There was once a time in our history when law and order types used lynching as a tool to keep a segment of the population in line. Back then, those targeted weren’t taken to courts and given a chance to defend themselves against real or trumped up charges. “Justice” was dispensed with brutal swiftness. It is 2016 and law enforcement officers armed with the power and blessing of the larger community still pose a real and present danger to everyone, really, but most especially to black folks.
Young black men were nine times more likely than other Americans to be killed by police officers in 2015, according to the findings of a Guardian study that recorded a final tally of 1,134 deaths at the hands of law enforcement officers this year.
According to The Guardian, police have killed 81 people since the 1st of January, 2016. That is eighty-one people in a little over a month! Let’s pause a second and think about that.
At least 1,205 people were killed by U.S. police in 2015. At least 1,112 were killed in 2014. At least 3,089 have been killed since May 1, 2013. killedbypolice.net
In preparing for this diary, I went to twosites that have been reliably keeping tabs on police killings since 2013. It was disappointing to see that neither site had any update for 2016. It seemed as if the sites’ managers have given up. If they have, I can’t say that I blame them. Reporting horrendous, disheartening news day in day out can have a debilitating effect on one’s health. This is especially true if it appears that there’s no end in sight and no way to effect change. Despite nationwide — and international— protests begging for restraint from the police, they, it seems, have turned blind eyes and deaf ears to our pleas and have picked up where they left off in 2015. How else do you explain over two deaths per day at the hands of law enforcement officers since the beginning of 2016?
So then, since the police will not voluntarily modify their behavior, it will be up to us — all of us — to see that laws are enacted to keep them in check. Enter The crowd-sourced Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act (MBOPRA).
It can be done. The police can exercise restraint. Police in other developed countries are doing just fine.
Police in the US Kill Citizens at Over 70 Times the Rate of Other First-World Nations
The California Initiative is our campaign to have California adopt The Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act (state version) by ballot initiative.
Why California
We know about Ferguson, we know about Baltimore, we know what’s been happening in New York; but have you heard of Kerns County, California?
According to The Guardian, Kerns County is the home of the ”deadliest police” to be found in the US.
Police in Kern County, California, have killed more people per capita than in any other American county in 2015.
But that’s not all; on the list of the 14 deadliest counties for police killings, six of them are in California. More than anything else, our law aims to change the culture of policing in this country; I say California is a good place to start.
We also chose California because of the plethora of civil and human rights organizations that make that state their home. There are more NAACP and ACLU branches in California than in any other state. Fertile ground to receive and support our message, we thought.
14 police departments killed black people exclusively in 2015, 100% of the people they killed were black. For only 5 police departments were 100% of those killed white.
Additionally, California is perfect because of this woman:
That woman is Assemblywoman Shirley Weber. She sponsored the Racial and Identity Profiling Act of 2015. Recently, Governor Jerry Brown signed her act into law. Our ballot initiative would work hand-in-glove with Representative Weber’s outstanding new law.
Where are we in the process? We are not just asking for your help and then resting on our laurels. Here’s what dedicated members of our team have done to date:
Identified and secured the support of fierce advocates in California
Identified proponents for our bill
Submitted our bill to the State of California Department of Justice
Paid all mandatory fees
Currently in talks with the Legislative Analyst's Office
We are awaiting the circulating title and summary that will be generated by the Attorney General's Office.
We are asking California Kossacks to go to the official California website for ballot initiatives, look at The Over-Policed Rights Act, and leave a supportive comment. You can find it all here. Our ballot initiative is number 15-0124, and you can click on that number to look at the California ballot initiative. The comment period ended on January 28th. If you made a comment, thank you!
In addition, while we wait for the Attorney General’s office to satisfy the dictates of State Law, we are preparing for the next phase, that of collecting signatures. We will need to collect about 400,000 signatures. Will you help?
Send us a Kos Mail and let us know if there’s an individual or organization you know who’d be willing to help. Tell us in the comments if you are willing to help.
(Wordcloud composed of Support the Dream Defenders, Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act, Expand Medicaid, Freedom of Information Act Project, Combat Racism, Demand Equality.)
Members of the Daily Kos group Support the Dream Defenders launched four ongoing projects:
1. We came together to support the Dream Defenders in Florida and their mission, our first project and the origin of our name. The Dream Defendersdefend the Dream of Martin Luther King Jr. by "develop[ing] the next generation of radical leaders to realize and exercise our independent collective power; building alternative systems and organizing to disrupt the structures that oppress our communities." Please donate here.
2. Our Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act, crowd-sourced at Daily Kos in the fall of 2014 after the death of Michael Brown. Our bill quickly earned endorsements from the NAACP and the ACLU. The NAACP forwarded our bill to members of Congress, and we distributed it to members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other progressive members of Congress. President Obama signed into a law a small piece of our bill in December 2014. The Department of Justice included parts of our law in their reports on Ferguson, Missouri, in 2015. Our state version of the MBOPRA is currently in committee in the Kansas legislature.
3. Our Freedom of Information Act project. Nineteen Republican governors chose to kill poor people by not expanding Medicaid. Ebola has killed about 9000 people in total; Republican governors kill 23,000 people PER YEAR by refusing federal support for Medicaid, a story ignored by traditional media. Our project forces those governors to out themselves, clapping them in a Catch 22. With the support of readers, we publicize our results through letters to the editor, press releases, and petitions.
You can receive all future diaries of Support the Dream Defenders in your Daily Kos Stream by clicking here. Then click "Follow," which will make all STDD diaries appear in "My Stream" of your Daily Kos page.
This is a community diary. Please Join us.
You are also welcome to join us on The Porch over at the Black Kos Community group on Friday afternoons at 4 p.m. ET."
