Posted on 06/03/2020 2:51:04 PM PDT by TigerClaws
Nearly 30 years before a bystander with a cellphone caught a Minneapolis Police Department officer restraining George Floyd with his knee on Floyd's neck, police in Los Angeles were covertly taped beating a criminal suspect. And Sen. Joe Biden, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, proposed legislation siding with police.
The Police Officer's Bill of Rights, sponsored by Biden in May 1991, came halfway through his 36-year career representing Delaware in the Senate and while he was at the peak of his power on Capitol Hill. With Democrats in the majority, Biden headed the Senate committee with jurisdiction over criminal justice issues.
Biden, now the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee after two terms as vice president, was at the time weighing in on police-civilian relations amid an atmosphere of rising tensions between the black community in Southern California and law enforcement. Long a simmering cauldron of mistrust, accusations of police brutality were a staple of Los Angeles life for minorities stretching back at least to the 1965 Watts riots.
Early on the morning of March 3, 1991, a cameraman living near a remote freeway in northern Los Angeles recorded the beating of construction worker Rodney King, a black man. For nearly 10 minutes, King was abused, beaten, and tased by four Los Angeles Police Department officers following a routine traffic stop for suspicion that he was driving under the influence. King suffered multiple broken bones and burns on his chest.
King had initially been pulled over after driving more than 100 mph.
The incident polarized much of America, with police groups and lawmakers defending the officers, saying the beatings were justified out of self-defense. Many cautioned against the demonization of law enforcement in an era of high crime.
Sensing upcoming unrest, lawmakers in Washington began to act. In May 1991, Biden authored a Senate bill that would have provided greater protections to cops accused of misconduct. The " Police Officer's Bill of Rights Act" aimed at strengthening protections when law enforcement officers were accused of misconduct. The law contained measures that would have streamlined all police misconduct investigations nationwide, ensuring that every department followed identical standards.
The bill also would have restricted when and how misconduct investigations could take place, such as limiting interviews to one interrogator at a time and requiring that lawyer represent the officer in question. State and city governments would also have been forbidden from questions regarding an officer's finances or asking about the finances of their family.
The bill also would have authorized "a cause of action in State court by the officer for recovery of damages and full reinstatement against a law enforcement agency that materially violates rights afforded under this Act, subject to specified limitations."
The Police Officer's Bill of Rights never made it out of committee, although a modified version of its text was included in the Biden-Thurmond Violent Crime Control Act of 1991. That bill was eventually adjusted into the controversial 1994 crime bill that was enacted during the Clinton administration, which was largely seen as a response to public outrage after the Los Angeles riots — the result of acquittals for the officers that beat King.
Biden's work on the Police Officer's Bill of Rights highlights his evolution on criminal justice issues throughout his nearly 50-year career in politics. His work on the 1994 crime bill is regularly attacked by progressive activists, although his presidential campaign's criminal justice platform pledges to reverse many provisions in that law.
In response to the protests taking place in numerous cities in response to the death of Floyd, an unarmed black man who was allegedly killed by a Minneapolis police officer on May 25, Biden has pledged to work on eradicating systemic violence and called on Congress to enact reforms.
“Congressman Jeffries has a bill to outlaw chokeholds. Congress should put it on President Trump’s desk in the next few days," Biden said at the Philadelphia City Hall on Tuesday, referring to New York Democrat Hakeem Jeffries.
In the 1990s, Biden branded himself as one of the more liberal members of the Senate who remained tough on "law and order" issues, often working with conservative Democrats or Republicans on legislation.
Before the King incident, Biden praised Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates, calling him "a leader in the law enforcement profession" and celebrated his work on anti-drug programs.
“I would not take either of your jobs on a bet. Thank God, you are both so darn competent and willing to do the jobs that you are doing," Biden said of Gates and NYPD Commissioner Lee Brown during a Senate hearing on the first anniversary of President George H.W. Bush's National Drug Control Strategy.
Following King's beating, Biden, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pledged to hold a hearing on the incident over potential civil rights violations. The Washington Examiner could not find any evidence that a hearing ever occurred.
During a March 17, 1991, appearance on Meet the Press, Biden said about Gates that his "instinct would be, if I were mayor, to fire" the LAPD police commissioner. He added, however, that the issue was "a local matter." Gates later resigned after public pressure.
Thugs don’t vote, read Washington Examiner or Free Republic, or have any clue what a “bill” is unless it’s a C-note.
Remember, this was way back in time where even Plugs still had enough semi-functional brain cells that prohibited him from ever entertaining the ridiculous notion that he might one day be within a blonde **** hair of getting the nomination to run for President of the United States of America.
Bless his heart.
A modified version was included in the Biden-Thurmond Violent Crime Control Act of 1991 which was later included
in Bill Clinton's controversial 1994 crime bill which Hilary vociferously endorsed, deriding Blacks as "super-predators" in her comments.
https://projects.propublica.org/represent/votes/102/senate/1/114
This was a strange bill. All the liberals voted for it. Conservatives opposed it.
King was driving over 110 MPH in a YUGO on the 210 Freeway.
7 different police departments were chasing him
He was finally caught near Hanson Dam in Lakeview Terrace.
He resisted all attempts to get him into custody.
At one point, 4 different experienced officers who each weighed over 180# had him on on his back & were trying to subdue him. King threw all of them off like they were rag dolls.
King was high on PCP & other drugs.
King had a lifetime of criminal behavior & bad choices & other problems.
The riots of 1992 were the catalyst for me to leave LA after 29 years there. I bolted in 1993.
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