Support the Dream Defenders at daily kos has been churning out proposed laws to deal with the racism and brutality we have seen in America’s police departments. Above you see the first part of our Law Enforcement Documentation Act of 2016. What it would do is to require police officers to write a written report within one hour after a use of force incident. We have seen the need for this type of procedure countless times, including in Ferguson, as Darren Wilson never wrote an incident or use of force report after shooting Michael Brown.
Police immediately interview and take the statement of a civilian suspected of committing a crime for good reasons. Those same good reasons apply to police when they use force. Memories fade. Suspects can change their stories. Parties can get together and collaborate on their stories. The police turned over an incident report about Michael Brown’s scuffle in the convenience store almost immediately. Shouldn’t those same rules apply to officers who use deadly or other force?
What We Want to Accomplish
JoanMar started our group to fight for social justice, with a keen eye on over-policing, police discrimination and police brutality. She was soon joined by 2thanks and then the rest of the Defenders. We have amplified the voices from the #BlackLivesMatter movement, supported the Dream Defenders in Florida, and have written laws we expect a Democratic Congress to pass and a Democratic President to sign in 2017.
We are always on the lookout for new ideas.
If there’s one axiom we’ve learned about law enforcement, it is that there are few checks on the raw power of police departments around the country. According to the FBI, there are about 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States. There’s only one Department of Justice. That brings us to our next piece of legislation.
The Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act
Members of our group Support the Dream Defenders crowd-sourced this law to combat over-policing. “Over-Policing” occurs in jurisdictions like Ferguson, Missouri, where the municipal court somehow “issued 32,975 arrest warrants for nonviolent offenses, mostly driving violations” for a city with a population of 21,135 people. Then, there’s St. Paul, Minnesota, where Philando Castile was stopped by police 46 times in a 14-year period. There are cities and towns across the country doing the same thing.
Here’s a snippet showing part of Title 2 of The Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act:
The proposed law would allow a citizen to become a one-woman or one-man Department of Justice. They could sue an entire police department that is discriminatory in its application of the law. But how would we know if the police discriminated against POC? The first section of the law requires police to report all stops, use of force, minority and language minority status of the person stopped or arrested and so on.
If a police department is found to be an “Over-policed” jurisdiction, then they are put on a year’s probation, audited, and must meet stringent requirements to be released from the court’s supervision.
The Good Samaritan Law of 2016
There are many things that disgust our group with the way police have treated POC in this country. Near the top of the list is the fact that after many shootings, the police fail to render first aid to the victim. They walk away.
Support the Dream Defenders would like to change that. We’ve been working on an idea to mandate first aid in any situation in which an arrestee is injured. It looks like this:
A BILL
To require law enforcement agents to provide first aid to anybody injured in a stop or arrest, and to provide a rebuttable presumption, as provided herein, if first aid is not rendered;
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled:
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS
(a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as "The Good Samaritan Act of 2016".
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents of this Act is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Definitions.
TITLE I--DOCUMENTATION OF USE OF FORCE
Sec. 101. Background.
Sec. 102. Standard.
TITLE II--REBUTTABLE PRESUMPTION
Sec. 201. Rebuttable Presumption.
Sec. 202. Loss of Federal Funds; Equipment.
TITLE III--MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS, FUNDING, SEVERABILITY AND SAVINGS CLAUSE
Sec. 301. Appropriations.
Sec. 302. Severability.
Sec. 303. Savings clause.
SECTION 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Law enforcement agency.--The term "law enforcement agency" means any Federal, State, unit of local government, or Indian tribal public agency engaged in the prevention, detection, or investigation of violations of criminal, immigration, or customs laws.
(2) Law enforcement agent.--The term "law enforcement agent" means any Federal, State, local, or Indian tribal official responsible for enforcing criminal, immigration, or customs laws, including police officers and other agents of a law enforcement agency, and also including any private contract employee with those duties.
(3) Indian tribe.--The term "Indian tribe" has the meaning given the term in section 102 of the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act of 1994 (25 U.S.C. 479a).
(4) Covered program.--The term "covered program" means any program or activity funded in whole or in part with funds made available under--
(A) the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program under part E of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3750 et seq.); and
(B) the "Cops on the Beat" program under part Q of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3796dd et seq.), except that no program, project, or other activity specified in section 1701(b)(13) of such part shall be a covered program under this paragraph.
(5) State.--The term "State" means each of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and any other territory or possession of the United States.
(6) Unit of local government.--The term "unit of local government" means--
(A) any city, county, township, town, borough, parish, village, or other general purpose political subdivision of a State;
(B) any law enforcement district or judicial enforcement district that--
(i) is established under applicable State or local law or regulation or other governmental edict; and
(ii) has the authority to, in a manner independent of other State entities, establish a budget and impose taxes; or
(C) any Indian tribe that performs law enforcement functions, as determined by the Secretary of the Interior.
TITLE I—REQUIREMENT TO RENDER FIRST AID
Sec. 101. BACKGROUND. There is a fundamental need to protect the lives and health of individuals who have encountered law enforcement agents and who have been injured. This provision shall apply to any unit of local government or Indian Tribe which employs at least one police officer or has contracted with a company to provide services historically provided by a law enforcement agency.
Sec. 102. STANDARD. Immediately after calling in any request for assistance and/or request for medical personnel, each law enforcement agent in the vicinity of a person injured during a stop or arrest or other encounter must render first aid to the injured individual.
(a) This standard is relaxed only if there is, objectively and subjectively, a reason to believe that the scene is unsafe because of the potential for additional gunfire from other individuals.
(b) First aid shall be rendered according to Red Cross standards or reasonable, similar standards developed and published locally.
TITLE II--FAILURE TO RENDER FIRST AID
Sec. 201. REBUTTABLE PRESUMPTION. If the law enforcement agent or the law enforcment agents have failed or refused to comply with the first aid requirements described in Title I of this Act, then there shall be a rebuttable presumption in any federal court that the law enforcement agent or the law enforcement agents have violated the constitutional rights of the suspect or suspects or other person or persons who were the subject of the use of force. The presumption may be rebutted by clear and convincing evidence that the law enforcement agent was her- or himself unable to render aid because, objectively and subjectively, there was an immediate danger of gunfire from other individuals present.
Sec. 202. LOSS OF FEDERAL FUNDS; EQUIPMENT. If any law enforcement agent or law enforcment agency has failed or refused to comply with the first aid requirements described in Title I of this Act, then any or all federal funds under any Covered Program may be rescinded by the Department of Justice. Further, a violation of this Act shall create an automatic forfeiture of all federal tactical equipment, save communications equipment, previously provided to the law enforcement agency.
TITLE III--MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS, FUNDING, SEVERABILITY AND SAVINGS CLAUSE
Sec. 301. MISCELLANEOUS; FUNDING. Appropriations for this act will come from the Department of Justice's General Fund every year without vote. Provided, however, the Department of Justice may use funds obtained pursuant to 28 U.S. Code § 524(c). The Attorney General shall transmit to Congress a report indicating the disposition of any § 524(c) funds used hereunder in the same manner as that Section provides.
Sec. 302. SEVERABILITY. If any provision of this Act or the application of it to any person or circumstances is held invalid, the remainder of this Act and the application of its provisions to other persons not similarly situated or to other circumstances shall not be affected thereby.
Sec. 303. SAVINGS CLAUSE. Nothing in this Act shall be construed--
(1) to limit legal or administrative remedies under section 1979 of the Revised Statutes of the United States (42 U.S.C. 1983), section 210401 of the Violent Crime Control Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (42 U.S.C. 14141), the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3701 et seq.), or title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.);
(2) to affect any Federal, State, unit of local government or tribal law that applies to an Indian tribe because of the political status of the tribe; or
(3) to waive the sovereign immunity of an Indian tribe without the consent of the tribe.
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We would like to hear any criticism you have of this proposed law. The community provided many great ideas for our other Bills.
The President’s Commission
By executive order, President Barack Obama sought out the best ideas to improve law enforcement through a task force that researched a plethora of problems. His panel produced a final report that contained many suggestions and what they termed “Action Items.”
This is something that hadn’t been done but one other time in our nation’s history. In 1967, President Lyndon Johnson Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice issued a report filled with recommendations. President Obama’s task force did the same. Here are some of the more important Action Items:
1.3.1 Action Item: To embrace a culture of transparency, law enforcement agencies should make all department policies available for public review and regularly post on the department’s website information about stops, summonses, arrests, reported crime, and other law enforcement data aggregated by demographics.
This is similar to the reporting requirement that we have included in Title 1 of the Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act.
1.5.4 Action Item: Use of physical control equipment and techniques against vulnerable populations—including children, elderly persons, pregnant women, people with physical and mental disabilities, limited English proficiency, and others—can undermine public trust and should be used as a last resort.
As we have seen, this has been a “first resort” for police for far too long.
1.8.1 Action Item: The Federal Government should create a Law Enforcement Diversity Initiative designed to help communities diversify law enforcement departments to reflect the demographics of the community.
This is also one of the demands of #BlackLivesMatter, as we shall see in the next segment.
2.2.1 Action Item: Law enforcement agency policies for training on use of force should emphasize de-escalation and alternatives to arrest or summons in situations where appropriate.
This is the British Model of policing that is much more non-confrontational. And here’s a video of that kind of policing in action. This isn’t over-policing; this is just-right-policing, as British police use their minds and not their guns to subdue a man with a machete:
2.2.3 Action Item: The task force encourages policies that mandate the use of external and independent prosecutors in cases of police use of force resulting in death, officer-involved shootings resulting in injury or death, or in-custody deaths.
We’ve seen the results of police officers being prosecuted in their own jurisdictions. This causes more than just the appearance of impropriety. There are many, many more, but we’ll just look at a final Action Item:
6.4.1 Action Item: Congress should authorize funding for the distribution of law enforcement individual tactical first aid kits.
Police departments around the country don’t already have them? We have seen that they often fail to use them. That’s why we need the Good Samaritan Law above.
The #BlackLivesMatter List
The Black Lives Matter movement has forced the nation to talk about reforms of our over-policing problem. They are such a threat to the current and unsustainable status quo that #BLM has become the target of racists and Republicans everywhere. The group provided an excellent list of demands called “Campaign Zero,” which was not only reasonable, but also eye-catching:
1. End "broken windows" policing, which aggressively polices minor crimes in an attempt to stop larger ones.
2. Use community oversight for misconduct rather than having the police department decide what consequences officers should face.
3. Make standards for reporting police use of deadly force.
4. Independently investigate and prosecute police misconduct.
5. Have the racial makeup of police departments reflect the communities they serve.
6. Require officers to wear body cameras.
7. Provide more training for police officers.
8. End for-profit policing practices.
9. End the police use of military equipment.
10. Implement police union contracts that hold officers accountable for misconduct.
Conclusion
JoanMar has suggested that our group, Support the Dream Defenders, become the ALEC of social justice. We have prepared laws like the Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act, which has been hailed by the national Legislative Directors of the NAACP and the ACLU. We have worked to put it on the ballot in California. We have other laws waiting in the wings. I’m going to lobby our group to prepare a proposed law to require that police involved in the use of deadly force be prosecuted by an independent prosecutor in an adjacent county. I will also lobby for any way to implement the British Model of non-confrontational policing. How should that be written?
We need to be ready for 2017. Each new incident of police brutality caught on tape seems to expose new areas in which reform of our over-policed culture. What ideas do you have?