A year after George Floyd’s murder, Florida lawmakers inch toward police reform. Do more | Editorial
No argument. American policing has changed since George Floyd’s murder a year ago this week in the hands of Minneapolis police. Not nearly enough, of course. But the tragedy got attention in high places, where it had been missing.
In Florida, departments from Miami and Miami-Dade to Jacksonville to the Panhandle have faced calls of defunding the police, of the firing of the bad apples, or heightened accountability. That’s good. But now we need better.
Florida became one of 30 states that enacted new policing laws since former police officer — and now convicted felon Derek Chauvin — snuffed the life out of Floyd, under his knee, on May 25, 2020. The incident, caught on video, ignited a mass national, then global, movement to end police violence against Blacks and intensified calls for systemic change in policing.
Local changes
In Miami-Dade, several police chiefs have been open-minded to those demands. Coral Gables Police Chief Ed Hudak kneeled with Black Lives Matter demonstrators; when he was police chief in Houston, where Floyd is buried, Art Acevedo — now head of Miami’s department — marched with BLM protesters. And Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo “Freddy’ Ramirez quickly ended his officers’ use of chokeholds after Floyd’s death. We are fortunate to have law enforcement leadership willing to bend.
“As we mark the first anniversary of the death of George Floyd, Americans from all walks of life should pause to reflect on what his death, and our own reactions to it, says about us as individuals,” Acevedo told the Editorial Board.
More than ever, we need police chiefs who listen, but also prosecutors who send the message that violent policing will be punished by law.
A year ago, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle — who has been criticized for not being harder on violent officers — along with a bipartisan group of legislators, pushed Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature to pass significant police reform. In the end, House Bill 7051 was hijacked by the GOP leadership and watered down.
“While HB 7051 did not go as far as I and others would have liked, I am pleased that so many joined our call for action and that an impactful bipartisan compromise was reached,” Fernandez Rundle wrote in her newsletter.
But state Sen. Shevrin Jones, an African-American Democrat, told the Board, “Florida had the prime opportunity this legislative session to acknowledge that police violence against men and women in Black communities is also a pandemic that needs to be addressed, but to no avail.”
“One year after the death of George Floyd, Florida is still in the same position — quiet!”
Sign HB 7051, governor
It will be a long and arduous fight for real reform. Still, police officers in Florida, from now on, must follow these solid mandates:
▪ Apply proportional use of force; consider alternatives to force and, most important, adopt de-escalation tactics. Stopping a Black driver for a broken tail light shouldn’t automatically turn into a police-involved shooting. It doesn’t for white drivers.
▪ Use a chokehold only in situations involving the immediate threat of serious bodily injury or death.
▪ Police officers must consider it their duty to intervene if another officer uses excessive force. There should be no “blue wall of silence.”
▪ It is a duty to render medical aid to a person who needs such attention. Officers, jaded or heartless, can no longer just do nothing.
▪ Recognize and act appropriately when dealing with a person whose anti-social behavior is rooted in mental illness.
Gov. DeSantis has yet to sign this legislation into law. He should do so with the same urgency with which he signed HB 1, which unfairly cracks down on protests, specifically those demanding social justice. Let’s call it “balance.”
HB 7051 also mandates independent reviews of use-of-force incidents in which someone dies. This last mandate is proving to be a major disappointment in Miami-Dade.
Review panel stalled
Despite great opposition, former Miami-Dade Commissioner Barbara Jordan revived the county’s Independent Review Panel, a vehicle for those who think they have been unfairly treated by police officers to have a neutral board hear their complaint. Such citizen panels are crucial in any community. The panel had been dormant for 11 years.
Unfortunately, red tape and delays from commissioners in naming their appointee to the panel, have stalled its launch. According to a county spokeswoman, the panel will likely not meet for the first time until June or July. It was formed in August of 2020. That’s unacceptable.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava recently told the Board she is “disappointed” by the slow pace in launching the panel.
We would add that it’s a disservice to residents, who have been promised they have a place to air their grievances.
A year after Floyd’s murder opened our eyes, we cannot afford to avert our gaze now. There is too much work still to be done.
A previous version of this article had an incorrect name for the Miami-Dade Police director. Alfredo Ramirez is the director of Miami-Dade Police Department.
This story was originally published May 22, 2021 at 11:48 PM.