Democratic Sen. Corey Booker on Sunday expressed hope that the police reform bill could pass Congress, but acknowledged it would not be easy given the disinterested Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
“I soberly assess the chances of passing a major comprehensive bill. But can we do anything? I believe we can,” Booker told NBC. “Now I put all my effort into it.”
Booker led the last major congressional talks on police reform, which took place in 2021, after a white Minneapolis police officer was convicted of murdering African American George Floyd in an incident that left sparked many protests.
In particular, the bill was supposed to significantly lower the threshold of legal immunity for police officers, which, if passed, would make it easier for the Justice Department to bring them to criminal liability. In the Senate, work on a similar bill stalled late last year as Republicans refused to agree to lower the threshold for police immunity, making it extremely difficult to engage. civil suits against the police.
Booker said in an interview Sunday that he met with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham about immunity and thought it was a positive step. Graham said that while he thinks immunity should protect police officers, police departments should not have such protection.
Discussions about police reform in the United States received a new impetus after the killing of Tyree Nichols by Memphis police officers in January.
Booker, however, reiterated that any bill passed in the Democratic-controlled Senate would have to pass through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
