COMMUNITY CONTROL OF POLICE - PEOPLES PLAN FOR BALTIMORE The campaign for People’s Community Control of Police was inspired by the 1971, Black Panther Party initiative in Oakland, California. A number of groups and individuals under the umbrella of the Peoples Power Assembly have taken the first step of coming together including the Southern Christian Leadership Council, Baltimore chapter, We, the People Movement, All Peoples Congress, FIST youth group and many others. If you would like to be a part of this initiative please contact us through this Face Book page or call 443-221-3775 or 410-500-2168. Community Control of Police is just one part the People’s Plan for Baltimore that activists have been discussing for several months through a series of smaller assemblies. • A BALTIMORE PEOPLES COMMUNITY CONTROL POLICE BOARD These are just a few of the key provisions: 1. The people will elect a community control police board. The board will consist of three representatives from each police district, a total of 27 members. The election of the Board will take place during the Mayoral election cycle. Criteria for serving on the Board will consist of being a resident of the particular police district they are running in for at least one year, and be 16 years of age or older. 2. The Baltimore Peoples Community Control Board will make decisions on who serves as Police Commissioner by a majority vote. The Board has the ability to fire and replace said Commissioner by a vote of two/thirds. The Commissioner will come before the Board for authorization on all appointments of District Commanders and other ranking positions. 3. The Community Control Board is required to hold quarterly Peoples Assemblies, to allow all residents to testify and express their concerns and opinions on police procedures and community accountability. 4. The Board will take up key police procedures such as police walking the beat and will have the power to investigate police abuses and make decisions regarding police misconduct and will have the right to subpoena and take disciplinary action against police violating people’s rights. 5. All police will be required to live in the district which they are employed in. This will be accomplished through attrition which means that all new police who are hired will meet this requirement with the goal of providing a police force composed of Baltimore city residents. • COP WATCH AND COMMUNITY PATROLS We are calling on members of the community, unions, students, civil rights groups and faith based organizations to assist in forming “Cop Watch” groups and community patrols. We will be planning “Know your rights” training sessions. • INDICT KILLER COPS Killer cops need to be brought to trial and aggressively prosecuted. From Tyrone West to Anthony Anderson, and countless other cases, there needs to be indictment. We continue to demand justice in all of these and many more cases. Baltimore’s Mayor and City Council have in varying stages proposed body camera’s for police. But we have many concerns about whose hands cameras are in, how they will actually be used, and who controls the footage. At recent protests around the Michael Brown case, the Baltimore Police Department, excessively filmed protesters to both intimidate and criminalize people. How many times have there been countless videos and credible witnesses who have come forward to testify and yet not a single police officer has been charged in issues of fatal shootings. This has been so both locally and nationally. Consider the recent Ohio case of John Crawford at Wal-Mart where video footage existed but there was no indictment. We must continue to demand that police be indicted! • STOP SYSTEMIC RACISM & THE MILITARIZATION OF POLICE DEPARTMENTS • END POLICE OCCUPATION OF POOR BLACK & BROWN COMMUNITIES What is at the heart of this epidemic of police terror is systemic racism and the question of who do the police really serve. Anything less than addressing this along with the growing economic inequality in the working class in general, whether it is low wages or no wages, will fall short of beginning to find solutions. We cannot let zip codes determine who gets what services, who goes to jail, who suffers, and who is beaten or murdered. Baltimore City has the 8th largest police department in the country, yet we are ranked as the 26th largest city (2013). We must end racist police occupation! To add insult to injury police departments everywhere are becoming militarized. U.S. police get anti-terror training in Israel on privately funded trips. The Israeli Defense Forces known for their brutal subjugation of the Palestinian people are taking up police training. What are they preparing for? A war between the rich and poor? End the militarization of the police; we need money for jobs and education not police tanks and body armor. These are just a few of the discussed demands. In the words of Maryland’s own Frederick Douglas, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 03:42:40 +0000
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