WASHINGTON — Democrats in Congress on Monday unveiled sweeping legislation aimed at combating excessive use of force and racial discrimination by the police and making it easier to identify, track and prosecute misconduct, the most expansive federal intervention into law enforcement that lawmakers have proposed in recent memory. It comes as tens of thousands of Americans have taken to the streets to call for a nationwide reckoning with systemic racial discrimination, particularly by law enforcement. The legislation would curtail protections that shield police officers accused of misconduct from being prosecuted and impose a new set of restrictions on law enforcement officers to prevent them from using deadly force except as a last resort. It includes many measures that civil rights activists have been pushing for decades, which have met with strong opposition from police unions and law enforcement groups. And elements of the measure have already drawn resistance from President Trump, who has called for a military crackdown on the protests and offered unqualified praise of law enforcement, including encouraging rough police tactics in the past.

Source: New York Times June 08, 2020 19:28 UTC