A protester displays their sign referencing a Donald Trump tweet about Seattle that had misspelled the word "stopped," in Seattle, Washington, US, June 12, 2020.
US President Donald Trump is set to announce executive actions on police procedures and Senate Republicans are preparing a package of policing changes as the GOP rushes to respond to mass demonstrations over the deaths of George Floyd and other black Americans.
The executive order is expected to bring forth a common certification system for law enforcement and promote information sharing among police departments about officers who have been the subject of too many complaints about excessive use of force, an official said.
It would also call for social workers to join officers in responding to police calls.
The Republican push for police reforms is a sudden shift for the Republican Party, one Democrats are watching warily, and a crush of activity that shows how quickly the mass protests over police violence and racial prejudice are transforming national politics.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared that Republicans are developing “a serious proposal to reform law enforcement.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee will gavel on Tuesday afternoon for an extensive hearing on “Police Use of Force and Community Relations,” drawing testimony from the nation’s leading civil rights and law enforcement leaders.
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US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, June 2, 2020.
Vote to remove plaque honouring Confederate soldiers
A panel has voted to remove a plaque from Maryland’s Capitol that honours the Civil War’s Union and Confederate soldiers and until recently showed the US flag and Confederate flag crossed.
The four members of the State House Trust, which oversees the Maryland State House and its grounds voted to remove the plaque after Maryland House Speaker Adrienne Jones renewed her push to get rid of it — after the panel decided last year to cover the flags with an image of Maryland’s state flag.
Jones continued pushing for complete removal because of the sign’s language.
“I want to thank the State House Trust for this important vote today to remove this confederate-sympathising plaque,” Jones wrote on Twitter.
“We have made great strides to reflect the importance of African-Americans in our State’s history over the past year.”
with the addition of Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass statues, which more accurately reflect this time period.
— Speaker Jones (@SpeakerAJones) June 15, 2020
While this is a symbolic step in our efforts to create more systemic equality, it is an important one so that all Marylanders feel welcome in their State House.
In February, Maryland unveiled bronze statues of famed abolitionists Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, both of whom were born slaves on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Those statues are now in the Capitol’s Old House Chamber, the room where slavery was abolished in the state in 1864.
Jones, a Democrat who is Maryland’s first black and first female House speaker, renewed her push to remove the Civil War plaque last week.
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