Earlier this month, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, in one of her many responses to the protests and nationwide calls to end police brutality and racial injustice, along with Rep. Justin Amash, introduced the Ending Qualified Immunity Act.
If passed, the bill would end qualified immunity which currently protects government official, including police, from civil lawsuits unless there is a violation of a “clearly established statutory or constitutional right.” Many argue that opening police officers up for civil litigation could make them more accountable for acts of police brutality.
Getting this bill past the Republican Senate and President Trump may be difficult, but Pressley told Jim Braude on WGBH News' Greater Boston Tuesday that she sees a changing tide in public opinion and believes the Republicans could be swayed to help facilitated this change.
“We are in a new moment. There are so many things that we have been told time and time again are not plausible, are not pragmatic, would not happen, and we find ourselves in unprecedent times and that demands unprecedented legislating. I always have hope. This is a moment of reckoning. They are hearing from their constituents,” Pressley said.
Pressley called the recent events that have led to the ongoing protests, like the murder of George Floyd, “maddening déjà vu,” but she said she is increasingly “embolden and encouraged,” by the growing movement to end racial inequity in this country.
Pressley also said that Boston Mayor Mary Walsh’s declaration to reallocate 20 percent of the Boston Police Departments overtime budget to beneficial community programs is not enough.
“Given the depth of the hurt, it is a drop in the bucket. We can’t tinker around the edges of this,” Pressley said. “If you really believe that Black lives matter- it is in how we legislate, and it is in how we move on these budgets. It is about the investments that we make.”
“There will be unrest in the streets for as long as the is unrest in the lives of Black Americans,” Pressley continued.
