US Democrat-led House passes police reform bill with no Republican support

WASHINGTON - The US Democrat-led House of Representatives on late Wednesday night approved a sweeping police reform bill in a 220-212 vote.

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act received no Republican votes. Two Democrats also voted against the bill.

Under the bill, racial profiling at every level of law enforcement would be prohibited; chokeholds, carotid holds and no-knock warrants would be banned at the federal level; qualified immunity for officers would be overhauled and a national police misconduct registry would be created so as to ban officers fired for such discretion from being hired by another police department.

The legislation would also mandate data collection on police encounters and redirect funding to community-based policing programs.

The House vote came nine months after George Floyd, an African American man, was killed by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes in late May, evoking weeks of nationwide protests for racial justice and policing reforms.

"Never again should an unarmed individual be murdered or brutalized by someone who is supposed to serve and protect them," said Democratic lawmaker Karen Bass in a statement, "Never again should the world be subject to witnessing what we saw happen to George Floyd in the streets in Minnesota."

Meanwhile, Republicans criticized the bill goes too far and would weaken the country's police forces.

The legislation now faces a tough road in the evenly split Senate, where Republican lawmakers are already bashing it as overly partisan. Senate Democrats will have to sway at least 10 Republican senators for the bill to succeed.