Joe Biden has called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, moments after shocking police video was released showing an Illinois officer fatally shooting Sonya Massey after she called police fearing a home intruder.

In his first public statement since dropping his bid for re-election, Biden said the shooting of Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman, by white Sangamon county sheriff’s deputy Sean Grayson, in her home in Springfield, after a dispute over a pot of boiling water, “reminds us that all too often Black Americans face fears for their safety in ways many of the rest of us do not”.

Biden, who is recovering from Covid at his home in Delaware, said Massey, “a beloved mother, friend, daughter and young Black woman … should be alive today”.

  • Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    What federal law did these cops break that the DOJ could prosecute?

    He’s doing about the entirety of what he can do right now by urging congress to pass this bill, he’s already signed several executive orders on police reform.

      • Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        That’s not a federal law, murder within a state is charged and tried by the state the murder was committed in. The only exceptions to this would be murders on federal property, or possibly murders on federal officials AFAIK.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Well, isn’t murder a crime?

        Not when it is part of an official government act, at least according to the SCOTUS.

        Strafe a hospital, bomb a wedding, waterboard a migrant, rape a nun. It’s all good, so long as you’re doing it on the payroll of a state institution.