Policing Reform

As our nation grapples with pain of the murder of another unarmed Black man at the hands of law enforcement, we are witnessing millions of Americans take to the streets to demand change. The video of the murder of George Floyd showed both more pain that we can bare, yet just a small glimpse of that which goes unseen. The time to act is now.

As a constituent, I respectfully urge you to support a fundamental reform of our criminal justice system. The below steps are essential to moving towards a more just nation. They would limit the police use ...

As our nation grapples with pain of the murder of another unarmed Black man at the hands of law enforcement, we are witnessing millions of Americans take to the streets to demand change. The video of the murder of George Floyd showed both more pain that we can bare, yet just a small glimpse of that which goes unseen. The time to act is now.

As a constituent, I respectfully urge you to support a fundamental reform of our criminal justice system. The below steps are essential to moving towards a more just nation. They would limit the police use of in non-threatening situations and increase accountability.

We ask that you immediately take steps to:

1. End the qualified immunity doctrine which prevents police from being held accountable when they break the law. Qualified immunity, a defense that shields officials from being sued, has been interpreted by courts so broadly that it allows officers to engage in unconstitutional acts with impunity.

2. Prohibit all maneuvers--including neck holds, chokeholds, and similar excessive force--that restrict the flow of blood or oxygen to the brain; such actions should be deemed excessive use of force and thus constitute a federal civil rights violation;

3. Reform 18 U.S.C. Sec. 242 to require “recklessness” instead of “willfulness,” which would permit prosecutors to successfully hold law enforcement accountable for the deprivation of civil rights and civil liberties;

4. Prohibit any and all profiling (racial, ethnic, religious), and require robust data collection on police-community encounters and law enforcement activities. Data should capture all demographic categories and be disaggregated;

5. Develop a national public database that would cover all police agencies in the United States and its territories, which would compile the names of officers who have had their licenses revoked due to misconduct

6. Eliminate federal programs that provide military equipment to local law enforcement;

7. Ban law enforcement training programs with foreign governments which are systemic human rights abusers. One example is Israel, where hundreds of U.S. police departments train on an annual basis, including federal agencies such as CBP. Human Rights Watch has found that Israel engages in extensive state violence and human rights abuses against Palestinians, Black Jews, and African refugees, and should serve as no model for equitable justice;

8. Prohibit the use of no-knock warrants, especially for drug searches;

9. Require--at the federal level--that the use of force is reserved for only when necessary as a last resort after exhausting reasonable options; states should be incentivized through federal funding mechanisms to implement this standard; require the use of de-escalation techniques and the duty to intervene; ban the use of force as a punitive measure or means of retaliation against individuals who only verbally confront officers, or against individuals who pose a danger only to themselves; and require all officers to accurately report all uses of force;

10. Support local efforts to develop civilian review boards.

These reforms are of fundamental importance and are required to move our country toward a just criminal justice system. I look forward to learning more about your plans to address this matter.

+

Contact your Member of Congress and demand critical police reforms.

Contact your Member of Congress and demand change. By sending this action alert Congress, you are asking for TEN critical police reform.

Find your local rep

Compose your email

Subject:

As our nation grapples with pain of the murder of another unarmed Black man at the hands of law enforcement, we are witnessing millions of Americans take to the streets to demand change. The video of the murder of George Floyd showed both more pain that we can bare, yet just a small glimpse of that which goes unseen. The time to act is now.
 
As a constituent, I respectfully urge you to support a fundamental reform of our criminal justice system. The below steps are essential to moving towards a more just nation. They would limit the police use of in non-threatening situations and increase accountability.
 
We ask that you immediately take steps to:
 
1.      End the qualified immunity doctrine which prevents police from being held accountable when they break the law. Qualified immunity, a defense that shields officials from being sued, has been interpreted by courts so broadly that it allows officers to engage in unconstitutional acts with impunity.
 
2.      Prohibit all maneuvers--including neck holds, chokeholds, and similar excessive force--that restrict the flow of blood or oxygen to the brain; such actions should be deemed excessive use of force and thus constitute a federal civil rights violation;
  
3.      Reform 18 U.S.C. Sec. 242 to require “recklessness” instead of “willfulness,” which would permit prosecutors to successfully hold law enforcement accountable for the deprivation of civil rights and civil liberties;
 
4.      Prohibit any and all profiling (racial, ethnic, religious), and require robust data collection on police-community encounters and law enforcement activities. Data should capture all demographic categories and be disaggregated;
 
5.     Develop a national public database that would cover all police agencies in the United States and its territories, which would compile the names of officers who have had their licenses revoked due to misconduct
 
6.     Eliminate federal programs that provide military equipment to local law enforcement;
 
7.      Ban law enforcement training programs with foreign governments which are systemic human rights abusers. One example is Israel, where hundreds of U.S. police departments train on an annual basis, including federal agencies such as CBP. Human Rights Watch has found that Israel engages in extensive state violence and human rights abuses against Palestinians, Black Jews, and African refugees, and should serve as no model for equitable justice;
 
8.      Prohibit the use of no-knock warrants, especially for drug searches;
 
9.      Require--at the federal level--that the use of force is reserved for only when necessary as a last resort after exhausting reasonable options; states should be incentivized through federal funding mechanisms to implement this standard; require the use of de-escalation techniques and the duty to intervene; ban the use of force as a punitive measure or means of retaliation against individuals who only verbally confront officers, or against individuals who pose a danger only to themselves; and require all officers to accurately report all uses of force;
 
10.  Support local efforts to develop civilian review boards.
 
These reforms are of fundamental importance and are required to move our country toward a just criminal justice system. I look forward to learning more about your plans to address this matter.

Respectfully,

How we use the data you enter on this form

Do Gooder (the advocacy platform powering this online action) processes personal information from you that you enter on this form so that we can provide the functions and related services to you and The Campaigner (the organisation responsible for this online action) for their legitimate purposes, including possibly exporting it to other systems, and to effectively respond to enquiries and communications related to those services.

Specifically when you enter:

Your location data (residential address or postcode) it is used to locate your elected representative, to pre-populate your email signature and to provide The Campaigner with a visualisation of the location of the support for this campaign.
All other data you may enter, including your email address, name, telephone number, commentary and so on is used by The Campaigner to advocate for the campaign’s goals and where required may be sent to the target of the campaign.

The data collected by Do Gooder is also used by us in aggregate form to improve the service and may be held on your behalf outside your country of residence by our third party service providers. These providers are bound by contract to only use personal information on our behalf, in accordance with agreed terms. While the privacy laws of the country in which personal information is stored or transferred may be different from those in your country, we will always have safeguards in place when storing or transferring personal information. We will never sell, rent, loan or in any other way pass your information on to other parties other than to provide this service to you and The Campaigner.

The personal information collected by Do Gooder is held subject to a Data Processing Agreement between Do Gooder and The Campaigner in compliance with the EU's GDPR and Australian law.

Learn more about our privacy policy here

How is my data used?