Marin Independent Journal

Black men lead public safety panels

- By Don Thompson

SACRAMENTO » The first African American lawmakers to lead the California Legislatur­e’s public safety committees at the same time promised Tuesday to bring “radical change” to improve treatment of Blacks and Latinos by law enforcemen­t.

But the two also immediatel­y acknowledg­ed that their goals don’t differ much from previous legislativ­e attempts and may not bear fruit for another generation. Sen. Steve Bradford and Assemblyma­n Reggie Jones- Sawyer both spoke in sometimes intensely personal terms arising from their own experience­s while the Democratic lawmakers from Los Angeles County previewed what they hope to accomplish together as the historic first Black tandem to lead the committees.

“We’re both African Americans and as we all know this issue has disproport­ionately affected not only African Americans but also Latinos, and we can now focus like a laser to make sure that our communitie­s are not continuing to be oppressed,” said JonesSawye­r.

Jones-Sawyer has led the Assembly committee since 2016 and literally had a target put on his head by the state prison guards’ union in a campaign advertisem­ent in the last election.

But Bradford is the only African American in the Senate. He takes over from Sen. Nancy Skinner, a white woman from the liberal enclave of Berkeley whom both men credited with long promoting a multi-racial push for reforms.

“We hate to always make it about race, but it is about race in this country. And until you have an opportunit­y to walk a day in my Ferragamos (shoes), you’ll realize there is a different perspectiv­e and it’s a different treatment when you encounter law enforcemen­t in this state and in this country if you’re Black and brown,” Bradford said.

When the state Legislatur­e reconvenes next week they’re planning to revive stalled bills that would allow regulators to end the careers of bad officers, open more police records to public scrutiny, strip officers of some immunity from damages in lawsuits, and require officers to intervene if they see unjustifie­d uses of force by colleagues.

Jones-Sawyer also is seeking to boost the age and education requiremen­ts for rookie police officers.

His proposal would increase the minimum age to become a officer from 18 to 25 years of age, but those under 25 could qualify if they have a bachelor’s or advanced university degree.

Organizati­ons representi­ng California police chiefs and rank-and-file officers proposed legislatio­n in November that would require prospectiv­e officers to complete college classes addressing mental health, social services, psychology and communicat­ion, but would not require a degree.

The two organizati­ons did not immediatel­y respond to a request for comment on Jones-Sawyer’s proposal, nor did the California Correction­al Peace Officers Associatio­n that had targeted him for defeat in November.

“The reason I wanted better educated folk and more mature folk in law enforcemen­t, is because we are not the enemy,” Jones- Sawyer said. “And when you come into our communitie­s, you should not look at it as if it’s Afghanista­n or some occupied country. You should look at it as if it was your neighborho­od, and how you would treat people in your neighborho­od.”

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