Advocate to end police violence

Yesterday I blogged on the Black Lives Matter Movement and the police and I mentioned Shaun King's articles for the nydailynews. I focused on one solution he proposed, but I want to share all of his ideas.

I've been outlining a national problem and police violence is a large part of that problem. Conversation can only go so far. Here are things we can do about it

Shaun King’s 25 solutions to police brutality:

1. Increase the number of people going into the police force – especially the people who represent minorities. Encourage kids, teens, and young adults to grow up to be police officers and make a positive difference in their community.

2. Advocate to increase and improve the training required for police officers – enforce officer training to be longer than cosmetology school! (only 140 hours after high school are required for Iowa officers)

3. Advocate to have mandatory regular and random drug screenings (just like we do for athletes)

4. Hold police accountable for their bad behavior - learn more

5. Advocate for officers to be required to have a college degree

6. Stop policing for profit – departments making their money from tickets, citations, other fines and fees (mostly on black lives and minorities) learn more

7. Ensure that officers are properly informed when responding to a call – especially if there is an identified mental illness. Lets make sure the 911 operating system is updated to fit the number of calls coming in and for the questions to fit the issue

8. Encourage/demand your local department to hire more female cops

9. Ensure officers live in or near the area where they work

10. Demand police stop over-policing minorities

11. Ensure officers have regular testing for racial bias

12. Ensure officers are regularly tested and treated for PTSD

13. Take police brutality to the Supreme Court

14. Demand good cops speak out against bad cops - (silence = violence)

15. Require more specialized training for officers to properly encounter and work with the mentally ill

16. Unleash the power of body cameras by making sure officers cannot turn them on and off as they please (including audio), making sure the film cannot be tampered with, and making sure the film cannot be reviewed by the officer before he makes his initial report

17. Require use of force to match the crime

18. Require officers to always carry 3 weapons other than a gun (taser/baton/spray) to make sure all other options are considered or used before resorting to opening fire

19. Ban violence based on IMAGINED threat

20. Ban racial profiling

21. Require that every use of force incident be immediately recorded by an unbiased third party – every police officer involved must make a statement explaining their best recollection of what just took place

22. Ensure that all uses of force in the field are immediately sent for review by an INDEPENDENT authority – also each department should have a police commission and a civilian complaints office (learn more)

23. Demand that all cases of police misconduct be investigated by an independent review board and prosecuted by a special prosecutor rather than the prosecutors the officers work hand-in-hand with day in and day out

24. Enforce mandatory federal reporting from each department on police killings (and more)

25. Fight for all these things on the local level, changing the ~20,000 police departments one by one, where we are

Ending police brutality/state violence is just one way to get involved in the fight for black lives.

I hope I have made it clear over the past 2.5 weeks that being educated and speaking up is another way to stand up for black lives.

You can go to staywoke.org to find more ways to get involved.

You can find your local BLM or NAACP chapters - there are also more community groups out there (a lot of them) so find out what is in your community and get involved!

Call, email, or go to your state capital - talk to your state reps and senators to convince them to do what is right!

You CAN make a difference.

Your life MATTERS.