Our great Progressive Caucus member, Alfred Twu, provides a great summary of our Town Hall from June 6th. Please read it below if you have not had the chance to watch the video.
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“Here's are some notes I took of today's "Enough is Enough: A Town Hall for California Democrats on how to show up for Black Lives" I highly recommend watching the full video at https://www.facebook.com/ProgCaucusCDP/videos/538527773488576
Sean Dugar opened the meeting with a reading of names of Black people killed by police, including George Floyd, Stephon Clark, and many others. In CA, 681 Black people have been killed by police in the last 8 years, and 90% of officers who kill are not charged with a crime.
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from Congresswoman Barbara Lee:
"Now of course is the time for mourning. We're grieving, we're angry, also, now is the time for hope and for action. Black Lives do matter, and Enough is enough"
**FEDERAL LEGISLATION**
The Congressional Black Caucus is going to introduce several bills on Monday, including bills to end transfer of military equipment to police, banning chokeholds, ending racial profiling, independent review of police training, etc. The Progressive Caucus will post a summary and action plan.
**TRUTH, RACIAL HEALING, & TRANSFORMATION COMMISSION**
Underlying this is also poverty, wage disparity, wealth gap, health gap, institutional and systemetic racism
We've never had a real institution to put forth the true history of the middle passage, slavery, and how that plays out today.
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from Assemblymember Shirley Weber:
Recent State Legislation
**LIMITING USE OF FORCE**
Last year's AB392, which limited use of force, took tremendous effort due to opposition from police.
**GANG DATABASE**
The gang list is targeted against African American men. People didn't know they were on the list until they tried to apply for a job, or when they were arrested. There used to even be babies on the list. Recently the responsibility for the database has been moved to the state Attorney General's office, the list now has stricter standards and has to be purged every 5 years. (AB90 from 2017)
**POLICE RECORDS**
SB 1421 from 2018- gives everyone the opportunity to see records of law enforcement.
Upcoming State Legislation
**AFFIRMATIVE ACTION**
We're in process of reversing Prop 209. ACA5 will be on Assembly floor this week. Will go to voters in November. 209 has had devastating effect on access to schools, construction apprenticeship programs, contracting opportunities. Many public construction jobs lacked Black workers. Need 54 Assembly votes and 27 in Senate. We're close but some Dems are still not there. A small group of Asian Americans are opposing the bill, even though the data shows that they don't benefit from Prop 209. If we can get every Dem vote we will be good.
Here are the assembly members we need to work on:
Frazier, Gray, Grayson, Low, Maienschein, Mayes, Quirk-Silva, Ramos, Salas, Smith, Speaker Anthon Rendon, Voepel, Wood
**REPARATIONS**
AB 3121 - requires CA to form a commission to propose a plan for reparations.
**LAW ENFORCEMENT RECRUITING**
We need to recruit people from social sciences rather than military. Eliminating barriers such as credit score requirements that make it harder for Black people to qualify to become an officer. Need to eliminate the code of silence that officers have. Composition of police force should reflect community they serve.
The Progressive Caucus will be emailing this week legislation dealing with these issues. If you have anything for us to review and add, please email us at cdp.pc.officers@gmail.com
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from Will Rodriguez-Kennedy, President of California Young Democrats, chair of San Diego Democratic Party
**REFUSING POLICE UNION MONEY**
CA Young Dems is calling on elected officials and candidates not to take money from police officer or prison guard unions. We need to diverge from their influence on the party and watering down legislation.
**WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP ACROSS GENERATIONS**
End whitewashing of history. For example some LGBTQ people don't know that Stonewall was a riot, had been criticizing riots. Tell the history in context. Don't be condescending to new activists. Approach it from a place of care.
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from Congresswoman Maxine Waters
**INTIMIDATION OF ELECTED OFFICIALS**
This abuse has been ongoing because of influence of police unions and their money. Elected officials have been intimidated at every level of government. City council people hold the budget of police, tend to give them what they want, the best retirement, the overtime they want. City Councils have the power but not the courage for the most part. They fear that police union will give money to opponent in elections.
**ELECTIONS**
We got to make sure the election systems work this November. Need representation on election boards. in LA the registrar of voter tried early voting with reduction of polling places, led to people in line until midnight. Not enough effort was put into promoting early voting.
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from Tisa Rodriguez, chair of Riverside Democratic Party
**GETTING YOUNG PEOPLE INVOLVED**
Don't use young people just as assistants. They often don't have the time or money to do that and then wait for their turn. They are leaders, give them credit for their ideas.
**PURPLE DISTRICTS**
In Riverside, we first flipped the voter reg, then we flipped the turnout. Building the bench. The youth are not conservative.
A lot of communities have high turnover, people move. With coordinate campaign we're working on having conversation with people who are automatically registered as NPP when they get a driver license at 18, especially if rest of family is Democrat.
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Mayor Michael Tubbs was at a Black Lives Matter march in Stockton.
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from Daraka Larimore Hall, CA Dem Vice Chair
**POLICE UNIONS**
Police unions are sometimes an obstacle to accountability, but people should have right to collectively bargain. However, they should not get contracts that exempt them from criminal liability for murder.
**ENDORSEMENTS**
Its not acceptable that there are Dems that support Republicans for DA or Sheriff. We need a political culture that makes these things litmus tests, on central committee questionairres, including school and water boards.
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from Jovanka Beckles, CDP Progressive Caucus
The Police Officers Bill of Rights is a bill that protects a lot of the bad behaviors. Google it.
In Richmond, the Community Police Review Commission, allows residents to bring charges and complaints.
"I want us to see these times as an opportunity for radical change.""