CALIFORNIA LAWMAKERS VOW PUBLIC SAFETY CHANGES

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 JonesSawyer 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 Jones-Sawyer.

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.

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.