By Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden and first girl Jill Biden attended a memorial service on Saturday at america Capitol to honor regulation enforcement officers who misplaced their lives within the line of obligation in 2019 and 2020.
The White Home has additionally issued a proclamation ordering flags to be flown at half-staff at public buildings on Saturday.
The Nationwide Peace Officers’ Memorial Service started in 1982 as a small gathering in Washington’s Senate Park of roughly 120 survivors and supporters of regulation enforcement. It has since became a sequence of occasions, attracting 1000’s of survivors and officers to the nation’s capital annually.
Biden has been a loyal ally to regulation enforcement, courting again to his days within the Senate when he crafted the 1994 crime invoice with their assist. Earlier this yr, the president visited the Capitol to pay his respects to Brian Sicknick, a police officer who died of a number of strokes after being sprayed with a chemical throughout the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Nevertheless, the president’s efforts to cross a police reform invoice to tighten practices following the 2020 homicide of George Floyd in Minneapolis failed in September https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republicans-are-refusing-back-police-reforms-trump-supported-white-house-2021-09-22. That marked a setback for the Democratic president, who campaigned on the necessity for policing reforms.
Since then, Biden has expressed hope that he can nonetheless signal a complete police reform invoice into regulation, and indicated in statements on the time that Democrats might need to try this on their very own.
Biden has additionally mentioned he’ll look into additional government actions https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-wants-keep-working-police-reform-bill-willing-take-executive-action-2021-09-22 he can take to assist maintain law enforcement officials accountable for breaking the regulation.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Modifying by Leslie Adler)
