Articles

‘My heart sunk.' How Miami lawmakers are reacting to George Floyd's death and protests

Miami Herald / Alex Daugherty / June 2, 2020

Two Miami members of Congress had very different reactions to hundreds of peaceful protesters being teargassed at a park adjacent to the White House on Monday so President Donald Trump could take a photograph in front of a damaged church.

"They knew the street needed to be cleared before 7 pm curfew," Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted at 7:12 p.m. "But they deliberately stayed to trigger police action & get the story they wanted, that "police attacked peaceful protesters."

Twenty minutes later, Miami Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala had a very different take.

"What the hell did we just watch?!" Shalala tweeted.

In the week since protests over George Floyd's death spread across the country — including in all of Florida's largest cities — only one of Miami's seven members of Congress said she had ventured outside to speak with protesters. Some are planning to meet with youth leaders. At least one lawmaker says the House should consider passing the Excessive Use of Force Act, a bill that would make it illegal across the country for police officers to use chokeholds, while another is renewing her push to establish a commission to make policy recommendations to Congress on the societal forces that have a disproportionately impacted black males in America.

But major legislative change isn't likely in an environment where the House and Senate are controlled by different parties. Both chambers aren't even in town right now. The House is out of session but may be back in Washington before the end of June, while the Senate has continued to confirm judges with fewer-than-normal attendance due to coronavirus.

"My heart sunk when I saw the policeman kneeling on Mr. Floyd's neck," said Miami Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson, who represents Liberty City, Little Haiti and Miami Gardens. "For him to be calling out for his dead mother, that ripped apart this community even though this community here had not had that experience in person. Just watching that on TV caused such a reaction."

Shalala was the only member of Congress from Miami who witnessed the widespread protests first-hand over the weekend. She said she ventured outside in Miami on Saturday and Sunday to listen.

"I don't want to overstate what I actually did. I went out to listen and to get a sense of who was out there," Shalala said. "I just listened to them. I didn't talk. They were very young, high school students college students, people in their 20s. These were peaceful demonstrators."

Shalala said she participated in a Zoom call with black law students on Tuesday to discuss racial injustice and is planning a virtual town hall on Wednesday to address Floyd's death and the widespread protests. Democratic Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is hosting an event on Thursday with pastors and youth leaders to discuss the recent events.

Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the House should immediately pass legislation called the Excessive Use of Force Prevention Act that would make it illegal across the country for police officers to use chokeholds or otherwise apply pressure that would restrict a person's breathing.

Wasserman Schultz is a cosponsor of the bill, authored by New York Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, that was first introduced in 2015, a year after Eric Garner died after an altercation in which a New York City police officer placed him in a chokehold.

Jeffries reintroduced the measure in 2019, two months after federal prosecutors declined to bring charges in the case. It has 34 co-sponsors, all Democrats, five of whom signed onto the bill after Floyd's death.

""The actions that led to the death of George Floyd were not policing; they were unjustifiable acts of violence which should be made explicitly illegal," Wasserman Schultz said in a statement.

Republican Sen. Rick Scott, Florida's former governor, said he's had multiple conversations with law enforcement, though he offered no details of those conversations, while Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart's chief of staff said the congressman is "in constant communication with local, state, and federal officials, as well as with the community that he represents."

Wasserman Schultz said Democrats are considering bills that establish a national database of decertified police officers to make it harder for a disgraced officer to get another law enforcement job, create a model use-of-force standard, and change federal civil rights laws to ensure police officers are prosecuted.

But one legislative proposal by Wilson, which is co-signed by Shalala, Mucarsel-Powell, Wasserman Schultz and Rubio, could gain traction with both parties.

Wilson introduced legislation last year to mandate the establishment of a commission as part of the Department of Justice that would study societal forces that have a disproportionately impacted black men in America such as mortality and homicide rates, arrest and incarceration rates, poverty, violence, fatherhood, mentorship, drug abuse, disparate income and wealth levels, school performance at various grade levels, and health.

The group, which would include lawmakers and experts, would help Congress come up with policy solutions.

"After slavery, they formed police forces to specifically hunt black men and there's always been that tension between police and black men," Wilson said. "The legislation I have creates a commission in the civil rights division of the Justice Department to act as a clearinghouse for these kind of scenarios as it relates to black men and boys. This commission is to propose legislation for police brutality, disparities in education. It's a permanent commission in the civil rights division."

Wilson's proposal has buy-in from Democrats and a few Republicans because it does not mandate specific changes to policing or funding that are traditionally more controversial. In addition to Rubio, the other senators signed onto Wilson's bill are Democrats Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California, who both ran for president in 2020.

Wilson's legislation was name-checked in an ABC interview by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as one of the bills the House is considering and is likely to be part of a series of bills promoted by the Congressional Black Caucus, which is leading the legislative response in the House. Rubio spokesperson Nick Iacovella said the senator's office is trying to get Wilson's bill heard in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee.

In a video Tuesday, Rubio said he hopes "that there is growing recognition that we must once and for all address the fact that a significant percentage of the American family believes that their lives are valued less and that their problems receive less attention because of their race, because of the color of their skin."

His office said he is still reviewing specific legislation to address racial injustice.

In a statement, Scott also did not offer specific legislative solutions to the problems highlighted by protests across the country.

"Senator Scott continues to urge Floridians to come together, not tear each other further apart, and he will consider any legislation that works to protect Americans and prevent any further tragedies like the death of George Floyd," spokesperson Sarah Schwirian said in an email.