Top US lawmakers to discuss police killings as reform momentum builds
Source: The Guardian
Prominent Republicans Rand Paul and Raúl Labrador will join leading African American Democrats such as Senator Cory Booker and Representative Elijah Cummings for a debate on criminal justice reform at Howard University, a historically black university in Washington, on Thursday.
Recent video of the shootings of Walter Scott in Charleston and Eric Harris in Tulsa, both of which have led to charges against officers involved, has helped galvanise momentum on Capitol Hill which has been slow to build since the disputed death of Michael Brown in Ferguson in August.
Cummings told the Guardian he was convening the debate because I believe we have a unique moment of bipartisan, nationwide support to reform our criminal justice system a system that has led to the over-criminalization, imprisonment, and even deaths of Americans across the country, particularly in communities of color.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/16/congress-police-killings-debate-reform
christx30
(6,241 posts)40%. They should have to hold a bake sale to buy an APC.
Johnyawl
(3,205 posts)...get them out of military uniforms and looking like cops again, provide accountability with Civilian oversight boards (with no ex-cops on them), and then training, training, training. Oh, and better screening of applicants.
And those Police Departments in cities with corrupt racist governments will have to be overseen by the Justice Dept.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)rid of those tickets from so called past crimes that do not include a serious crime. Just the number of tickets they are holding indicts the city.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)jwirr
(39,215 posts)solutions.
Lurks Often
(5,455 posts)This is primarily to make Congress look like they are "doing something"
The bulk of the shootings in question are taking place at the town or county level of law enforcement, over which the Federal government doesn't have much control or influence.
If people really want change, then the voters need to start making these shootings their primary reason to vote against someone, regardless of party. If mayors, district attorney's and sheriff's start getting voted out of office over these incidents, that's when you will start seeing changes made.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)so they look like adults, not newborns.