How many needed help getting up?

Actually, I shouldn't joke.  I don't think I could stay on a knee for 9 minutes without collapsing.  Especially on that hard floor.  I would have had to have a kneepad for sure.

Just before unveiling the Justice in Policing Act, congressional Democrats kneeled for eight minutes and 46 seconds, in observation of the lenght of time that a police officer had his knee on Floyd’s neck.

“My members will attest, it is a very long time,” [Speaker] Pelosi said.

[...]

A spokesperson for Joe Biden said the presumptive Democratic nominee does not support defunding the police, as a number of criminal justice activists have called for after the killing of George Floyd.

  

Indeed that would probably spoil Dems' chances of flipping the Senate in November, as well.

Congressional Democrats unveiled their sweeping police reform bill. The legislation would nationally ban police chokeholds and create a national police misconduct registry, but many criminal justice activists have said reforms do not go far enough to address police brutality.

[...]

House Democratic caucus chair Hakeem Jeffries argued the Justice in Policing Act would help to crack down on police brutality and hold officers accountable.

[...]

The New York Democrat added, “All we ever wanted is to be treated equally. Not better, not worse. Equally. Why has that been so difficult to achieve?”

One of the first things that needs to happen is to get some black people in the Senate. There are only 2 out of 100 Senators who are black: Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, both Democrats, of course. Just one more reason Joe Biden should not (and I'm sure he won't) name Kamala Harris as his running mate.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer called on majority leader Mitch McConnell to put the Justice in Policing Act on the floor before July. The bill will likely pass the Democratic-controlled House, but McConnell has previously held up key pieces of legislation passed by House Democrats. Schumer pledged that Senate Democrats would “fight like hell” to get a vote on the police reform bill, but the Democratic leader has few options when it comes to pressuring McConnell to take up the legislation.

Maybe a March on Washington will help.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE: