Clinton, Sanders On Black Lives Matter

Introduction

As Campaign Zero stated at the very introduction on their website, "We can live in a world where the police don't kill people by limiting police interventions, improving community interactions, and ensuring accountability."

This post is intended to help interested and prospective Democratic Party primary voters decide for themselves how well the two leading Democratic candidates address the Campaign Zero proposals in their own words from their official campaign websites without editorial comment.

This blog post presents information from two official campaign websites regarding what Hillary Clinton calls "Criminal Justice Reform"  and what Bernie Sanders calls "Racial Justice."  Sanders' "Racial Justice" program consists of four areas: physical violence perpetrated by the state and extremists; political violence by the state; legal violence by the state; and, economic violence by the state.

Both political platforms will be compared to what Black Lives Matter called their "Campaign Zero" proposals for how to "End Police Violence in America."  Their campaign has ten policy areas:  1) End Broken Window Policing; 2) Community Oversight; 3) Limit Use of Force; 4) Independently Investigate and Prosecute; 5) Community Representation; 6)  Body Cams/Film the Police; 7) Training; 8) End For-Profit Policing; 9) Demilitarization; and, 10) Fair Police Union Contracts.

Almost all of this agenda has to be enacted at the local level of politics.  However, there are actions that the federal and state governments can take.  We should not expect that a campaign for the presidency, the highest political office in the country, will incorporate most of this local agenda.

Full Disclosure:  I am on the Steering Committee of Pensacola for Bernie Sanders.  That said, this is a comparison of materials on website linked to the official presidential campaigns and only those websites because that is the mass-based platform that the two leading candidates choose to present themselves to supporters and prospective Democratic Party primary voters.

Moreover, I am under no illusion nor am I suggesting that the only or the primary issue that the Black or African American community is interested in is "criminal justice"  or "racial justice." The Black community has a wide range of concerns and issues about income inequality, employment for adults and youth, universal health care, universal daycare, support to small business and startups, national security policy, energy policy, and environmental policy, especially as the latter relates to health-threatening environmental pollution in or near Black communities.

This post focuses solely on "Criminal Justice" or "Racial Justice" because that is the primary focus of the Black Lives Matter movement that is challenging both political parties and all prospective elected officials to address a fundamental, existential issue:  stop killing Black, brown, white, straight, gay, lesbian, and transgender people.

BLM/CZ 1:  End Broken Window Policing

This policy proposal is broken into two sub-parts: "End Policing of Minor 'Broken Windows' Offenses" and "End Profiling and 'Stop-and-Frisk."

The 'Broken Windows' offenses are essentially everyday behaviors that are used as an excuse to "police black bodies."  These "consuming alcohol on the streets," "marijuana possession," disorderly conduct, trespassing, loitering, disturbing the peace (including loud music), and spitting.  BLM/CZ calls for these offenses to be decriminalized or deprioritized.

Clinton:  nothing.

Sanders:

"At the federal level we need to establish a new model police training program that reorients the way we do law enforcement in this country. With input from a broad segment of the community including activists and leaders from organizations like Black Lives Matter we will reinvent how we police America." (emphasis added)

BLM/CZ 2:  Community Oversight

BML/CZ proposed two policy solutions intended to "ensure police officers are held accountable for police violence."  These two solutions are "Establish effective civilian oversight structures" and "Remove barriers to reporting police misconduct."

An effective civilian oversight structure would include a Police Commission and a Civilian Complaints Office. The Police Commission would represent community organizations on the board that would oversee internal police matters such as selecting the police chief, firing the police chief, holding public disciplinary hearings, discipline and dismiss police officers, and establish policies based on community and academic inputs.  The Civilian Complaints Office would be headed by community representatives and have its own investigators to investigate complaints about the police and to recommend that the Police Commission take action if a Police Chief failed to follow its recommendations.

Clinton:  nothing.

Sanders:

"We must invest in community policing....Among other things, that means increasing civilian oversight of police departments." (emphasis added)

BLM/CZ 3:  Limit Use of Force

The BLM proposed three policy solutions:  "Establish standards and reporting of police use of deadly force" and "Revise and strengthen local police department use of force policies."

The first policy proposal would hold local police forces to something close to the "International Deadly Force Standard."  BLM/CZ called for the use of deadly force "only when there is an imminent threat to an officer's life or the life of another person and such force is strictly unavoidable to protect life." (emphasis in original)

Under the "use of force policies," BLM/CZ called for "police officers to use minimum force to apprehend a suspect," "de-escalate first," "carry a less-lethal weapon," ban certain chokeholds and hogties, and "stop other officers who are using excessive force."

The third policy proposal was "Monitor how police use force and proactively hold officers accountable for excessive force."

This policy proposal had three components:  reporting all instances of force to a database that includes injuries and demographics of the victim; establish an early intervention system for officers accused of using excessive force; and, report officers to the state for officers who violate local policies.

Clinton:

"She also believes that the best practices of successful police departments that are protecting the public without resorting to unnecessary force should be applied by police forces nationwide." (emphasis added)

Sanders:

"We need to require police departments and states to provide public reports on all police shootings and deaths that take place while in police custody." (emphasis added)

"We need new rules on the allowable use of force." (emphasis added)

"Police officers need to be trained to de-escalate confrontations and to humanely interact with people who have mental illnesses. (emphasis added)

"States and localities that make progress in this area should get more federal justice grant money. Those that do not should get their funding slashed." (emphasis added)

BLM/CZ 4:  Independent Investigations and Prosecutions

Under this policy heading, Black Lives Matter has four policy proposals that would decrease the reliance of local prosecutors on local police investigating themselves related to excessive or deadly force encounters with civilians.

The first proposal called for the U.S. Congress to amend Title 18 of the U.S. Code, Section 242, "Deprivation of rights under color of law" by striking the word "'willfully.'"  This would lower the bar to the U.S. Department of Justice stepping in to prosecute police officers for alleged civil rights violations.

The second proposal called for the U.S. Congress to the Police Training and Independent Review Act of 2015 or use "existing federal funds to encourage external, independent investigations and prosecution of police killings" as called for in President Obama's May 2015, Final Report of the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, action items 2.2.2 and 2.2.3.

The third and fourth policy proposal required the establishment of a state-level special prosecutor with independent investigators to investigate and prosecute "all cases of where police kill or seriously injure a civilian, in-custody deaths and cases where a civilian alleges criminal misconduct against a police officer."

Clinton:  nothing.

Sanders:

"Our Justice Department must aggressively investigate and prosecute police officers who break the law and hold them accountable for their actions."

"We need to require police departments and states to provide public reports on all police shootings and deaths that take place while in police custody." (emphasis added)

BLM/CZ 5:  Community Representation

BLM/CZ pointed out that two-thirds of police officers today are white men and recommended that "police should reflect and be responsive to the cultural, racial and gender diversity of the communities they are supposed to serve."

Clinton:

"We must address the role race continues to play in America in order to reform our criminal justice system and move the nation forward."

Sanders:

"We need police forces that reflect the diversity of our communities." (emphasis added)

"We must invest in community policing.  Only when we get officers into the communities, working within neighborhoods before trouble arises, do we develop the relationships necessary to make our communities safer together." (emphasis added)

BLM/CZ 6:  Body Cams/Film The Police

Black Lives Matter recommended the American Civil Liberties Union's Model Policy on police wearing body cameras.  Specifically, BLM/CZ recommended that body cameras and dashboard cameras "record all interactions with civilians" and establish policies of transparency and accountability regarding public access to that video footage as well as establishing the right of the public to record the police, for example, the Colorado law.

Clinton:

"Encouraging the use of smart strategies—such as police body cameras—to fight crime and rebuild trust in our communities. Hillary has called for every police department in the nation to have body cameras to improve transparency and accountability on both sides of the lens." (emphasis in original)

Sanders:

"We need to federally fund and require body cameras for law enforcement officers to make it easier to hold them accountable." (emphasis added)

BLM/CZ 7:  Training

Black Lives Matter/Campaign Zero pointed out that police forces spend 58 hours training officers how to fire their service weapons, but only 8 hours learning how to de-escalate situations.

BLM/CZ called for "rigorous and sustained training" for police officers including "appropriate engagement" with youth, the LGBTQ, English language learners, different religious affiliations, and the "differently abled."  Also, they called for training on implicit bias (as well as testing for in shoot/don't shoot decision-making), procedural justice, relationship-based policing, crisis intervention and rumor control, and de-escalation and minimizing the use of force.

Clinton:

"She also believes that the best practices of successful police departments that are protecting the public without resorting to unnecessary force should be applied by police forces nationwide."

Sanders:

"We must invest in community policing. Only when we get officers into the communities, working within neighborhoods before trouble arises, do we develop the relationships necessary to make our communities safer together."

"At the federal level we need to establish a new model police training program that reorients the way we do law enforcement in this country. With input from a broad segment of the community including activists and leaders from organizations like Black Lives Matter we will reinvent how we police America."

BLM/CZ 8:  End For-Profit Policing

Black Lives Matter called for ending "police department quotas for tickets and arrests," "limit fines and fees for poor people," and "prevent police from taking the money or property from innocent people," the latter related to asset forfeiture before being convicted of a crime.

Clinton:  nothing.

Sanders:

We need to ban prisons for profit, which result in an over-incentive to arrest, jail and detain, in order to keep prison beds full. (emphasis added)

BLM/CZ 9:  Demilitarization

At the federal level, Black Lives Matter called for the "End the federal government's 1033 program providing military weaponry to local police departments" and establishing local restrictions on the purchase of military-grade weaponry and equipment, including limiting the use of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) units to "an emergency situation or imminent threat to life and high-ranking officers have given approval."

Clinton:

"She also believes that the best practices of successful police departments that are protecting the public without resorting to unnecessary force should be applied by police forces nationwide."

Sanders:

"We must demilitarize our police forces so they don’t look and act like invading armies." (emphasis added)

BLM/CZ 10:  Fair Police Union Contracts

Essentially, Black Lives Matter/Campaign Zero called for removing from police union contracts items that currently inhibit investigations and prosecutions of police officers for the use of excessive or deadly force.

Clinton:  nothing.

Sanders:  nothing.

Clinton's Other Criminal Justice Proposals:

"Hillary will work to reform our criminal justice system by changing the way we approach punishment and prison.  She will reform mandatory minimum sentences for low-level nonviolent offenses, increase support for mental health and drug treatment, and pursue alternative punishments for low-level offenders, especially young people."

"Urging Americans to come to terms with hard truths about race and justice.  Black men across this country are being killed at a rate that far outpaces any other group.  We must address the role race continues to play in America in order to reform our criminal justice system and move the nation forward." (emphasis in original)

"Strengthening America’s families. We cannot ensure smart policing or reform the criminal justice system unless we also address the underlying issues facing African Americans.  This is why Hillary plans to provide better economic opportunities for the middle class, make college affordable for all, and ensure that families are reaching their potential." (emphasis in original)

Sanders' Other Racial Justice Proposals:

"We need to turn back from the failed “War on Drugs” and eliminate mandatory minimums which result in sentencing disparities between black and white people."

"We need to invest in drug courts and medical and mental health interventions for people with substance abuse problems, so that they do not end up in prison, they end up in treatment."

"We need to boost investments for programs that help people who have gone to jail rebuild their lives with education and job training."

"We need to re-enfranchise the more than two million African Americans who have had their right to vote taken away by a felony conviction."

"We need to give our children, regardless of their race or their income, a fair shot at attending college. That’s why all public universities should be made tuition free."

"We must invest $5.5 billion in a federally-funded youth employment program to employ young people of color who face disproportionately high unemployment rates."

"Knowing that black women earn 64 cents on the dollar compared to white men, we must pass federal legislation to establish pay equity for women."

"We must prevent employers from discriminating against applicants based on criminal history."

"We need to ensure access to quality affordable childcare for working families."