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On the one-year anniversary of George Floyd's death, leaders in Lancaster urge lawmakers to pass this bill

Leaders say George Floyd's death marked a moment that created a movement. They're trying to progress the movement with the George Floyd in Policing Act.

LANCASTER, Pa. — Tuesday marked the one-year anniversary of the death of George Floyd. 

"The murder of George Floyd was a moment that created a movement," explained Pastor Roland Forbes Jr. with Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Tuesday afternoon inside Crispus Attucks in Lancaster, Pastor Forbes and others tried to progress that movement.

"We dealt with moments perpetually from the time of Emmett Till through different situations," added Pastor Forbes.

"Things we see almost every day now: People being killed for this reason, killed for that reason. People excusing brutalization of bodies," said Kat Patterson, a senior at F&M College in Lancaster.

They used their voices -- calling PA Senators to urge them to pass the George Floyd Policing Act. They urged their neighbors to do the same.

"Really express to them the importance of this bill," encouraged Pastor Forbes.

Lancaster already banned police choke holds, mandated yearly crisis intervention training for officers, and made it a requirement that city council be aware of police disciplinary actions. Community leaders say it's not enough.

"When we look at how the modern police model is carried out today it is very much in the tradition of slave catching, and very much in the tradition of Jim Crow. We have to stop holding people's lives at such a minimal value," said LaRock Hudson with the Lancaster branch of the NAACP.

If Congress passes and President Biden signs the George Floyd in Policing Act, it would create a registry of complaints and records of police misconduct, establish a framework to prevent and remedy racial profiling by law enforcement at the federal, state, and local level, and restrict the use of no-knock warrants, choke holds, and sleeper holds.

"We need to file complaints, we need to start paper trails, and we need to make sure we're clogging the systems with so much paperwork and labor that there is no choice but to pass appropriate legislation," added Hudson.

The NAACP Lancaster released a statement on the one-year anniversary. It reads in part: "NAACP Lancaster supports the passage of H. R. 1280, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, as part of a larger campaign to address public safety for all people in this county. We wish to remedy, reject, and move away from histories of unequal application of laws and punishment based on racism and bias, rooted in policing forces to control people in a society and economy based on slavery (https://naacp.org/resources/criminal-justice-fact-sheet). Policing, the court systems, and the corrections systems must all be scrutinized."

   

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