Tues 5/21: AB-392 – Act to Save Lives. Call your assemblymember now!

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.

Continue reading “Tues 5/21: AB-392 – Act to Save Lives. Call your assemblymember now!” →

Sun – 4/21: Your Monday call to oppose SB-230 can save a life.

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.

Action – Tell your state senator to oppose SB 230 – which perpetuates our police-execution machine.

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.

This action is actually the tale of two competing CA bills –

AB-392 “Peace officers: deadly force“, 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 “necessary“. (APPROVE!)
SB-230“Law enforcement: use of deadly force” backed by police unions and management, concentrates on improving internal department policies and training, all of which they could do without creating this unnecessary law. (OPPOSE)

Here’s a clip from a officer training video from Kern County in 2006. Although Sheriff Youngblood stated his words were taken out of context, it’s not surprising that Kern County is currently the leader in officer-involved killings. (Sheriff Youngblood retained his seat.)

SB-230“Law enforcement” is on the 4/23 agenda in the Senate Committee on Public Safety, (Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson is a member, along with Sen. Nancy Skinner (Chair), Sen. Moorlach (Vice Chair), Sen. Bradford, Sen. Mitchell, Sen. Morrell, and Sen. Wiener.)

They’ll be meeting at 9:30 Tuesday, so get your calls in on Monday! (If you’re not sure who your senator is, check here.) (AB-392 has been re-referred to the Rules Committee and isn’t on the agenda yet.)

Continue reading “Sun – 4/21: Your Monday call to oppose SB-230 can save a life.” →

Curb Police Violence – Enough is enough

“Mapping police Violence” – article here.

What most people now know:

Stephon Clark was shot by the police 7 times in the back. He was unarmed.

What most people may not know:

This was not an anomaly. California’s police departments are some of the deadliest in the country. Police in Kern County, for example, have killed more people per capita than in any other county in the US. Broken down by city, we has five of the 15 deadliest police departments – Bakersfield, Stockton, Long Beach, Santa Ana and San Bernardino. Our officers fatally shot 162 people last year, only half of whom were armed with guns and studies show that blacks are far more likely than whites to die in police shootings. But many of these deaths could have been prevented if police were held to a higher standard that valued the preservation of life.

Our legislators are advocating for two bills that resulted directly from Stephon Clark’s death: Continue reading “Curb Police Violence – Enough is enough” →