LAW ENFORCEMENT
By Stacy M. Allen
“Daddy Changed the World”:
How the Death of George Floyd May Impact the Law
O
n May 25, 2020, a video capturing the last moments of the life of George Floyd uttering the words “I can’t breathe” as the knee of an officer remained on his neck went viral. The next day protestors began marching in the streets of Minneapolis demanding justice for George Floyd. That spark spread like wildfire leading to protests in all 50 states and internationally, from Europe, to Asia and Afr ica.
The sustained protests awakened an examination of a racist and broken criminal justice system. The cries for justice on the streets reached the halls of Congress, leading to police reform legislation in the U.S. House and Senate as well as in the Texas Legislature. A. The House Bill On June 8, 2020, House Democrats introduced H.R. 7120, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act (the “House Bill”), which they hailed as the “the first-ever bold, comprehensive approach to hold police accountable, end racial profiling and change the culture of law enforcement.”1 The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act bans the use of deadly force by federal law enforcement, including chokeholds and carotid holds, “except as a last resort to prevent imminent and serious bodily injury.” The House Bill harnesses Congress’s power of the purse by conditioning funding to state and local governments through the Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance (Byrne) and Community Oriented Policing Services (COPs) grant programs on their adoption of a law prohibiting the use of chokeholds and carotid holds, the type of hold that took the life of George Floyd. Restricting funding through Byrne and COPs is significant because the two federal programs have helped expand police funding by over 200 percent since 1980.2 The House Bill also targets the controversial use of no-knock warrants, which came under scrutiny after the death of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman employed as a frontline medic who was at home sleeping on March 13, 2020, when police, utilizing a no-knock warrant, entered her home and riddled it with bullets, killing Taylor. The House Bill forbids “no-knock warrants” in federal drug cases and conditions funding to state and local law enforcement agencies on adopting a policy to that effect. The proposed law also addresses “qualified immunity,” a legal protection that shields government officials from li-
