Feature Archives

UPDATE: SB1421 passed and went into effect on January 1, 2019. AB931 did not survive the legislative session, but was reintroduced in February 2019 as AB392.

California lawmakers have introduced a measure that would alter the standard for when law enforcement officers can use deadly force. The Police Accountability and Community Protection Act (AB 931) would change the standard of firearm use from "reasonable use" to "necessary force." SB 1421 will give the public access to police records related to use-of-force investigations and complaints against officers for sexual assault or other serious job-related dishonesty.

At the March 27 Alameda County Board of Supervisors meeting, five-plus hours of discussion ended with a decision that Urban Shield as currently constituted would end after the 2018 war games and exposition. The vote left open-ended what Alameda County’s regional disaster preparedness activities would be in future years, but the Supervisors were decisive that it would not be the Urban Shield event, which began in 2007.

On April 15, Prisoners United of Silicon Valley started a peaceful protest to demand humane treatment in the jails. Their hunger strike is the third in two years to protest substandard jail conditions and a lack of opportunity to move out of isolation. Over 70% of Santa Clara County’s jail population are pretrial detainees, many of whom remain fighting their cases for five years or more because they can’t afford bail.

The National Lawyers Guild of Sacramento contradicts the lies being circulated by cops and corporate media regarding what occurred at the Stephon Clark demonstration in Sacramento on March 31. NLG Sacramento states, "We witnessed cases of harassment and excessive force by the California Highway Patrol and Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, including the unprovoked hit-and-run of a demonstrator, the issuance of unlawful orders and threats to our legal observers."

Sacramento police shot Stephon Clark seven times from behind, according to an independent autopsy conducted by pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu, who was hired by Clark’s family. The autopsy contradicts the Sacramento police department’s claim that Clark, who was unarmed at the time, was advancing towards officers Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet when they shot 20 times and killed him.

To support transformational change for Black communities in Sacramento, the Build. Black. Coalition and Black Lives Matter Sacramento announced they are creating a multi-year plan in partnership with the Sacramento Kings to support the education of young people and to provide the workforce preparation and economic development efforts needed to truly #BuildBlackFutures. The effort to support and lift up Black youth begins this Friday, March 30 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the South Sacramento Christian Church.

Black people, especially women, are more likely to have been unarmed when killed by police than non-blacks, according to a new study of nationwide data. This risk also appears to increase in police departments with a greater presence of non-white officers, report the researchers. A key finding of the study is that nearly 60 percent of black women killed by police were unarmed at the time of the interaction.  While the odds of being killed by police when unarmed were about the same for black and white males, the high percentage of unarmed black women killed by police significantly increased the overall odds for unarmed blacks.