Lawmakers, activists at NAACP convention push to stop police misconduct
Laws to force police to abide by set rules, to require police agencies to collect data and a march across five states are among the proposed efforts being pushed by lawmakers, activists and civilians to change what they see as a culture of police misconduct against unarmed black Americans.
As the country approaches the one-year anniversary of the July 17th, 2014, police chokehold death of an unarmed black man in Staten Island, N.Y., lawmakers, activists, delegates and civilians are getting together at this year's annual NAACP convention to get behind ways they can change what they fear is a growing trend.
Already this year, 500 unarmed people have been killed by police, said Barbara Arnwine, retired president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
While criminal justice and alleged police misconduct is not the singular theme of this year's gathering, which has brought 8,000 attendees to Philadelphia, it is the thread which is tying together a majority of sessions and speeches.
The issue has been one that has brought people together, as fiscal conservatives, social progressive, theological progressives and other diverse groups have come together to protest alleged police misconduct, NAACP President Cornell William Brooks said in an interview.
Among the cases that have drawn recent national attention are that of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen fatally shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo. on Aug. 9, 2014, and Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Cleveland boy fatally shot by police on Dec. 5 after pointing what turned out to be a toy pistol.
The public is moved by the cases, but Brooks hopes the gathering motivates people to do more.
"We know the answers, it's just that we won't collectively as a nation speak up and give the right answers," Brooks said. "We have to implement the answers with policy."
Ending racial profiling is major, Brooks said, pointing out proposed bills to do so have been in the works since John Ashcroft was attorney general. The country has a racial profiling bill "that is older than 9-11," Brooks said. Community policing also is something that can help and that the organization hopes to compel municipalities to adopt.
Prosecutors, lawmakers and activists at the convention said there needs to be more diversity on all levels of criminal justice. If Michael Brown had mouthed off at a black police officer, that officer might have mouthed off right back at him but then let the incident end there, said NAACP Chairwoman Roslyn Brock.
"He would still be alive today," Brock said.
The NAACP also hopes also to raise awareness through what it is calling "America's Journey for Justice," an 860-mile march starting Aug. 1 from Selma, Ala., where the major voting rights battles took place, to Washington, D.C.
Attendees are pushing several more pieces of legislation they say will help turn matters around.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Houston Democrat, said she and fellow Democrat John Conyers of Detroit will announce a proposed bill on July 22 that will call for all police departments to be accredited. Her office also is proposing a bill that would compel all police agencies to provide data on use of alleged excessive force by police against civilians and vice versa.
Activists and political figures at the conference also encouraged others at the convention to practice strength in numbers. In New York, 25 state NAACP leaders met with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, motivating him to sign an executive order on July 8 that names state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as special prosecutor in cases in which law enforcement officers kill unarmed civilians.
But Kenneth Thompson, the Brooklyn, N.Y., district attorney who made national news when he announced he would stop prosecuting low-level drug cases, said he is concerned about any policy that places decisions and investigations regarding alleged police misconduct in the hands of one person.
"The attorney general has put together a team to investigate, but the state attorney general is the top lawyer" representing New York, Thompson said. "When a state trooper kills someone in New York … who is going to prosecute that state trooper?"
The public must also understand it is not just white prosecutors who engage in allegedly questionable decision making, said Monique Dixon, senior policy counsel for criminal justice with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. There are black prosecutors and assistant prosecutors at times shying away from investigating alleged police misconduct, she said.
"There is a culture in the prosecutors' office," Dixon said.
Change needs to happen, Brooks said. "Throughout the course of this year, we have been revolted and morally disturbed by the images on our mobile devices and our televisions," he said.
President Obama addresses the convention on Tuesday.