President Joe Biden will focus on values during his State of the Union address as he contrasts his stance on taxing the rich and reforming policing with Republicans approach.
safety model. we have to shift to a model that is rooted in service and protection, rather than violence and aggression, and we have to address the notion that black bodies are not dealt with the same way as people of other races, colors and ethnicities. that is something that i think the legacy of tyre nichols plays a part in moving the conversation forward. we did not have a george floyd police act before george floyd, even though it died on the senate floor, there is now an opportunity for senate democrats to revive that measure and see if they are willing to fight. do they have the moral fortitude to fight for what is right with respect to police reform, and so that is the question that tyre nichols legacy helps to answer. i have been thinking a lot about that big picture question, eddie, of willingness to change, and so last night, i went back again to james baldwin s deeply thought provoking essay, nothing personal on isolation,
it up so many times. any possibility for a real effective change considering our climate? unfortunately, i think the question of whether or not there is a possibility for effective change, to your point, was already on the table when the george floyd police act was in the hands of someone like tim scott. we were already starting to get worried that the most basic levels of reform that were in the first versions of that bill we re going to be torn apart. there was a do not pass go, do not collect $200 mentality. you re not even going to put qualified immunity on the table. they can be deputized to do that with guns. protection is not i do realize that there are 18,000 police departments across the entire country and that rules and regulations are
a great job, swift justice, they have been fired and charges given. we re grateful for the progress but we still need to follow through on the justice process and call on the mayor and the governor for police reform in our city. and then across the nation. and, of course, we need the george floyd bill passed that president biden has called for in light of this tragedy. you re speaking to a whole world of issues, a country of issues, but a lot has happened here in memphis, tennessee, there have been issued with the police department, you have been in the community, you ve been trying to get those issues fixed and changes. you said the george floyd police act, but how do we do that? memphis has a history of, quite frankly, bad policing. dr. king gave his last breath here. let s turn this into peaceful