil rights lawsuits.
Read more: https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/george-floyd-act-mostly-fails-in-texas-legislature-after-being-chopped-up-into-smaller-bills/
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