Viewpoint: Sen. Randolph Bracy says Legislature must implement reforms to prevent police brutality.

Over the past several days, the world has seen a sobering outpouring of long-held grievances, deep-rooted collective pain, and an unyielding outcry for justice.

The public killing of George Floyd is but one recent symbol of our nation’s protracted history of systemic oppression and cruelty toward the black community. Most acutely, it is emblematic of this history’s particular manifestation in the policing of communities of color.

George Floyd’s death has sparked a national conversation that now carries on in parts of our country at a fever pitch. This tragic catalyst has revealed a degree of agitation and fury that has taken many by surprise — eclipsing a national narrative about COVID-19 in both intensity and scale. But, while protests persist throughout the country and across the globe, they will bring us no closer to their desired outcome until this momentum converges on real and enduring civic and political action.

In the diverse state of Florida, our statewide elected leaders must begin taking immediate and substantive action. We must enact robust accountability measures for police who unlawfully use force against civilians, beginning with independent investigations of police shootings.

We must also implement effective, evidence-based implicit bias and de-escalation training to prevent these violent, prejudicial, and irrevocable encounters in the first place.

It is my hope that the subsequent months and years will mark a genuine reckoning with our state and nation’s history of racial inequity and systemic oppression. Legislative action toward this end is much needed and long overdue in Tallahassee.

When the devastating shooting occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas

High School in February 2018, many feared that pleas for gun reform and school safety would fall on deaf ears, as they had done in the wake of other mass shootings in recent history.

But the Republican leadership in Tallahassee defied those expectations, and even challenged the National Rifle Association, in taking swift action to ban the purchase of rifles by those under 21 years of age.

The tragedy that took place in Parkland was met with mild reform at best, but did signal a tipping point for many who had once been firmly on the side of the gun lobby in Tallahassee. The ongoing epidemic of police violence toward black and brown people is perhaps easier for some Floridians to tune out.

Let’s face it — the misfortunes that plague communities of color are less likely to trigger mass outrage and ameliorative action than threats to affluent white communities.

Until recently, it seemed that with each tragic headline, more Americans would simply become inured to these senseless deaths. But the viral outrage surrounding George Floyd’s murder leads me to believe this could mark a turning point in our society and in our state.

I recognize that this socio-political problem is multifactorial, and is as rooted in cultural bias as it is codified within our criminal justice system and law enforcement practices. I recognize that our nation’s lifespan is comprised by many more years spanning the enslavement of black people than those acknowledging our humanity.

Much like the Legislature’s response to the Parkland tragedy, addressing this issue will require bold action, ingenuity, cooperation, and compromise. We will need to engage local law enforcement agencies to establish uniformity and transparency around data collection practices.

We will need to include civilian community members in the accountability structure for the officers who police their communities.

I have formally requested the support of Gov. Ron DeSantis in convening a special session on the matter of police reform and the disproportionate use of force against persons of color. While this problem represents a sociopolitical malady or inconvenience to many Americans, it poses a deeply existential menace to black men, like me, who are currently far more likely than other demographics to experience perilous perilous interactions with law enforcement. Inaction and indifference in the face of such injustice represents a moral failing.