San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
All see the injustice, but what will we do about it?
Everyone protesting the killing of George Floyd, police brutality and racial injustice must ask their elected officials a simple question: What are you doing about it?
Before I answer, let me explain why I believe the relationship between the people and the police is so hard to change, why this moment is different, and what we must now do.
Captives to systemic racism
The relationship between many American communities and police is a conundrum. For generations, many black and Latino communities have been captive to abusive police forces they simultaneously rely on to combat criminal threats. Police officers are often both lifesaving and life-threatening.
I grew up in neighborhoods commonly written off as “bad” — slandered as undesirable by real estate agents or chamber of commerce types pitching investment sites to speculators. This depiction of my side of town — the West Side of San Antonio — bled over into a misunderstanding of the people who lived there. And while the crime rate was higher than in other parts of the city, I never felt my life or the people I grew up around were defined by the surrounding crime. I believe no one appreciates the need for effective law enforcement more than people in neighborhoods most burdened by crime.
This relationship, combined with centuries of racism, policefriendly laws and collective bargaining agreements, contributes to insulating police from accountability for misconduct. That’s why the officer who shot 12-yearold Tamir Rice for carrying a toy gun was never charged. Nor the officer who choked to death Eric Garner for selling cigarettes. And when you allow the police system to be this broken, no one is safe from misconduct — everyone is at risk.
A new era of knowing
Twenty-first century technology has created a new age of knowing. All of us walk around with cameras attached to minicomputers — social documentarians ready to capture the world around us, share it with our networks and go viral.
Before smartphones and police body cameras, there were countless excessive force complaints. People were killed by cops without accountability, but those cases were much harder to prove. Because of the tremendous legal and societal deference afforded to police, few officers paid a price for abuse. Complaints, even in cases of alleged murder, often came down to a question of credibility — a he-said, she-said type of scenario where an officer’s word often prevailed, especially over black and brown people.
The transition from written accounts to video moved us beyond a battle of credibility — a dispute over whom to believe — to a dispute over interpretation. Aggressive public relations campaigns by police unions encourage the public to view encounters primarily, if not exclusively, through the eyes of an officer. Americans take sides and debate whether Rodney King and Eric Garner were still threats to officers despite being weaponless, outnumbered and overcome.
A significant reason why George Floyd’s death has sparked protests across America is because the video leaves no room for interpretation. A cop knelt on his neck so he couldn’t breathe. Progressives see it. Conservatives see it. We know it.
What are we going to do?
With knowledge comes the burden and responsibility to act. Today we exist mostly in the stage between knowing and action. Bad cops enjoy a powerful array of laws and policies that protect them from accountability and, ultimately, justice. For example, about 70 percent of fired officers in San Antonio get their jobs back.
That’s why I joined then-Councilman Rey Saldaña in opposing the police union collective bargaining agreement in 2016. Officers need to be held to a higher standard of conduct with more accountability, not less, to save lives. That’s why I pushed back when an officer was reinstated after taking someone’s life. That’s why I called for video evidence to be made public after one tape showed a victim’s hands high in the air before he was shot and killed. Police brutality happens in our city. That’s why I’ve blocked federal legislation to expand police collective bargaining on accountability.
In Congress, I secured $25 million for body cameras for state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies. This technology enables greater transparency and accountability, and the safety that comes with the power of knowing. Every SAPD officer wears a body camera today.
Now we must pass the Justice in Policing Act: ban chokeholds and no-knock warrants, eliminate qualified immunity, end racial profiling, create a national use of force standard and a police misconduct registry, demilitarize local police and make lynching a federal crime.
We’re a long way from the more perfect union we aspire to be, but I’m dedicated to doing the work so everyone — no matter race, ethnicity, religion, gender, class or creed — is treated with equal justice under law.