IV 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 988 
Condemning all acts of police brutality, racial profiling, and the use of 
excessive and militarized force throughout the country. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 1, 2020 
Ms. PRESSLEY (for herself, Ms. BONAMICI, Mr. CASTRO of Texas, Ms. JUDY 
CHU of California, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. CLYBURN, Mr. CON-
NOLLY, Mr. COX of California, Ms. ESCOBAR, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Ms. 
FUDGE, Mr. GARCI´A of Illinois, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. HASTINGS, Mrs. 
HAYES, Mr. HORSFORD, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. JEFFRIES, Ms. JOHNSON of 
Texas, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr. KHANNA, Ms. MCCOL-
LUM, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. NORTON, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Mr. POCAN, 
Mr. RASKIN, Mr. RICHMOND, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. TLAIB, Mrs. 
TRAHAN, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Mr. MICHAEL F. 
DOYLE of Pennsylvania, Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. NADLER, Mr. JOHNSON of 
Georgia, Ms. ESHOO, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Ms. OMAR, Ms. LEE 
of California, Ms. BASS, Ms. ADAMS, Ms. PINGREE, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, 
Ms. UNDERWOOD, Mr. MEEKS, Ms. MENG, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY 
of New York, and Mr. WELCH) submitted the following resolution; which 
was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
RESOLUTION 
Condemning all acts of police brutality, racial profiling, and 
the use of excessive and militarized force throughout 
the country. 
Whereas police brutality and the use of excessive and milita-
rized force are among the most serious ongoing human 
rights and civil liberties violations in the United States 
and have led to community destabilization, a decrease in 
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public safety, and the exacerbation of structural inequi-
ties; 
Whereas the system of policing in America, and its systemic 
targeting of and use of deadly and brutal force against 
people of color, particularly Black people, stems from the 
long legacy of slavery, lynching, Jim Crow laws, and the 
War on Drugs in the United States and has been perpet-
uated by violent and harmful law enforcement practices; 
Whereas contemporary police practices that employ policing 
for low level offenses or so called ‘‘broken windows’’ polic-
ing, as well as expanded and excessively militarized polic-
ing, has led to mass criminalization, heightened violence, 
and mass incarceration that disproportionately impacts 
Black and Brown people; 
Whereas data shows there is a direct correlation between the 
increased militarization of a police department and cor-
responding levels of police brutality; 
Whereas police use of force is among the leading causes of 
death for young men of color; 
Whereas Black people, including Black women and girls, Na-
tive Americans, and Latinos are killed by police at dis-
proportionately higher rates than their White peers; 
Whereas people with disabilities and other historically 
marginalized communities, including LGBTQ+ individ-
uals, immigrants, and those experiencing homelessness 
are significantly more likely to be criminalized and tar-
gets of police violence; 
Whereas police brutality and the use of excessive force have 
robbed countless communities of precious lives, have in-
flicted intergenerational harm and trauma to families, 
and are intensifying our Nation’s mental health crisis; 
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Whereas police in the United States, through acts of brutality 
and the use of excessive force, kill far more people than 
police in other comparable nations and have been histori-
cally shielded from accountability; 
Whereas the killings of hundreds each year, and the dem-
onstrations that followed have brought sustained national 
attention to the racially biased police violence against 
people; 
Whereas the House of Representatives finds that the conduct 
of police officers who engage in racial profiling and exces-
sive force, which can include shootings, brutal beatings, 
fatal chokings, and any other excessive treatment is a 
violation of the Constitution of the United States; 
Whereas the House of Representatives finds that the rule of 
law in the United States is undermined when police offi-
cers engage in conduct inconsistent with the Constitution 
of the United States; and 
Whereas the House of Representatives has a moral and con-
stitutional obligation to protect the civil rights and lib-
erties of all people from police abuses: Now, therefore, be 
it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) condemns all acts of brutality, racial 
profiling, and the use of excessive force by law en-
forcement officers and calls for the end of milita-
rized policing practices; 
(2) supports strengthening efforts to eliminate 
instances of excessive use of force, and conduct 
stringent oversight and independent investigations 
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into instances of police brutality, racial profiling, 
and excessive use of force, and hold individual law 
enforcement officers and police departments ac-
countable, including— 
(A) calling on the Department of Justice 
to— 
(i) reinstate its role in investigating 
individual instances of police brutality, vio-
lence, and racial profiling, and police de-
partments that violate civil rights; and 
(ii) take on a role in filing briefs urg-
ing courts to reconsider decisions that per-
mit unreasonable and excessive police prac-
tices and establish meaningful oversight of 
consent decrees; and 
(B) establishing independent all-civilian re-
view boards, with the authority to effectively in-
vestigate incidents of police misconduct, to en-
sure meaningful community level oversight, 
transparency, accountability, and discipline of 
police officers; and 
(3) calls for the adoption of sound and unbiased 
law enforcement policies at all levels of government 
that reduce the disparate impact of police brutality 
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and use of force on Black and Brown people and 
other historically marginalized communities. 
Æ 
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