A year after George Floyd’s murder, what’s changed in Washington state?
Last year’s Black Lives Matter protests fueled major actions on police accountability, tax reform and environmental justice. But no one thinks the work is done.
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Sakara Remmu, the lead strategist of the Washington Black Lives Matter Alliance, in Seattle on May 20, 2021. Remmu said several major pieces of legislation wouldn t have passed if it weren t for citizen advocacy and last year s Black Lives Matter protests. (Dorothy Edwards/Crosscut)
When George Floyd called for his mother with his dying breaths, the police officers holding him down didn’t seem to notice but the rest of the world heard him loud and clear.
Washington Governor Signs Sweeping Police Reform Measures
Gene Johnson, Associated Press, May 18, 2021
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday signed one of the nation’s most ambitious packages of police accountability legislation, prompted by last year’s outcry for racial justice following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black people at the hands of police.
The dozen bills Inslee signed include outright bans on police use of chokeholds, neck restraints and no-knock warrants such as the one that helped lead to Taylor’s killing in Louisville, Kentucky.
They require officers to intervene if their colleagues engage in excessive force a demand inspired by the officers who stood by while Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin pressed a knee to Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes.
New environmental justice measures might revive cap-and-trade By Alex Brown, Stateline.org
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After years of failed attempts, Washington state lawmakers last month celebrated the narrow passage of a bill that places an economywide cap on carbon emissions and charges polluters for their contributions to climate change.
But their long-awaited win came as national momentum for such policies, known as cap-and-trade, has begun to wane. California’s first-in-the-nation program, created in 2013, has drawn charges of environmental racism from critics who say it allows industries to achieve compliance without reducing pollution in marginalized communities. Late last year, California’s top air regulator fell out of the running to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after dozens of environmental justice groups warned President Joe Biden about what they said was her “bleak track record in addressing environmental racism.”
Pew Charitable Trusts : New Environmental Justice Measures Might Revive Cap-and-Trade marketscreener.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from marketscreener.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.