This week, I was proud to cosponsor the #JusticeInPolicingAct. This is the most far reaching attempt in decades to reform policing in America and to rebuild trust between police and the communities they are sworn to protect. It is long overdue.
Our bill would:
- Ban racial profiling
- Ban chokeholds & require body cams
- Empower the Justice Department to investigate & correct police misconduct
- Make it easier to hold abusive officers accountable, and, if they're fired, to keep them from getting rehired elsewhere.
The bill places strict limits on transfers of military equipment to law enforcement. I want local cops look like cops, not like the 82nd Airborne parachuting into a war zone. I will also fight for additional safeguards against enlisting the military to police dissent.
We have this chance because the overwhelming majority of Americans saw what happened to George Floyd, and understand it is part of a pattern of racial bias that requires comprehensive reform, not just the punishment of a few bad cops who were caught on video.
I'm glad that Republican leaders in Congress have thus far indicated they want to work with us, and that the Fraternal Order of Police has said we should not let this opportunity for change pass us by. insidernj.com/press-release/…
Many activists rightly ask us to reimagine the role police play in our country, and whether we make police do too much, like respond to mental health crises. Our bill funds local efforts to shift priorities & training, and promotes tactics that deescalate violent situations.
That said, I don't think "defund the police" is a good slogan or idea. Smaller forces would more likely take on a bunker mentality, focusing on self protection rather than the community policing tactics that earn trust. Wealthy communities would just pay for private cops.
Remember - it is Congressional Republicans who are trying to defund the police, by continuing to block the HEROES Act. That bill is all about helping state and local governments keep first responders on the job. They have zero standing to demagogue this issue.
There is a reason I invited the daughter of a fallen police officer to be my guest for this year's State of the Union. I respect anyone who spends his or her life doing a dangerous job to protect others. Let's honor those who uphold this ideal and hold accountable all who do not.
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I've avoided commenting on college protests because they matter way less than the real horror people in Israel/Gaza are experiencing. But there are principles worth defending here, both from the extremism of the far left and the blood lust of partisans on the right. For example:
1. The right to peaceful expression and protest should be sacrosanct, even if the ideas being expressed make people uncomfortable. Many of our elite colleges have unfortunately forgotten this in recent years. Their right wing critics forget it, too, when it suits them.
2. There's a long tradition in America of protestors violating laws that protect access to streets or buildings. That's not violence, but if you do it, you have to accept consequences. If negotiation fails, colleges are right to break up encampments that cause disorder.
As a former State Department official responsible for enforcing the Leahy Laws, which prohibit US assistance to units of foreign militaries that commit gross human rights abuses, here are a few thoughts on what's going on with the Leahy Laws and Israel. 1/
First, we've enforced the Leahy Laws all over the world, including with close allies. They work because they allow a surgical approach of cutting off individual units instead of denying aid to entire countries. Foreign governments often make changes to avoid getting "Leahied." 2/
Second, it's true that till now the State Dept has in practice not applied Leahy to Israel. This is wrong - while Israel shouldn't be held to a higher standard than other countries on human rights, it shouldn't be held to a uniquely low bar either. 3/ theguardian.com/world/2024/jan…
The House has the votes to pass more aid for #Ukraine (by a 3-1 margin). But the GOP leadership has refused to allow a vote. And now there is no GOP leadership.
The road to renewing aid, on which so much depends, will be hard. Here is a thread on how it could still be done.
Plan A, the normal option, would be for Republicans to elect a Speaker, who would then schedule a Ukraine vote. But Jim Jordan says he won't do that. And If Steve Scalise manages to unite his caucus to win, I doubt he'll then call a vote on Ukraine that divides his caucus.
Plan B: The Senate passes Ukraine aid attached to a bill dealing with the border crisis, and the new House Speaker agrees to take that up. But an immigration compromise reasonable enough to get bipartisan support in the Senate might not fly with the House invade-Mexico crowd.
Our 12 NJ House members may have to vote next week on Kevin McCarthy's threat to default on America's debts to force massive cuts in domestic spending.
Default would destroy our economy.
But we should also talk about what the proposed extreme budget cuts would do to New Jersey.
The McCarthy plan would cut about $130 billion right away and massively more over 10 years. Since the GOP will likely exempt defense, veterans, and (I'd guess) border enforcement, that would require cutting everything else the government does by over 50%.
One obvious consequence of the McCarthy cuts would be to eliminate the increased spending on our roads and bridges from last year's infrastructure bill.
So anyone voting for this is kissing the #Gateway tunnel goodbye, along with hundreds of local projects coming to our state.
I was intrigued, so just for fun, I asked another chatbot - #BingChat - what it thought about Prof. Kosinski's scary sounding experience with its cousin Chat GPT4.
Bing replied I shouldn't worry because Kosinski had admitted in a later tweet that he'd made the whole story up.
I thought "that clears things up -- I guess I had missed Prof. Kosinski's later tweet." But then I looked at his timeline and couldn't find that tweet.
So I asked Bing for evidence and it sent me one link, and then another -- but neither showed Kosinski's purported confession.
It's amazing how Congressional Republicans are now trying to use the horrible Ohio train derailment for partisan ends when they did everything in their power to derail stronger freight rail safety rules just a couple of years ago.
I know -- I was there.
In 2021, the House passed a version of what became the Infrastructure and Jobs Act that tried to limit the length of freight trains and time blocking crossings, required at least two crew per train, strengthened crew fatigue rules, and so on.
The freight industry bitterly fought our safety rules, saying they'd cost too much (even as they spent billions on stock buybacks). Senate Republicans backed them up, refusing to consider the House provisions. So we compromised on what became the bipartisan infrastructure law.