Image used by permission of Darrin Bell, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. The death of Trayvon Martin was one of driving motivations behind his amazing work.
ALL of the members of the CA Indivisible coalition are working together to drive calls to our legislators to push important bills through their house. Today, we’re asking for a flood of support for AB-392 “Peace officers: deadly force“. This bill, backed by the ACLU, civil-liberties groups, labor unions, and families, CHANGES the standards about when police are allowed to use deadly force from “reasonable” to “only as a LAST resort” and mandates de-escalation.
Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I’m calling (optional: “as a member of Indivisible”) to ask Assemblymember [___] to support AB 392 to change California’s policy for police use of deadly force.
More script if you want it: Too many people, mostly young men of color, are killed at the hands of police every year with no justice due to our weak standard for use of force. This needs to end.
Contact -Call the number in the title graphic OR use the info. below.
State Assemblymember Monique Limón: (CA-37): SAC (916) 319-2037, SB (805) 564-1649, VTA (805) 641-3700 email
Not your people?: findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov.
Background/Update – Your voices caused change!
Update from original posting on 4/21
Despite our liberal reputation, CA leads the nation in police-involved killings at a rate 37% higher than the national average, due to extremely loose regulations on when police can use lethal force. Between 2005 and 2016, our police officers killed over 1,200 people. In 2017, they killed 162 people, half of whom did not have guns. A recent LAPD report found that one in three instances of use of force by its officers involved someone with mental illness. Shootings also disproportionately impact communities of color, as CA police kill unarmed young black and Latino men at significantly higher rates than they do white men.
The action in the 4/21 posting was originally targeted at two bills – a “YES” on AB-392 and a “NO” on SB-230, a police-backed bill that conflicted with AB-392 and proposed changes that would actually INCREASE the rate of officer-involved shootings.
However, public pressure has pushed law enforcement groups to drop the part of their bill that would lock in the current national standard for justifying the use of deadly force. The text of SB-230 has been significantly altered and defanged. It now focuses on training, de-escalation and continuing education on mental health issues. Now we can concentrate our efforts in changing CA into the safest place in the nation for all of our citizens to interact with police.
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 