Columbus-Area Rep. Beatty Reflects on Protests Looks To Policy Changes

So how does America move from protests to action on racial justice?

U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty says such movements have happening before, and the ongoing protests are what will ultimately lead to reform in government. "This is not new to us," she said. "We are going from agony to action."

The Columbus-area Democrat joined Darrick Hamilton of Ohio State University's Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in a virtual panel discussion Tuesday titled "From Protest to Policy: How Does the Movement Sparked by George Floyd's Death Ensure Lasting Change?"

Both Beatty and Hamilton talked about their views on police reform and what needs to be done beyond it to address systemic racism.

The U.S. House is mulling the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which seeks to prohibit police from using chokeholds, create a national registry to track police misconduct, lower legal standards to pursue criminal and civil penalties for police misconduct, and ban certain no-knock warrants, among other measures.

Beatty resided over the legislative chamber as speaker pro-tempore when the bill was on the House floor.

While the House is expected to pass this bill, a police reform bill sponsored by U.S. Senate Republicans failed to win enough support from Democrats for consideration.

Beatty, like many other Democrats, said believes the Republican bill didn't go far enough.

"Beyond passing this bill, you can't legislate away racism. You can't legislate common sense," she said.

Beatty said the U.S. needs to get to the root of structural racism that still affects this nation.

Hamilton said one obstacle to reform is misconceptions around calls for defunding or demilitarizing law enforcement.

"Continuing to put money into a system that has some fundamental flaws is problematic," Hamilton said. "What it doesn't mean is that people advocate the need for the state to provide tolerable security."

Hamilton said he doesn't think anyone wants an unsafe population, but he added it's problematic to not reform law enforcement when it continually shows problems when it comes to race. He also said reform doesn't happen so that detractors can remain in power.

"If we have a society of growing inequality, one way to maintain political control is to convince a dominant population that however bad you may be, or however worse off you may be, at least you're not black or Mexican," Hamilton said.

He wants to shift away from policies that attempt to manage people with segregation, mass incarceration and police brutality, and instead attempt to empower people and allow them to thrive.

Hamilton said that after the Justice in Police Act, there needs to be more changes at the state and local levels, whose methods he said often leave politically vulnerable people and minorities in a worse-off position.

Beatty agreed with Hamilton.

"We need to address it head-on without compromise," Beatty said. "And then maybe, just maybe, we can start the dialogue to do many of the things that my good friend Dr. Hamilton has said in certainly a more scientific and academically stellar war."

This article was originally published by The Lantern on July 7, 2020.