(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Why are members of the Congressional Black Caucus wearing `1870' pins during Biden's SOTU? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-07 Why were members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other Democrats wearing black pins with the number “1870” on them during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address? The pins represent a call to action at a time when Black people continue to be killed by police and the George Floyd Reform in Policing Act remains stalled in Congress. It was in 1870 that the first known police killing of an unarmed and free Black person occurred in the United States. “I’m tired of moments of silence. I’m tired of periods of mourning,” New Jersey Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democrat who came up with the idea to create the pins, told Yahoo News. “I wanted to highlight that police killings of unarmed Black citizens have been in the news since 1870, and yet significant action has yet to be taken.” Yahoo News wrote: On March 31, 1870, 26-year-old Henry Truman, a Black man, was shot and killed by Philadelphia Officer John Whiteside after being accused of shoplifting from a grocery store. Whiteside had allegedly chased Truman into an alley when at some point Truman turned to ask what he had done wrong, and the officer fatally shot him, according to an account in the Philadelphia Inquirer the following day. At trial, Whiteside claimed he had been ambushed by a crowd while he chased Truman. Whiteside was later convicted of manslaughter. That same year the country adopted the 15th Amendment, which granted Black men the right to vote. Over a century and a half since Truman’s killing, a steady stream of Black people have been killed by law enforcement, including 1,353 since 2017, according to data from Statista, a digital insights company. In fact, Black Americans are three times as likely to be killed by police as white people are, and they account for 1 in 4 police killings despite making up just 13% of the country’s population. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus invited the parents, siblings and children of Black people killed by police to attend Tuesday night’s State of the Union address. In his speech, Biden honored the parents of Tyre Nichols and urged Congress to pass the George Floyd Reform in Policing Act: “When police officers and police departments violate the public trust they must be held accountable,” Biden said. He added: “Let’s commit ourselves to make the words of Tyre Nichols’ true — ‘something good must come from this.’ . NPR reported: "It may have been Tyre Nichols yesterday, but it could be any one of us today and tomorrow," CBC Chairman Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) said during a press conference earlier Tuesday. "He was a son. He was a father. He was a man, a Black man who had a passion for skateboarding, and photography and sunsets. We all want to be safe," Horsford said. "There's no one who cares more about public safety than the people who are impacted every single day by the fear, the anxiety, the trauma, and yes, even the loss, because of encounters that we have historically faced as Black people in America." Nichols was beaten by five Memphis police officers after being stopped near his home for what police said was reckless driving. He died in a hospital three days later. The officers who beat Nichols were indicted and jailed on charges including second-degree murder. Nichols’ mother RowVaughn Wells stressed the need to pass the.George Floyd Reform in Policing Act, which includes provisions to hold police more accountable such as limiting the use of qualified immunity in civil lawsuits. The bill named after the 46-year-old black man murdered by Minneapolis police in 2020, passed the House of Representatives in the previous Congress, but failed to gain passage in the Senate because of the filibuster. “I hope today that we can get Congress to see that we need to pass this bill because this should never happen,” Wells said during Tuesday’s press conference with the CBC. “I don’t wish this on my worst enemy.” Wells and her husband, Rodney, Nichols’ stepfather, were among the guests invited by first lady Dr. Jill Biden to sit in her box during the SOTU address. Others invited by members of the CBC included the families of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old who was killed by Cleveland police in 2014 on a playground. and Amir Locke, the 22-year-old fatally shot by Minneapolis police in a no-knock raid last year. Some House Republicans recently have been photographed wearing AR-15 pins, which were passed out by Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia, a gun shop owner, who claimed the pins were “to remind people of the Second Amendment of the Constitution and how important it is in preserving our liberties.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/7/2151707/-Why-are-members-of-the-Congressional-Black-Caucus-wearing-1870-pins-during-Biden-s-SOTU Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/