All across the country, people are realizing the brutal truths of our nation’s approach to law enforcement and the living nightmare Black communities have experienced for generations. I’m writing to you today to ask you to lead Florida into a new approach to policing that recognizes the sanctity of life and the necessity of equal treatment under the law. You are in a position to make real change, and that begins with just a few steps I’ve outlined below.
It is inconceivable that not even a week after we witnessed police officers brutally and forcibly kneeling on the neck of George Floyd and suffocating the life out of him, we see these same tactics being used by Florida law enforcement against Black men and women and children.
It’s not enough for local governments to establish powerless citizen review boards, to invest in yet another set of flawed training programs, or to place officers who use excessive force (or who fail to intervene) on mere administrative leave. Florida must undergo a reckoning: with the political power of law enforcement organizations which have a long history of vigorously opposing criminal justice and policing reforms that will save lives; with the amount of taxpayer money that has been stripped away from necessary and life-affirming social services (including mental health and drug addiction treatment) in favor of militarized and in some cases actual military-grade weaponry and surveillance technology; and with our history of violence by law enforcement perpetrated against Black and brown communities.
Right now, I’m asking you to take these four steps and to commit to taking more action in the future to end state-sponsored terror against Black people:
1. Speak out against police brutality and violence and work with impacted communities to craft legislation that holds police accountable for their actions and improves the integrity of policing, such as establishing a mandatory duty for officers to report acts of brutality committed by other officers.
2. Pledge to enact legislation to amend the Police Bill of Rights to remove provisions that impose barriers to accountability and that allow violent cops to continue wielding the power of the State.
3. Pledge to repeal the requirement for every school to have a police officer or armed staff on site.
4. Pledge to enact legislation that immediately ends the use of strangleholds, chokeholds and all other neck restraint tactics by law enforcement in Florida, as well as ending the use of rubber bullets.
It’s up to all of us to end police brutality in Florida. As my elected legislator, I am counting on you to be a leader and begin the work we need to end this nightmare of policing in Florida.
