在乔·拜登总统呼吁国会在5月25日——乔治·弗洛伊德逝世周年纪念日——之前向他的办公桌提交关于警务改革的妥协立法的一天后，警察暴力受害者的家人，包括弗洛伊德的兄弟菲洛尼斯·弗洛伊德，在国会山会见了关键的立法者，并前往白宫讨论推进立法。
在国会两党明显的能量和产生结果的愿望中，他们周四会见了一群立法者，包括关键的共和党参议员蒂姆·斯科特(Tim Scott)、共和党全国代表大会(R-S-C)和共和党全国代表大会(R-S-C)。林赛·格雷厄姆民主党首席谈判代表新泽西州参议员科里·布克和加利福尼亚州众议员卡伦·巴斯
白宫周四向美国广播公司证实，同一批人后来前往白宫会见了高级顾问塞德里克·里士满和苏珊·赖斯，以及白宫法律顾问达纳·莱姆斯。
J.斯科特·阿普尔怀特/美联社
2021年4月29日，在华盛顿特区国会大厦与参议员蒂姆·斯科特(Tim Scott)会面后，民权律师本·克伦普(Ben Crump)与乔治·弗洛伊德(George Floyd)的兄弟菲洛妮丝·弗洛伊德(Philonise Floyd)和埃里克·加纳(Eric Garner)的母亲格温·卡尔(Gwen Carr)一起出席了会议。
周四早些时候，该小组还会见了纽约州多数党领袖查克·舒默和德克萨斯州众议员希拉·李庚翔。
菲洛尼斯·弗洛伊德周四告诉记者，这些家庭在那里告诉立法者他们“仍然很痛苦”。
“这项立法上面有我兄弟的血，也有所有其他家庭的血，”弗洛伊德说我们今天在这里是因为我们需要让每个人都知道我们对我们的兄弟、家人和家庭成员的感受，他们因为任何不该被杀的事情而被杀。"
这些家庭是在与他们的律师本·克伦普(Ben Crump)会面后出现的，他告诉记者，这些会议是受害家庭推动“有意义的改革”的机会，任何立法都将带有他们所爱的人的血迹。
蒂芙尼·克鲁彻医生，特伦斯·克鲁彻的妹妹，她是被警察击毙2016年，在俄克拉荷马州的塔尔萨，她说即使她不能把她的哥哥带回来，她和其他家庭“可以确保没有其他人有同样的命运。”
“在乔治·弗洛伊德为同一件事而战被杀的一年前，我来到了国会山，”克鲁彻说。“你知道，一年后，两年后，我们又在这里了，我相信我们有一个巨大的机会来推动这一切越过终点线。”
斯蒂芬·成熟/盖蒂影像公司
2021年4月20日，明尼阿波利斯，人们在乔治·弗洛伊德广场庆祝德里克·肖万审判的有罪判决。
以巴斯和杰克逊为首的众议院民主党人去年通过了2021年乔治·弗洛伊德(George Floyd)治安司法法案(Justice in Policing Act of 2021)，该法案将为警察部门的运作建立一个国家标准，强制收集警察遭遇的数据，简化联邦法律以起诉过度使用武力，并禁止扣押和禁止搜查令。今年3月，众议院以220票对212票通过了该法案。
但是参议院的民主党人在6月阻止了斯科特提出的一项竞争措施，他们说这还不够。这项名为《司法法案》(Justice Act)的法案侧重于使用联邦资金激励警察部门放弃有争议的做法，如弗洛伊德(Floyd)身上使用的颈动脉chokehold，使用更多的人体摄像头，将私刑定为联邦仇恨犯罪，增加培训，特别是在降级策略方面，并成立一个委员会研究在毒品案件中使用不敲门搜查令——斯科特当时表示，这一举措最终可能导致彻底禁止。
现在，在德里克·肖万审判后，同样是这些立法者被新的势头吸引到一起，在审判中，这名官员被发现犯有用颈动脉钳夹或膝盖抵着脖子谋杀乔治·弗洛伊德的罪行。
尽管两党都有寻找共同点的精神，但许多相同的分歧依然存在。
该法案的一个主要症结是，是否要剥夺或修改警察被赋予的被称为“合格豁免”的法律豁免保护。一些人，如斯科特和格雷厄姆，提出了一个可能的妥协方案，让一个警察部门，而不是一个单独的官员承担责任，尽管一些进步人士和活动家认为这是不可接受的。
另一个症结涉及起诉执法人员的犯罪意图标准。激进分子和许多民主党人不想表现出故意剥夺某人宪法权利的具体意图，而是想将这一门槛降低到“鲁莽无视”。
这些家庭的一名律师巴卡里·塞勒斯(Bakari Sellers)告诉记者，该组织坚持要求降低犯罪意图的门槛，并剥夺警察的民事保护。
这些只是谈判中的一些争论点。
格雷厄姆周四表示，他看到了谈判的“最佳时机”，尤其是在合格豁免方面，尽管尚不清楚会是什么。
但周四下午，随着国会弥漫着一种势头，一个扩大的两党议员小组今年第一次就这个问题坐下来。
通常的谈判者——斯科特、布克和巴斯——与参议院司法委员会的高级成员、伊利诺伊州的迪克·德宾主席和格拉汉姆秘密会面。参加这些会议的还有新泽西州民主党众议员乔希·戈特海默(Josh Gottheimer)、宾夕法尼亚州共和党众议员布莱恩·菲茨帕特里克(Brian Fitzpatrick)。和皮特·斯陶博，明尼苏达州，谁参加了虚拟，根据参与者。
该组织在闭门会议一个小时后出现，称他们受到正能量的鼓舞，并决心继续谈判，但前进的道路尚不明朗。
“房间里有一种积极的精神，我们仍然有许多主要问题要解决，”杜宾告诉美国广播公司新闻。
拜登在周三晚上的联合讲话中呼吁国会做出妥协，将立法提上日程。
拜登说:“我知道共和党人有自己的想法，并且正在参议院与民主党人进行富有成效的讨论。”。“我们需要共同努力找到共识，但让我们在下个月乔治·弗洛伊德逝世一周年之际完成这项工作。”
当被问及是否能满足拜登5月25日的最后期限时，杜宾表示反对，但格雷厄姆插话说，“我们会努力的。”
布克周四告诉记者，他没有考虑总统的最后期限，但“正在考虑尽快完成这项工作。”
众议院议长南希·佩洛西(Nancy Pelosi)对谈判持乐观态度，但周四表示，立法者“将在我们准备好的时候把它提交给议会”。
池/法新社通过盖蒂图像，文件
2021年2月10日，华盛顿，国会参议院对前总统唐纳德·特朗普进行弹劾审判的第二天，参议员蒂姆·斯科特离开。
“我认为每次我们见面，我们都有更多的信息，让我们朝着积极的结果努力，”斯科特说，但他也拒绝承诺最后期限。他补充说，“会议中没有发生任何事情阻止我乐观地认为我们可以做到。”
然而，当被问及他是否仍然反对降低官员的犯罪意图门槛时，斯科特强调说，“那是我的立场。”
“与我交谈的家庭成员想要的是他们能够以有意义的方式衡量的进步。我们将继续研究这种情况。我很高兴他们愿意继续订婚。这是一个信息丰富、有教育意义的好消息，”斯科特说。
出席周四会议的其他家庭成员包括格温·卡尔(格温·卡尔是埃里克·加纳的母亲，2014年在纽约斯塔顿岛被警方拘留后死亡)和艾丽莎·芬德利·让(Allisa Findley Jean)，Botham Jean的妹妹，2018年在德克萨斯州达拉斯的公寓被一名下班警察开枪打死。
Policing reform legislation gets renewed push on Capitol Hill
One day after President Joe Biden called for Congress to deliver compromise legislation on policing reform to his desk by May 25 -- the anniversary of George Floyd’s death -- the families of victims of police violence, including Floyd's brother Philonise Floyd, met with key lawmakers on Capitol Hill and went to the White House to talk about moving legislation forward.
Amid palpable, bipartisan energy and desire on the Hill to produce results, they met with a group of lawmakers on Thursday, including key Republicans Sens. Tim Scott, R-S.C., andLindsey Graham, R-S.C. and lead Democratic negotiators, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif.
The same group later went to White House to meet with senior advisers Cedric Richmond and Susan Rice, as well as White House Counsel Dana Remus, the White House confirmed to ABC News Thursday.
Earlier Thursday, the group also met with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas.
Philonise Floyd told reporters Thursday the families were there to tell lawmakers they are "still in pain."
"This legislation has my brother blood on it and all the other families' blood on it," Floyd said. "We're here today because we need to let everybody know how we feel about our brothers and our families and family members who have been killed for anything that they shouldn't have been killed for."
The families emerged from the meetings with their attorney, Ben Crump, who told reporters the sessions were an opportunity for the aggrieved families to push for "meaningful reform" and that any legislation will bear the blood stains of their loved ones.
Dr. Tiffany Crutcher, the sister of Terence Crutcher, who wasfatally shot by policein Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2016, said even though she cannot bring her brother back, she and the other families "can make sure that no one else has the same fate."
"I came to Capitol Hill a year before George Floyd was killed fighting for this same thing," Crutcher said. "And here we are again, you know, a year later, two years later, and I believe we have a huge opportunity to push this across the finish line."
House Democrats, led by Bass and Jackson, last year passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021, which would establish a national standard for the operation of police departments, mandate data collection on police encounters, streamline federal law to prosecute excessive force and ban chokeholds and no-knock warrants. It passed the House in March on a party-line vote of 220-212.
But Democrats in the Senate blocked a competing measure in June by Scott that they said did not go far enough. That bill, the Justice Act, focused on using federal dollars to incentivize police departments to drop controversial practices, like the carotid chokehold that was used on Floyd, employing more body cameras, making lynching a federal hate crime, increasing training particularly in deescalation tactics and establishing a commission to study the use of no-knock warrants in drug cases -- a move that could, Scott said at the time, eventually lead to an outright ban.
Now, those same lawmakers have been drawn together by new momentum in the wake of the Derek Chauvin trial where that officer was found guilty of murdering George Floyd using a carotid chokehold, or knee to the neck.
But many of the same disagreements remain, despite the bipartisan spirit to find common ground.
One major sticking point in the bill is whether or not to strip or modify the legal immunity protections police are afforded called "qualified immunity." Some, like Scott and Graham, have suggested a possible compromise wherein a police department, rather than an individual officer, would be held accountable, though a number of progressives and activists find that unacceptable.
Another sticking point concerns the criminal intent standard for prosecuting a law enforcement officer. Instead of showing a specific intent to willfully deprive someone of their constitutional rights, activists and many Democrats want to lower that threshold to "reckless disregard."
One attorney for the families, Bakari Sellers, told reporters that the group is insisting on seeing the threshold for criminal intent lowered and civil protections stripped from police officers.
And those are just some of the points of contention during negotiations.
Graham said Thursday that he sees a "sweet spot" for negotiations, particularly around qualified immunity, though it’s unclear what that would be.
But on Thursday afternoon, with a sense of momentum in the air on Capitol Hill, an expanded bipartisan group of lawmakers sat down for the first time this year on the issue.
The usual negotiators -- Scott, Booker and Bass -- met behind closed doors with the senior members of Senate Judiciary Committee, Chairman Dick Durbin of Illinois and Graham. Those meetings also involved Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Pete Stauber, R-Minn., who participated virtually, according to participants.
The group emerged after an hour behind closed doors saying they were buoyed by the positive energy and determined to keep at the negotiations, but the path forward is unclear.
"There is a positive spirit in the room, we still have a number of major issues to work on," Durbin told ABC News.
Biden called on Congress to compromise to get legislation on his desk during his joint address Wednesday night.
"I know Republicans have their own ideas, and are engaged in a very productive discussion with Democrats in the Senate," Biden said. "We need to work together to find a consensus, but let's get it done next month by the first anniversary of George Floyd's death."
When asked if they could meet Biden’s May 25 deadline, Durbin demurred, but Graham interjected, "We’re going to try."
Booker told reporters Thursday he is not thinking about the president's deadline, but is "thinking about getting this done as quickly as I possibly can."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was optimistic about the negotiations but said Thursday lawmakers "will bring it to the floor when we are ready."
"I think every time we meet, we have more information that allows us to work toward a result that’s positive," Scott said, though he, too refused to commit to a deadline adding, "Nothing happened in the meeting that deters me from being optimistic that we can get there."
Still, when asked if he remains opposed to lowering the criminal intent threshold for officers, Scott said emphatically, "That’s my position."
"What the family members who spoke to me want is progress that they can measure in a meaningful way. We are going to continue to work on what that looks like. And I'm glad that they were willing to stay engaged. It is informative and educational, and that's good news," Scott said.
Other family members who attended Thursday's meeting were Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, who died in 2014 after being put in a police chokehold on Staten Island, New York, and Allisa Findley Jean, the sister of Botham Jean, who was shot by an off-duty officer in his Dallas, Texas, apartment in 2018.
