California set the stage for states and citizens to begin winning the war against killer cops this year.
California Governor Jerry Brown (D) signed two important pieces of legislation this year in an effort to rein in police officers and to hold killer cops accountable for their actions.
Grand juries conducting secret hearings in Ferguson, Missouri and Staten Island, New York made controversial decisions not to bring charges against police officers who killed unarmed black men – Michael Brown and Eric Garner – sparking nationwide protests and the advent of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
With less than 48 hours left in 2015, The Guardian’s interactive page “The Counted” has recorded 1126 people killed by police officers in the United States this year. That’s slightly more than 3 people per day.
It’s time to strike back at the police culture that has jettisoned “protect and serve” for the much more dangerous “suspect and control.”
In August, Gov. Brown signed two pieces of important legislation aimed at making it easier to hold police officers accountable for their actions – setting the stage for action by other states wishing to rein in out-of-control law enforcement officials.
As The San Jose Mercury News reports, the first bill will make California “the first state in the nation to ban the use of grand juries to decide whether police officers should face criminal charges when they kill people in the line of duty.”
As Mother Jones reports, “The new California law leaves it up to the prosecutor to decide whether to charge a police officer with using deadly force, a change that many hope will lead to more transparency and accountability.”
According to The Mercury News, the bill, which will go into effect next year, “calls for transparency also have come amid national concerns about disparate treatment of blacks and other racial minorities when encounters with cops turned deadly in Baltimore, Cincinnati and South Carolina.”
“What the governor’s decision says is, he gets it — the people don’t want secrecy when it comes to officer-involved shootings,” said retired judge and former police auditor LaDoris Cordell, the first African-American appointed as a judge in Northern California. “We’re not trying to get more officers indicted. We’re saying, ‘Whatever you decide, do it in the open.'”
“The use of the criminal grand jury process and the refusal to indict, as occurred in Ferguson and other communities of color, has fostered an atmosphere of suspicion that threatens to compromise our justice system,” the author of the bill, state Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) said in a statement.
The second bill, authored by Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), ensures the rights of citizens to photograph or record police officers in public places or in any place in which the person making the photo or video has a right to be. In the past, citizens taking photos or video of law enforcement have been ordered to cease or have been arrested under claims of obstruction of justice.
“With the stroke of a pen, Gov. Brown reinforces our First Amendment right and ensures transparency, accountability and justice for all Californians,” Sen. Lara said in a statement, adding: “At a time when cellphone and video footage is helping steer important national civil rights conversations, passage of the Right to Record Act sets an example for the rest of the nation to follow.”
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