When I saw that House Democrats were passing something called the “Justice in Policing Act,” I have to admit that just for a moment, I thought that in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, and millions of Black Lives Matter activists in the streets, they’d finally done something right.

I wish!

This Pelosi-endorsed bill would require federal police to wear body cameras, and also includes funding for local cops to do the same. While that might sound good, it’s actually a slap in the face to both justice and privacy. Here’s why:

We need major limits on the role of police in our society, not body cams or baby steps. Can you contribute to unseating Pelosi and breaking the establishment’s chokehold on justice?

• Body cams only provide recordings of isolated incidents, not patterns of violent behavior, so they can’t help weed out abusive cops
  
  

• Body cams don’t record cops themselves, only what they see—so they rarely offer evidence of widespread police violence & brutality captured by broader angles, such as those captured by dashboard cameras or third party videos.
  
  

• A recent study shows that body cams don’t reduce crime, don’t improve police accountability, and are mostly used against citizens, not violent police
  
  

• Finally, in our estimation, body cams, which again record only citizens and not police, are a huge violation of Fourth Amendment privacy rights

I’m proud to have fought for decades on the front lines of the civil rights and justice reform movements. Believe me when I say that the so-called Justice in Policing Act is a 10-year-old solution to a modern problem. That solution might have been barely adequate then, but not now.

What we need now, and what Minneapolis is already doing, is to significantly defund the police and redistribute that funding to social work, mental health services, and community programs—while also actively demilitarizing the police so they look like the people they’re serving, not storm troopers straight out of STAR WARS.

Can you chip in and help us win, so the true justice reform we’ve advocated for decades—and that other prominent voices agree with—can finally become a reality?

Want to give now? If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:

We’re at a crossroads in our country. We can join other modern nations and serve all our citizens with justice, dignity, and humanity. Or, we can accept Pelosi’s band-aid that leaves too many at the mercy of police violence. It’s up to us—including you.

Thanks for standing with us,

Shahid

PS -- Unable to contribute financially? You can still make a big difference in our campaign by signing up to volunteer. Our team hosts training sessions via videoconference every other day.