Police accountability needs to move from the streets to the State House. Symbolic gestures are not enough when Black and Brown lives are on the line. It’s time for real limits on police powers and systemic reforms to hold police accountable for violence and abuse.
The NAACP New Bedford Branch is supporting two urgent police accountability measures now before Beacon Hill legislators. Ask your organization to sign this Google form indicating their support for the two bills and please share this request with others.
To build power behind these bills quickly, we have to show our strength in numbers. Our goal is to have at least 50 endorsing organizations by the end of the week, and to grow the list steadily from there. This legislation is not the end all and be all, but a necessary harm reduction measure as we work to divest from prisons, policing, and surveillance and invest in communities.
An Act to Save Black Lives (HD5128, filed by Rep. Liz Miranda & SD2968, filed by Sen. Cynthia Creem) would re-write the rules on use of force and establish serious, enforceable consequences for violations. It would reduce the role of police in situations where social interventions are safer and more effective; require police to use de-escalation techniques and tactics; limit force to the minimum amount necessary to accomplish a lawful purpose; require that any use of force be proportional; require other officers to intervene if they witness an excessive use of force; and ban police use of choke holds, rubber bullets, tear gas, attack dogs, and no-knock warrants. It would also mandate data collection on injuries and deaths caused by police and other law enforcement officers, make records of police misconduct public, and explicitly recognize that police violence is a danger to public health. You can read a detailed summary of the bill here.
An Act to Secure Civil Rights (H.3277, filed by Rep. Michael Day) would fix the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act to enable people whose rights have been violated to secure redress in court. Laws and policies that are supposed to hold police accountable are meaningless without a strong enforcement mechanism. The MCRA is supposed to be that mechanism, but unfortunately the current law is broken. This bill would fix language in the statute requiring a plaintiff to show that a violation of rights was accompanied by “threats, intimidation or coercion,” which courts have interpreted to let officers off the hook for many direct violations of rights, even ones involving terrible physical abuse. It would also eliminate in Massachusetts the judicial doctrine known as “qualified immunity,” which shields police from liability if the right that was violated was not “clearly established.” Today, it is not uncommon for courts to acknowledge that the police violated a constitutional right, but still fail to hold the officer liable because of qualified immunity. You can read a detailed summary of the bill, including examples of some of the most egregious examples it seeks to correct, here.
