I heard on the radio that Sen Durbin is holding committee hearings on civil rights. I though this would be a good time to speak my mind on the subject and see if he will sponsor the Law Enforcement Torture Prevention Act that failed twice in the House. I realize thinking they have more sense is a stretch, but Ive always been the eternal optimist. Write to your senators and representatives too. They dont listen to the vocal minority only the great Silent Majority. Look up Nixons speech and heres what I wrote to Durbin. Feel free to critique. Aunt Jan is next. Entitled: H.R.3781 - Law Enforcement Torture Prevention Act Dear Sen. Durbin, Rep. Danny Davis submitted this to the House in two consecutive congresses. He had five co-sponsors, one of which was Rep. Bobby Rush. The bill died in committee both times, both with Republican Chairmen. In an interview I heard on the radio, during which you mentioned the upcoming civil rights committee hearing, you also mentioned that enough wasnt being done on the federal level and hopefully youd learn from the hearings. Last month, the Chicago Police Departments treatment of Black and Latino residents was brought before the UN Committee Against Torture. That was a hearing and we were found sorely lacking. What used to be a country that was the beacon of hope for so many who fled their own countries for fear of torture by state actors, now shines a burnished light that is fading fast. The beacon of hope, for many who live here, is a beacon of despair. We can do better. Nixon once said that the policy of this nation cant be dictated by the vocal minority who hold that point of view and who try to impose it on the nation by mounting demonstrations in the streets. And that is what will happen now too. Youll hold your hearings, youll agree something has to be done, youll talk about it, the marches will stop, the media will drift away, and in the end, youll have done nothing, gone nowhere, and helped nobody. Weve had this conversation before. We always want to rebuild the trust in the police. And of course, thats why you have all failed to adequately address this for the last 40 years. You lack a fundamental understanding of the problem. You cant rebuild what was never there. Rebuilding is a different process than building, because it already has a foundation for the building. This house has no base. There is no foundation of trust to build upon. There has always been a mistrust of law enforcement because there has always been a problem that we have to have a conversation about. You dont need a conversation. You need action. The first problem is that there is no accountability for law enforcement. The second problem is there is no transparency regarding the actions of law enforcement. Third, there is no threshold in law enforcement. If you had 40 cases of police brutality or misconduct brought against you, even if unfounded, doesnt it defy reason that 40 different people, at 40 different times, in 40 different places could have made up the same 40 stories about the same one officer? Thats what I mean by a threshold. Fourth, there is no civilian overview of anything they do. They investigate themselves and if theres a question, the people they work with, the prosecutors, decide if theres a case. You expect people to trust a system like that. And lastly, as we have seen in the two recent cases currently stirring the Congress to action (albeit very belatedly), its quite clear this has to be a federal statute that will be a federal crime, investigated by a federal agency, and prosecuted by a federal prosecutor, in a federal court. This way the local officials wont have to worry about ruining their offices relationship with the police, the political hot potato is out of their hands, and it will be a more impartial party conducting the investigation and determining the charges, if any. This would be a great start for a foundation upon which you can build to earn trust. Two representatives brought to the US House a bill to begin to build the trust. It was H.R.3781 - Law Enforcement Torture Prevention Act of 2011. CAT recommended its passage as do I and as should you. Rep. schakowsy did not co-sponsor this legislation. It was co-sponsored by people of color, Rep. Luis Guitierrez and Rep. Bobby Rush were two of those people. Had it passed, how many children may still be alive? Sen Durbin, the fact that not one white representative chose to put their name on that bill speaks volumes about the value placed on the lives of minority people in this country. The bill cant be objected to because it contains the exact language of the Convention Against Torture to which we are a signatory and which the US Senate voted to ratify. Is there a problem with codifying it? When we answered to the same policy brutality charges, etc, by CAT in 1999, we gave almost the same answer we just gave in 2014, and they had almost the same complaints about our progress in implementing their recommendations. Of course, in our response we gave similar, doublespeak answers. This was the Committees recommendation in 2006 (edited for Facebook - on the state dept website /documents/organization/100296.pdf. Heres the recommendation from 2014: tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/USA/INT_CAT_COC_USA_18893_E.pdf But Im sure youve studied these closely because you are the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the twin committee that killed the bill in the House. Most of the positives in the recommendations were not related to legislation that was enacted by the US Congress, our voices in the government, but by directives, procedures, and Executive Order. Again, speaking volumes. Please read these two documents. Refer to them in your hearings, but bring the Law Enforcement Torture Prevention Act to the Senate floor and vote for it, up or down. Instead of being remembered as one of the worst Congresses weve ever had, maybe youd be remembered as the Congress that opened a pinhole of hope for people whose lives matter.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 03:33:34 +0000
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