On Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden met with members of the Congressional Black Caucus to address police reform in the wake of Tyre Nichols’ death.
A day after Harris attended the burial for Nichols, who passed away last month after Memphis police officers beat and stun-gunned him as he cried out for his mother, Biden. Harris met with the senators in the Oval Office of the White House.
According to sources from Bloomberg on Thursday, lawmakers anticipated urging Biden to take further executive action and other steps toward implementing police reforms.
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However, when House Republicans seized control of the lower chamber last month, some senators told NBC News that they doubt that lawmakers can come to a compromise that the divided Congress would accept.
Since the 2020 death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, which ignited nationwide demonstrations, lawmakers have tried to enact federal police reforms.
Dick Durbin, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced on Monday that he and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., had started talking about ending police officers’ qualified immunity. Police personnel is shielded from civil lawsuits by qualified immunity, a thorny issue in earlier failed proposals.
Biden, Harris meet with Congressional Black Caucus members in the Oval Office.
On the killing of Tyre Nichols, Biden says “my hope is this dark memory spurs some action that we’ve all been fighting for.” pic.twitter.com/V2SCEDvZMB
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) February 2, 2023
The White House said in a statement following the meeting that the conversation centered on significant reforms that had already been implemented, such as outlawing chokeholds, limiting the use of no-knock warrants, and mandating the use of body cameras for federal police.
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