Three bills on police accountability and racial bias training were passed by the Assembly today, marking the last day of Black History Month and the first controversial policy-oriented laws at this session.
When the law is eventually signed, the three bills will require police departments to hold roundtables at least twice a year, provide training on cultural diversity and overt bias in the police curriculum, and require members and staff to the state underwent the same training. legislature.
The trio was sponsored by members of the assembly Angela McKnight (Jersey City), Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D-Trenton), Shanik Speight (D-Newark), Shavonda Sumter (D-Patterson) and Britney Timberlake (D-Orange). ), which together make up a significant part of the Assembly’s black delegation.
Each bill provoked modest opposition from Republican lawmakers, although all three garnered at least a few Republican votes. R-Morris Plains, a Member of Parliament who voted against all three bills, spoke in the hall against the Legislature Training Bill, saying lawmakers should be required to read the Declaration of Independence and Martin Luther King Jr. instead. s speech “I have a dream.”
“I don’t think the apparent bias and training of cultural competencies is worth who we are, frankly, as Americans,” Weber said. “We are the heirs of one of the greatest legacies of equality and opportunity the world has ever known … We deserve much more than the latest fad in social science.”
After the vote, Timberlake criticized Weber’s comments interview with Tennyson Doña of WHYY.
“Using Dr. King as an example of a quote to reinforce the racist view that prejudice training is not needed … really shows how uninvolved he really is in the struggle and plight of the people who built this country on our backs. free work, ”she said.
None of the three bills has yet been put to a vote in the relevant Senate committees.
This story was updated at 7:21 p.m. with remarks by Timberlake assembly member.
