Congressional Democrats unveiled a sweeping police reform bill Monday that would ban the use of chokeholds and make it easier to hold officers accountable, a bill that one Arizona police group blasted as “one-sided” and “disappointing.”

At least three Arizona lawmakers are among more than 200 co-sponsors of the Justice in Policing Act of 2020, which comes after a week of nationwide protests sparked by the May 25 killing of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody.

Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Phoenix, said the bill is needed to transform the relationship between law enforcement and the public. He was joined on the bill Monday by fellow Democratic Reps. Raúl Grijalva of Tucson and Greg Stanton of Phoenix.

“The Justice in Policing Act makes long-overdue changes to our criminal justice system by mandating the use of proven de-escalation techniques, increasing transparency, and transforming the culture and mindset of policing in America,” Gallego said in a statement.

But Joe Clure, executive director of the Arizona Police Association, said the “very one-sided piece of legislation” was drafted without any input from law enforcement officials.

“I think it’s disappointing that you have people who are putting together ideas and work plans for law enforcement and absolutely no law enforcement was consulted,” Clure said. “It is unfortunate it didn’t have a little bit more discussion so that there might have been an opportunity to find common ground.”

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When Amira Chowdhury joined a protest in Philadelphia against police violence on Monday, she wore a mask to protect herself and others against the coronavirus. But when officers launched tear gas into the crowd, Chowdhury pulled off her mask as she gasped for air. “I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “I felt like I was choking to death.”

Chowdhury was on a part of the Vine Street Expressway that ran underground. Everyone panicked as gas drifted into the dark, semi-enclosed space, she said. People stomped over her as they scrambled away. Bruised, she scaled a fence to escape. But the tear gas found her later that evening, inside her own house; as police unleashed it on protesters in her predominantly black neighborhood in West Philadelphia, it seeped in.

“I can’t even be in my own house without escaping the violence of the state,” said Chowdhury, a rising senior at the University of Pennsylvania. On Wednesday, she said her throat still felt dry, like it was clogged with ash.

More than 1,000 Tucsonans attended a rally held by March For Justice Tucson, a group founded and run by young Black women, on the University of Arizona mall, in front of Old Main, on Wednesday, June 3.

The peaceful event was an opportunity for Black members of the community to share their personal experiences with racism and create a healing space in the wake of the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless other Black Americans.

The event was filled with stories of struggle and calls to action to confront racists coworkers, family members and friends, defund police departments, abolish prisons, and destroy and rebuild racist institutions.

PHOENIX – President Donald Trump’s pledge to deploy “thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers” to put down protests was seen as either a promise or a threat, depending on which Arizona lawmaker was reacting to his comments.

Trump’s comments came in a Rose Garden speech Monday afternoon, as the nation entered its second week of clashes between police and demonstrators across the nation protesting over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25.

The protesters have been met with a strong police presence in most cities, National Guard troops in some and, when they turned violent, curfews in many cities – and the entire state of Arizona. But Trump said that’s not enough.

“Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled,” Trump said Monday. “If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.”

Critics have questioned whether Trump has the authority to invoke the Insurrection Act to send federal troops into U.S. cities without the approval of state and local officials. More importantly, they question whether it’s the right thing to do.

“While we must protect small businesses and the safety of all citizens, the president’s threat to invoke the Insurrection Act is not what our country needs now,” said Rep. Tom O’Halleran, D-Sedona. “Americans have the right to peacefully assemble.”

During Tuesday’s Town Council meeting, Marana Mayor Ed Honea said he recently spoke on the phone with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who asked how the town was doing.

Honea said he told Ducey that Marana used to have a problem “with that virus thing,” but now Marana is dealing with other issues: Potential protests and people losing their jobs due to financial strain during the stay-home order.

“The bigger crisis now is riots,” Honea said during the June 2 council meeting. “Not protesting. People have that right and I support that 100 percent, but rioting and tearing up equipment. … We’re really trying to stay on top of that. We don’t want anybody hurt, and we don’t want to disrespect people that want to protest. They have that right. But the governor's order says crowds cannot gather on streets, sidewalks, vacant lots, alleys or parking lots, and it does not apply to business, restaurants, groceries stores or anything else.”

Honea said that visiting your grandma or shopping for groceries does not violate the curfew order, which was essentially a tool for law enforcement to prevent riots.

“The order was more or less to give police an opportunity to disperse crowds if they felt necessary,” Honea said.

PHOENIX – Waves of protests, rolling across Arizona in the last several days like a tributary in a national unleashing of fury and grief over the deaths of black people at the hands of police, kept flowing on Tuesday night.

Hundreds gathered in downtown Phoenix in what has now become a familiar place — Phoenix police headquarters, according to local media reports.

State Rep. Reginald Bolding, speaking of the family of Dion Johnson, who was killed in a Memorial Day encounter with an Arizona state trooper, said law enforcement needs training, accountability and transparency to move forward from Johnson’s death. He died the same day as George Floyd, whose death after Minnesota police officers knelt on his back and neck ignited protests in Arizona and around the country.

Johnson’s last minutes aren’t known because Department of Public Safety troopers don’t yet wear body cams. But in Minnesota, video from onlookers, many of them pleading with police to stop, captured the 8 minutes and 46 seconds of pressure placed on Floyd’s back and neck on May 25.

PHOENIX – A cry of “I can’t breathe” in Minneapolis has reverberated thousands of miles away in Arizona, where protesters for several days have marched in sorrow and rage – peacefully for the most part, but sometimes clashing with police and looting and vandalizing several businesses in Phoenix and Scottsdale.

Arizonans are reacting to and taking action following the May 25 death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, 46, and Dion Johnson, 28, who was killed by an Arizona state trooper the same day. Cronkite News spoke with several people about the protests, including a college activist who stresses the need for real activism outside of Instagram, an interior designer who wants others to realize what is meant by Black Lives Matter, and a business owner who’s worried about looting and vandalism but hopes the protests will bring real change.

Head of black mothers’ group says policing must be transformed
Deborah Colbert has been active in the civil rights movement for 50 years, beginning her lifelong journey of fighting for black people when she was about 12. Although there have been tremendous changes in the movement, Colbert said, the lack of sustained progress deeply troubles her.

“It’s almost like reliving the pain and agony of being an African American in America again,” she said. “The feeling for me is, ‘When? When will we really come together and see that it’s time for us to realize that there’s a humanitarian feature missing here?’”

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It was 10 p.m. on a Tuesday, and I was watching footage of secret stockpiles of N95 masks, so-called proof-of-life videos sent to me by strangers, when Tim, the juicer salesman, called.

“My name is Tim, and I heard you’re looking into VPL,” the man said in a squeaky, nervous timbre. “I distanced myself from the company because they weren’t delivering what they said.”

A few hours earlier, I had called the owner of VPL Medical LLC, a company outside Los Angeles that had gotten a $6.4 million contract from the Department of Veterans Affairs to supply 8 million three-ply surgical masks to hospitals dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. My call freaked them out, Tim said, and someone at the company had passed my number along to him.

What was his interest in the story, I asked.

“I went and got myself $8,000 in cash. I was on my way with the money in a briefcase…,” he began.

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This article is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans. Click here to get up to speed on their essential coverage of Texas issues.

Democratic congressional leaders expressed alarm Wednesday at a sudden acceleration in the deportation of migrant children and in a strongly worded letter requested that the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement “cease this practice immediately.”

The letter signed by five key House leaders overseeing immigration cited a May 18 ProPublica/Texas Tribune story that found the U.S. government has aggressively begun to rush the deportations of unaccompanied children in its care to countries where they have been raped, beaten or had a parent killed, according to attorneys, court filings and congressional staff.

That comes on top of more than 900 unaccompanied children the government has turned back at the border under an emergency declaration in March by President Donald Trump’s administration to stop the spread of COVID-19. Usually children traveling alone qualify for expansive protections under the law.