In the past few years, mainstream America has learned that societal racism is reflected in policing, and communities of color bear the traumas of that policing. Unfortunately, this isn’t where unequal treatment ends. Communities of color are first harmed by over-policing (broken taillight stops, no-knock warrants, “loitering”). But when police then use force, those racial disparities are magnified. And because police have the tools to escalate force, they often do.
Police forces across the country are equipped for war, with militarized equipment that includes everything from tear gas and rubber bullets, to assault rifles or even tank-like vehicles. These weapons of war are disproportionately deployed against communities of color, and nearly every agency owns and uses most of these weapons.
A new California law offers communities across the state the opportunity to demilitarize local police and sheriffs. Law enforcement agencies must propose a use policy for militarized equipment, which must be accepted by the local government. While some city councils and county boards have quickly codified an “everything is permissible” use policy, other municipalities are taking the opportunity to create community protections.
AFSC’s California Healing Justice Program has been supporting activists and elected officials who fall in this latter category. These municipalities have ranged widely in size and location. A few examples:
-
Culver City: In a 3-hour public hearing with over 50 public comments, including many vitriolic statements by anti-homeless white supremacists, Culver City Council sent the use policy back to the police department to address several issues. The Council also indicated their intent to use the full 6 months provided by AB481 for policy refinement.
-
Hayward: Local coalition HayCoCoa mobilized for a public hearing in person, where activists laid out 3 clear demands (including full demilitarization), and informed the City Council that they were all keeping a “report card” on each Councilmember’s statements and votes that evening. See their lively livetweeting from April 26.
-
Sacramento: Police misrepresented the new law to the city council, resulting in the council illegally approving a weak use policy in an emergency ordinance. One Councilmember championed revisiting the policy and approving it legally. Now, activists have taken the opportunity to join the dialog and advocate for changes, just as AB481 intended..
-
Santa Cruz: Activists mobilized for a hybrid public hearing, and successfully lobbied for assault rifles to be included in the proposed use policy. This was a major victory since the police preferred to keep the weapon use unregulated and deployments secret, by excluding it from the policy.
As we’ve been supporting cities and counties across the state, we’ve identified three key components that have led to success for activists.
(1) Define “success”. Restricting or prohibiting police use of militarized equipment would be a success anywhere, but there are more ways to think about “success”. In Chula Vista, activists knew that their city council would swiftly approve the weak use policy proposed by police. They set their success criteria at “be heard by council”, and achieved their goal. Now they’re organizing to bring even more voices to council chambers when AB481 requires the policy to be reconsidered next year.
(2) Work together. The more activists can show up with diverse local organizations, the more their voices can be heard by cities and counties. Lone activists have been unsuccessful in achieving change in their cities’ proposed policies. In contrast, multiple local organizations in Santa Cruz rallied to speak up together. This mobilization directly led to increased accountability and transparency in the resulting use policy.
(3) Learn the law. AB481 sets expectations for what an acceptable use policy is, and expectations for what timeline a policy must be approved by. Pointing out proposed policy legal deficiencies can buy activists time to bring in more voices to the next hearing, where the moral deficiencies can be raised. Many councilmembers and supervisors have been surprised to learn that despite what their police or sheriff says, there is actually no urgency in accepting the proposed policy. It has been highly effective to remind them the law provides for 180 days for municipalities to consider and revise the proposed policy.
Whether your city and county have approved their military equipment use policy, or are in the process of considering it, this is an incredible opportunity to join other activists in calling for police demilitarization.
For those whose city/county have already approved the policy, now is the time to be organizing and preparing for next year’s hearing, when the policy could be strengthened – or weakened.
For those whose city or county has not yet approved the policy, this is an exciting time to be at the forefront of demilitarizing your local law enforcement.
Whichever situation you are in, we hope you will reach out to your local Meeting, neighbors, book club, and local organizations. Now is the time to not just speak up for demilitarization, but to build this into a practice in your community.