In wake of George Floyd killing, Kim Daniels calls for police reform

Rep. Kim Daniels. Image via AG Gancarski

Rep. Kim Daniels, a Jacksonville Democrat, continued calls this week for reform in the wake of the police slaying of Minneapolis’ George Floyd.

Daniels, during a Tuesday evening town hall held by Jacksonville’s WJXT, suggested now is the time for meaningful reform.

“I know we’ve been talking about the problem,” Daniels said. “Protest has been effective. It’s time to go to the table and make things happen,” she said.

Daniels was especially heartened by the younger generation’s uncompromising positions, which has been driving street protests with an intensity not seen in recent memory.

“The generation speaking now are saying ‘we are the people and we don’t play,'” Daniels said, noting that in the case of at least some rogue cops, they have a point.

“Everyone looked into the face of George Floyd,” Daniels said, describing an “incident that was so in our face” with an officer saying, basically, “I’m going to do this and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“It seemed like for so long these things were happening and nothing was getting done,” Daniels added, describing cops that “have gotten away with it for so long they’ve gotten comfortable,” exhibiting a “prideful abuse of authority.”

Daniels, an evangelist by trade, described a prison experience that stuck with her.

“I think about Timothy Thomas, murdered in Lake Butler,” Daniels said.

Inmates told her that guards killed him, and before his death he was “handcuffed and maced and he said he couldn’t breathe.”

“I couldn’t sleep for weeks … nothing was done,” Daniels said.

Daniels, a second-term state Representative, will face a competitive primary in 2020.

Angie Nixon, a longtime political activist and small business owner, is challenging Daniels, with the blessing of establishment Democrats both locally and statewide.

Daniels has more than $56,000 on hand. Nixon, in the race for just months, has more than $35,000 on hand and had a stronger May fundraising period than the incumbent.