LOS ANGELES – It’s been three months since the assassination of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked nationwide protests against police brutality and called for reform of criminal justice.
In many states, residents are still waiting for new laws and policies to be introduced. In California, by August 31, lawmakers will need to consider more than a dozen bills aimed at reducing, overseeing and disciplining the kind of police violence that led to Floyd’s death and that of thousands more like him, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures’ bill-tracking database.
“What we have seen in the last four months in this country, let alone in the last 50, 60 years, when it comes to police killings of black and brown people, calls for action,” said State Steven Bradford, democrat. “The George Floyd execution, and that’s what it was, spoke loudly not only to African-American people in this state and in this country, but to people around the world.”
Bradford is among a handful of lawmakers who have tabled proposed bills that could change the face of legislation in the nation’s populated state.
His account, the Kenneth Ross. Jr. Decertification Act, would create an independent body with the power to remove the badges of police officers who show that they have used excessive force, forged evidence, committed sexual assault or were convicted of other serious crimes.
Bradford, who is black, named the bill after a 25-year-old man who was shot and killed near Bradford’s Southern California home in a police yacht. The Los Angeles County Attorney’s Office evaded the officer from possible crimes and found that he had acted in self-defense.
Bradford said his bill would be the first of its kind in California, which is one of just five states that do not have the authority to remove police officers from local branches. That power lies with the departments themselves as local oversight committees. The other states are Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
“We think the time is right,” Bradford said. “There must be some responsibility.”
Robert Harris, a board member of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing the Los Angeles Police Department, said that although he agrees with the “premise” of the Bradford bill, he was disappointed that more unions and legislative agencies were not invited to draft the legislation.
“Officers who do not have the character as the temperament to be police officers should not be,” he said. “But if we’re talking about getting a certification from a peace officer, that she can ban them from ever being in that career again, it’s taking time to figure out how that really works, and in this case, we do not have that opportunity. hand. “
The California Police Chiefs Association, which initially supported Bradford’s idea, now says the legislation is “too complex” and would remove immunity for all public servants, The Associated Press reported.
The Police Association has withdrawn its support for a number of police reform bills, including one that would ban the use of carotid restrictions and chokeholds such as the one used to detain George Floyd and another bill that lawmakers should require immediate intervention and reporting of excessive use of force.
Dustin Rollo, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department, said in an interview earlier this summer that many rank-and-file police officers are frustrated by the tone of talks taking place on criminal justice reform. Part of the problem, he said, is that police are often the first to arrive at a crime scene when a social worker like health care may have more expertise to respond to certain situations, such as homelessness or drug use.
“There has not been an actual honest conversation in the community about what criminal justice reform looks like,” he said. “Policing is not always the solution to these problems, but it is an immediate answer.”
The bill currently being debated in the state Legislature is part of a broader, nationwide effort to tackle police brutality in the wake of ongoing civil unrest.
In July, on the same day, civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, joined the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys, which will establish a 19-member committee to investigate social disparities that disproportionately affect Black men. In June, the First Chamber unanimously approved a bill.
These differences were the focus of a recent study by the U.S. Union for Civil Liberties, which found that fatal shootings by police officers did not appear to be amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Blacks, Latinos and Indians remain disproportionately affected by deadly police matches compared to white people, according to the study.
In her speech for acceptance this week, Democratic vice presidential candidates robbed sen. Kamala Harris from California briefs on how racism continues to damage communities of color, from coronavirus to policing.
“Let’s be clear – there is no vaccine for racism,” she told the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night. ‘We have to do the work. For George Floyd. For Breonna Taylor. For the lives of too many others to name. For our children. For all of us. We must do the work to fulfill that promise of equal justice under law. ”
Southern California resident Trisha Michael, who is Black, lost her twin sister in February 2016 during a shooting with a police officer in Inglewood. Five of the responding officers were fired from the Inglewood Police Department in 2017 following an internal investigation, but Michael said she is still haunted by the loss of her sister.
“She was a nurse, a mother, a loving, friendly person,” Michael said. “She did things with her life and did things as best she could.”
The twins spent their last day together at their cousin’s baby shower. Michael still remembers dancing with her sister, a Corona beer in Kisha’s hand.
“We laughed,” she said. “That was the last time I remember seeing her.”
Kisha left the baby shower early to attend another party. Trisha went to her night shift as a nurse and had been feeling uncomfortable the whole time, she said. Back then, she could identify the feeling as “that compelling thing.” She called Kisha several times throughout the evening and talked to her friend of her sister, Marquintan Sandlin, around 1 p.m. He promised to look after Kisha and get her safely home.
Instead, Kisha and Sandlin were shot 20 times.
“I never went to bed that night,” Michael said. ‘I just lay on the couch and cared about her and thought of her. ‘
The next day, Michael learned that her twin sister had died while watching the evening news.
“I would not want anyone to experience that,” she said.
After the death of her sister, Trisha joined the Black Lives Matter-LA movement in hopes of changing the relationship between color and police communities and also sharing her pain with others who had experienced similar losses. BLM-LA is working with several families who have lost their lives to police violence, including Fouzia Almarou, whose son, Kenneth Ross Jr., inspired Bradford’s bills.
Almarou said she recently met Bradford during a candlelight vigil for her son after his death. While she’s glad she’s helped inspire a new bill, Almarou says it does nothing to cure the grief of losing a child.
“We were very close,” she said. “We were like best friends.”
