Ayanna Pressley calls on Massachusetts lawmakers to reject Charlie Baker's police reform bill amendments

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley is calling on state lawmakers to reject Gov. Charlie Baker's amendments to the "long overdue" police reform bill he returned to the Legislature on Thursday. "This bill is already a compromise and should serve as the floor that we will build upon going forward. It includes essential long overdue common-sense proposals that would save lives," Pressley said in a statement Friday. The Democratic congresswoman said that by "refusing to sign the legislation, sending it back to the Legislature and demanding amendments that will water down important aspects of the bill, Governor Baker is once again demonstrating his disregard for the communities most impacted by our broken status quo system of injustice." Baker sent the long-debated bill back to the Legislature on Thursday with amendments making changes to portions of the legislation dealing with the use of facial recognition technology -- which lawmakers wanted to restrict only to the Registry of Motor Vehicles -- and police training.