Whereas people have been and are being threatened, terrorized, assaulted, wrongfully arrested, illegally detained, incarcerated, injured, frightened, belittled, insulted, intimidated, beaten, or shot dead while unarmed, or while presenting no threat to any person, or while committing no illegal act;

Whereas citizens are the best informed members of communities to define and recognize abuse by authorities paid by citizens; or by mercenaries employed by government, business, or private citizens; or by self-appointed vigilantes;

Whereas the history of police and other government officials have failed to adequately address these illegal and violent uses of force;

Whereas those so treated are under continued threat of further abuse by authorities paid by citizens; or by mercenaries employed by government, business, or private citizens; or by self-appointed vigilantes in retaliation for reporting such treatment;

Whereas conflicts of interest posed by these agencies investigating themselves have produced corrupt results;

 

We hereby enact this new legislation which shall

Disable and repeal all special privacy protections for every ‘security’ related person and job description now experiencing enhanced protections of their privacy, including, but not limited to: police, mercenary private security, city managers, prosecutors, judges, ‘correctional’ officers or any other titled jail or prison personnel, or any person in possession of authority or influence to wield or direct violent enforcement tactics;

Require the creation of a paid elected public safety/police accountability commission of at least twelve citizens, all of whom are not and have never been otherwise employed in the position of law enforcement; design said commission with respect to the proposal developed and submitted by the members of PUEBLO and supported by the vast majority of the people who appeared to consider it before the Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee;

Require every person employed in a position from which force can be used to acquire obedience or submission to sign a job description agreement which includes, but is not limited to, agreeing to have personnel and investigative records related to any and all accusations of any and all illegal activities or uses of force be readily available for public viewing online and via requests for that information at all times at no charge to the employers of said employees, aka the people

Require that police and mercenary aka ‘security’ forces abide by use of force standards set by aforementioned paid elected commission of at least twelve citizens;

Require that all relevant laws, past, present, and future, shall describe and define the word “threaten” to include such concepts as: the living and deadly fact that an armed police officer or private security for big business, are, by definition, to be considered armed and dangerous at all times: i.e. subject to whatever uses of force might be deemed necessary for a victim or potential victim of imminent harm to effect a successful defense against attack by said armed official;

Require that such defense against uses of force be considered, ‘reasonable’, ‘acceptable’ or ‘appropriate’ use of force;

Require that the investigation of every incident which includes use of force by police or any government employee, including the physical or political or managerial use of force by every government paid person, shall be accomplished by aforementioned public safety/police accountability commission

Require that every “use of force” investigation shall include immediate and mandatory follow-up drug testing for all substances: especially steroids, alcohol, and any other substances past, present and future which are or have been found to induce a heightened state of agitation; require that such testing be funded directly by the officer who has been shown to have used force, or by the union to which the officer belongs; disallow the use of public funds for such testing

Require that every such “use of force” investigation shall include immediate sequestration of each and every officer of the law being accused of using excessive force, for the purpose of questioning and interrogation by citizen investigators appointed by the aforementioned citizen police accountability commission, and that any officer who is shown by evidence or witness statement to have used excessive force be arrested and arraigned for every applicable law which makes such actions illegal for the general population

Require criminal prosecution of every person found in violation of law, without special considerations for those in positions of power

Require criminal prosecutions of use of force standards set by the people, double criminal penalties for any and every person found in violation of said standards while also holding government or other ‘security’ power – either by direct or indirect (mercenary) employment – to exercise said authority with a loaded weapon or the power to enact laws or instigate or allow the violent enforcement of laws by police or mercenary forces (including, but not limited to private security forces);

Require, for any public servant shown to have committed excessive use of force by an independent commission, immediate and permanent removal from, and ineligibility for, any government, or government funded, employment – including but not limited to, law enforcement, and including any position of employment which empowers a person to use force in the commission of their duties, no matter how remote; this section completely disqualifies a person from running for and/or holding publicly funded political office, as those holding such offices are in power to use police forces against the public

Require complete and permanent disarmament of any person found guilty of abuse of authority by said elected citizen commission under this or any relevant law

These laws shall be valid and applicable immediately within the customary established period of simple legal review, and shall be retroactively applied to any case to which they might apply which, for any reason, comes up for review, including that any person shall receive, upon request, a new investigation into any use of force by government paid personnel which occurred at any time in the past, with no statute of limitations applying; such re-investigations into past uses of force by police and other so empowered public employees shall commence immediately upon passage, with cases where a member of the public is currently incarcerated under questionable circumstances regarding use of force by police taking precedence. Prioritizing thereafter shall be done upon requests by the aforementioned police accountability commission, and members of the public, in that order.