California enacts law to strip badges from bad officers

By DON THOMPSON
Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California is joining the vast majority of states in setting up a way to strip the badges of police officers who act criminally or with bias. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the law Thursday as one of several police reform efforts. The move comes 18 years after lawmakers stripped away that power from a state police standards commission. The most populous state was one of just four without such a system, alongside Hawaii, New Jersey and Rhode Island. The new law was driven in part by last year’s murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis policeman. Newsom also signed bills limiting the use of rubber bullets during protests and barring a type of restraint hold that has led to deaths.