Home California California Bill Would Make Changes to How Police Deploy Lethal Force

California Bill Would Make Changes to How Police Deploy Lethal Force

by ECT

On Tuesday, Assemblymembers Kevin McCarty and Shirly Weber announced legislation that they believe will make significant changes to how police deploy lethal force against civilians.

The Police Accountability and Community Protection Act, authorize police to use deadly force only when it is necessary to prevent imminent and serious bodily injury or death – that is, if, given the totality of the circumstances, there was no reasonable alternative to using deadly force, including warnings, verbal persuasion, or other nonlethal methods of resolution or de-escalation. It also establishes that a homicide by a peace officer is not justified if the officer’s gross negligence contributed to making the force “necessary.”

Assemblywoman Shirly Weber called it a “first of its kind state law” saying she and her coalition have been deeply saddened and frustrated by the killing of black and brown men by law enforcement and that it seemed like the worst possible outcome is increasingly the only outcome that we experience.

“It is time now that we as legislators match the publics energy by doing the right thing by pushing for smart and effective reform,” said Weber. “This bill today, which is co-athored by myself and Mr. McCarty… authorizes police officers to use deadly force when it is necessary to prevent imminent and serious bodily injury or death.  That is if given the totality of the circumstances that no reasonable alternatives using the force. Which is included warnings, verbal persuasion or other non lethal methods are resolutions to de-escalation.”

Weber added that they were not saying officers can never use deadly force, but only when it was completely necessary.

Assemblymember Kevin McCarty said the time was to act now as the nation is watching Sacramento.

“We have these incidents too often in our great country and we had an unnecessary killing right in our own backyard in my hometown of Sacramento,” said McCarty. “Too many people ask how can a kid with a cell phone in his family’s backyard shot to death in the back by a law enforcement officers when they see examples 3000 miles away, the Parkland shooter, not an African American kid, gets arrested peacefully after slaughtering so many kids with an assault rifle. That is the question too many of us ask.”

McCarty said the time was now to revise a 100-year-old law which too often justified deadly force incidents.

“This reasonable modification focuses only on only when necessary as opposed to only when reasonable which is very different in the eyes of the beholder,” explained McCarty. “This law we think will help prevent needless loss of life by having law enforcement agencies focus on increased training on de-escalation. New officers going through the academy, but as well as existing officers.”

McCarthy further explained how this was about bringing confidence to the pubic.

“This will help bring confidence to the public that we can be smarter and more humane with our policies and bringing about justice is not easy but this was a necessary step that we can enact this year in California,” said McCarty.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of California is also behind the bill. Peter Bibring, Police Practices Director with the ACLU of California, issued the following statement:

Today, California legislators heard and responded to the community’s call for action by introducing landmark legislation to change state law governing the deadly use of force by police, and to require the disclosure of information about law enforcement agencies’ investigations into police use of force and confirmed misconduct.

For years, communities throughout the country have experienced policing in America that is unjust, racially discriminatory, and unnecessarily violent. The killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, and so many others since, have laid bare this truth: our country’s laws protect the police, not the people. Last month, we relived that nightmare again when footage of Stephon Clark’s senseless killing by Sacramento police officers was made public.

While our hearts are broken by tragedies such as these, our resolve to fight for change will never be. Now, more than ever, we must change state laws to ensure that police are held accountable to us – the people they are meant to serve and protect.

We call on the rest of the Legislature and Governor Brown to support the Police Accountability and Community Protection Act (Weber) and SB 1421 (Skinner), to protect the people of California and hold officers accountable for their actions.

 

 

 

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3 comments

Dmitri Apr 4, 2018 - 12:08 am

Law enforcement needs to focus on the real enemy, and it’s not a brown man in a hoodie, it’s a dude in a suit. Just like economists focus on macro-transactions over micro-transactions, we need to focus on white collar criminals who are destroying the country in chunks and not blue collar criminals who do piece by piece. Focus on the bread, not the crumbs. Focus upstream at the root, not downstream. We need a gulag for and guilotine for the rotten Wall Street and war monger oppressors who are the puppet masters of deliberate chaos. Instead of these black men dying in vain, it should be the worthless inheritors of wealth like Trump and the ungrateful descendants of these swine. They cause unrest in our communities while they get paid vacations and lavish lifestyles, while we sweat and toil for pennies. They get bonuses while we lose opportunities and jobs. They don’t care about us. While we’re worrying about mortgages, car payments, health insurance, raising children, they scoff at our very existence and see us as nothing more than consumers in their game.

Feel The Pain Apr 4, 2018 - 8:42 am

Dimitri you are right, let the micro transactions go on doing what they do best commit crimes against the public. Let them all run and create chaos and then you will see the 2nd Amendment work the way it was intended. The police can now focus on the real crime, good luck.

American Apr 4, 2018 - 1:09 pm

Left wingers want socialism. The Law Enforcement change should be use less ammo this saving taxpayers by taking out murders and rapists.

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