PHILADELPHIA — Doc Rivers has a message for Congress:
“Pass the George Floyd policing act bill,” Rivers said Tuesday morning on the one-year anniversary of Floyd being murdered by a former police officer. “It’s both a pro-police bill focusing on getting them much better training, and a pro-community bill, taking away qualified immunity.”
On May 25, 2020, Floyd, an unarmed and handcuffed Black man, was killed by since-fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is white.
A member of the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition, Rivers believes passing the bill would be the best way to honor the memory of Floyd and others who have been victims of police brutality in America.
The bill passed with a bipartisan vote in the U.S. House of Representatives. It is now pending in the U.S. Senate, where the coalition hopes it gets similar bipartisan support.
The biggest obstacle to the bill’s passage has been qualified immunity, which shields police officers from most civil lawsuits.
Ending qualified immunity has been the chief policy goal in regards to police reform since Floyd was murdered by Chauvin. Talks leading to a bipartisan deal were expected to move forward this week. New Jersey Senator Corey Booker, a Democrat, will be involved in the negotiations.
Democrats wants to end qualified immunity in order to hold officers more accountable for violations of civil rights and use of excessive force in large part because killings by police officers rarely lead to criminal convictions.
Republicans have argued that the weakening of the provision could lead to officers facing excessive lawsuits.
President Biden had set the anniversary of Floyd’s death as the deadline to pass the police reform bill. But with the House out of Washington until next month, that deadline won’t be met.
Rivers is part of the 15-member National Basketball Social Justice Coalition, which includes players and team owners, along with Rivers, former Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, National Basketball Player Association executive director Michele Roberts, and NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum.
The coalition was formed in 2020 by the NBA and NBPA to lead the NBA’s collaborative effort in addressing racial and social inequalities by advocating for policy change at the local, state and national level.
