This Amendment is being proposed by The Minnesota Green Party and the Green Party National Black Caucus; Trahern Crews of the Green Party, who’s email is Trahern@gp.org and the Co – Chairs of the black caucus are Robin Harris and Darryl! Moch, whose contact information is: Robin Harris, Harris4six@gmail.com; and Darryl! Moch, Nubianphoenix1@gmail.com.
This amendment was approved by the Minnesota Green Party and Black Caucus on August 30, 2019.
Author: Trahern Crews, trahern@gp.org
This amendment is addressing a new section in Article II, Social Justice; Chapter H., Criminal Justice. The new section will be section 5, which is an add on to this Chapter and will read as follows:
II. Social Justice
H. Criminal Justice
5. Police Accountability
Due to current conditions when it comes to policing the cities and people, police officers are the 6th leading cause of death for young men in America. More commonly, the greatest lives that are at stake are those of our black, brown and disabled (including mentally ill) communities that receive the most injustices when it comes to crimes against persons at the hands of the police.
In accordance we recommend the following actions:
a. Police officers to carry professional liability insurance as a requirement to working on the police force.
b. That the insurance will act as a mechanism by which we can have officers with histories of brutality and misconduct removed from duty, thereby keeping that person from committing crimes under the protection of the police department; this functions through the insurance company, which will increase premiums and eventually determine that rogue officers are uninsurable.
c. Serve as a deterrent to officers taking actions that could result in a complaint against them, as this could cause a premium increase for the officer.
d. Prevent the taxpayer from having to foot the bill for police brutality cases, which cost taxpayers millions of dollars.
Include trans
“More commonly, the greatest lives that are at stake are those of our black, brown, trans, and disabled (including mentally ill) communities that receive the most injustices when it comes to crimes against persons at the hands of the police.”
I like the addition of section 5. Police Accountability. But only the first paragraph. I think the idea of the insurance is a good idea, but too specific. The Platform should not be overly specific because it invites too much opportunity for nitpicking by ‘never Greens’.
The majority of US voters are a long way from our level of understanding.
Things that we do or propose as a party should be reviewed under a lens for how it helps us acquire state power. We all want similar goals, and when Greens are in legislatures and Congress we can write laws with very precise and expansive requirements for protecting life and planet. The majority of US voters are a long way from our level of life choices. Will a possibly perceived hostility to Police detract from our ability to appeal to broad masses? A more general overview of current state concerns, like the cost of liability to the community would suffice.
Along the lines of Gini’s comment, I would like to address the wording of this.
“Due to current conditions when it comes to policing the cities and people, police officers are the 6th leading cause of death for young men in America. More commonly, the greatest lives that are at stake are those of our black, brown and disabled (including mentally ill) communities that receive the most injustices when it comes to crimes against persons at the hands of the police.”
Please consider the addition of one acronym and changing one phrasing:
… the greatest lives that are at stake are those of our black, brown, LGBTQIA+ and disabled, including those with mental health issues …
I offer the intersection of POC and Trans to justify this inclusion ()
and I also would like to direct attention to the re-phrasing of mentally ill to this: ()
thank you for your consideration and I would be happy to ask the NLGC if we would like to co-sponsor this amendment as well