Past defeats on police reform bedevil newly divided Congress

Protesters gather in response to release of body cam footage of Tyree Nichols' death in Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia, Jan. 27, 2023. (Matthew Pearson/WABE)

Weeks before President Joe Biden made his first address to Congress in 2021, a graphic video was released of a Black man being killed at the hands of police.

The country watched the now hauntingly familiar scene play out across its screens. Family members tearfully pleaded for change. Lawmakers in Washington pledged to pass meaningful reform.

Biden pumped momentum into talks during the nationally televised address telling Congress to “get it done” by the next month, the anniversary of a Minneapolis police officer’s killing of another Black man, George Floyd.