Tag: Policy

POLICY PLATFORMS – M4BL

Black life and dignity require Black political will and power. Despite constant exploitation and perpetual oppression, Black people have bravely and brilliantly been a driving force pushing toward collective liberation. In recent years, we have taken to the streets, launched massive campaigns, and impacted elections, but our elected leaders have failed to address the legitimate demands of our Movement. We can no longer wait.

In response to the sustained and increasingly visible violence against Black communities in the U.S. and globally, a collective of more than 50 organizations representing thousands of Black people from across the country came together in 2015 with renewed energy and purpose to articulate a common vision and agenda. We are a collective that centers, and is led by and rooted in, Black communities. And we recognize our shared struggle with all oppressed people: collective liberation will be a product of all of our work.
— Read on m4bl.org/policy-platforms/

ACLU and Community Groups Launch Campaign to Demand Justice and Transparency as Trump DOJ Abandons Federal Police Oversight | American Civil Liberties Union

Commentary:  2 key concepts about policing that are important to understand.

The first is policing is local.  Police in California and New York are similar but they are also different.  If a police department in California does something improper that is not an indication that the police in New York are doing the same improper act.   This leads to the second point, Governmental Home Rule.  This means that each municipality is it’s own government.  This allows the local city, town, or village (c-t-v) to have dominion over it’s municipal agencies.  This allows each local government to control it’s police department.  Therefor each municipal government, if it chooses, can MANDATE police reform of it’s local police department.

The bottom line is that the DOJ is not needed to initiate police reform.  The Governments in Memphis, TN, Louisville, KY, Lexington, MS, Phoenix, AZ, Minneapolis, MN, Mount Vernon, NY, and Worcester, MA, can force their local police department to initiate or continue reforms suggested from the DOJ investigations.

When police department reform is initiated at the local level it works better.  The Mayor or Supervisor of a C-T-V calls for police reform, the Council or Trustees support it (at least through a budget line), the Chief or Commissioner of the police department makes the change.  If the Chief/Commissioner doesn’t follow through with the reform that can be fired.  If the Council or Trustees don’t support the reform efforts they can be voted out of office.  The same with the Mayor or Supervisor if they don’t mandate police reform they can be voted out of office.  Now the citizens have a voice, if they think reform is not needed they can use their voices and votes to make changes.  The same if a large enough group is calling for reform they can pressure their local government to make changes.

This is much better that having the secret DOJ control local police reform.  The C-T-V elected officials have no voice, only to agree with the DOJ’s findings.  The community can’t pressure anyone because the DOJ is not elected by the community.

The ACLU Press Release

The Seven States Safety Campaign targets police departments where the Biden DOJ found rampant police brutality and racial targeting
— Read on www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-and-community-groups-demand-justice-and-transparency-as-trump-doj-abandons-federal-police-oversight

Champaign’s police review board aims to improve policing, but some fear it lacks power to make change – IPM Newsroom

In 2021, shortly after she became the chair of Champaign’s civilian police review board, Alexandra Harmon-Threatt sat down to review records and video from investigations into civilian complaints that had been filed earlier that year.

In one case, a man had accused Champaign Police Officer Nicholas Krippel of being physically and verbally aggressive toward him and making physical contact without cause during a response to a verbal disagreement between a landlord and the man who filed the complaint.

“Officer Krippel got in my face, in my space,” the complainant said in an interview with Lt. Kevin Olmstead, who conducted the Champaign Police’s internal investigation. “His vest actually touched my skin, that’s how close he was to me.” 

The man said Krippel had escalated the situation: “He only told me to stop talking and shut up, but he [said] nothing to the dude that threatened me.”

Harmon-Threatt’s review of Krippel’s bodycam video confirmed, in her mind, that both of these allegations had merit. But when she read Olmstead’s report, she found that it contradicted the video evidence.
— Read on ipmnewsroom.org/champaigns-police-review-board-aims-to-improve-policing-but-some-fear-it-lacks-power-to-make-change/