Senators in Sacramento, California approved a bill to prevent police officers from using deadly force on discriminated individuals on Wednesday, according to USANews.
What We Know
- The California bill came about in the recent shooting and killing of Stephon Clark by police. On March 18, 2018, Clark vandalized a vehicle and two offices fired 20 shots at him. By mistake, the officers believed the item he was holding was a gun but when they moved closer to him it was a cell phone.
- According to USANews, “The measure passed after 90 minutes of debate, including from lawmakers who said they or a loved one had been stopped because of their race to ethnicity.”
- Democratic Assemblyman Reggie Jones- Swayer of Los Angeles said, “Changing the legal standard is only one step, we need to ensure to changes are implemented by committing resources to train officers in new policies and best practices.” Jones finished by saying, he went through black driver training and still feels as though if he gets pulled over that he won’t be able to go home.
- The new bill is also set for police officers to de-escalate the confrontations before using deadly force on individuals.
- Robert Weisberg, co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center said, “the biggest component is better police training and predicted that the pair of bills will create an environment where it’s very clear what is reasonable, given the totality of their circumstances.”
Police killings have become so common that it’s predictable nowadays. Even after the shooting of Michael Brown in 2016, a group called Campaign Zero created the police use of force project that could help prevent police offices from killing people. One Republican said, “Respecting and obeying police offices” is one way that civilians can prevent unnecessary deaths and I feel as though one can respect a cop and still get shot.
