There are many stories of people who are afraid to go outside in the daytime, of youth who are mistaken for gang members and attacked. This is what our city has come to, and it's been this way for as long as I can remember.
In order to change this, we need real investment from the city. Light posts need to be added in neighborhoods that are without them, parks need to be maintained, and pedestrians need sidewalks. These are the most basic elements that allow residents to feel safe in their neighborhoods. Without them, how can anyone feel safe?
I understand officials have lives of their own or may have pre-scheduled events, but notifying the community of your absence would be the respectful thing to do, especially when you claim to want to be transparent with the community.
Dozens of audience members gathered together to plan out a brighter future for Merced while across the hall an entire row of chairs reserved for city representatives sat vacant. Each of the seats was labeled with the name of a local city, police or sheriff’s department official who had been specifically invited to the event.
“We’d like to highlight how all local law enforcement officials were invited here tonight but none of them bothered to show,” said Vanessa Zaragoza, 15, a youth activist and master of ceremonies at the Live Free event.
So my question is, if law enforcement knows ECWs are too risky to use even in very controlled training circumstance, why the heck would they want to use it on unarmed citizens in uncontrolled street situations? The question I would put to [Police Chief ] Greg Suhr is, are you willing to use these on your own officers in controlled settings to show that they’re safe? If he’s telling the truth, he’s going to say, “No, we’re not going to do that.”
Bottom line: They’re not safe to use on unarmed people and they’re not safe for police to use against armed suspects.
In the wake of a video showing Columbia, South Carolina’s Officer Ben Fields apparently slamming and dragging a young black student at Spring Valley High School, the role of police officers in our schools has become the focus of nation-wide debate. Though Fields was fired, many are blaming the student for supposedly inciting the attack by not complying with teachers and administrators before Fields was called to the classroom, including Fields’ superior Sheriff Leon Lott who said the student “is responsible for initiating this action.”
We’Ced Youth Media took the incident as an opportunity to look at the issue locally. According to our city website, at the high school level Merced School Resource Officers (SRO’s) are meant to “maintain order on each of the campuses” and “identify ‘at risk’ juveniles and work with them to try to change their behavior.” Here, We’Ced reporters reflect on their experiences with SRO’s in the past and what they feel the role of SRO’s should be in our local schools.
Last month, representatives from Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities joined with Black, Latino, and Native American communities from all over the state to bring attention to this issue by calling for the passage of Assembly Bill 953, a bill that would increase law enforcement transparency and accountability.
If AB 953 passes, it could prevent more parents from having to know the pain Theresa carries. Cops would be held accountable for their actions, and the law would curb racial profiling and patterns of behavior that make police seem like they are above the law.
A young white police officer asked me this question after he pulled me over while I rode my bike in Pinole, CA, close to Richmond, where I live. It was Feb. 20, and I had just left the China House restaurant. If you know me, you know I ride my bike everywhere, all over the bay. It’s my main mode of transportation.
I have to say there is alot of gang violence in my neighborhood so you see the Sheriff’s Department coming down asking kids what they’re doing or asking them if they’re on probation and things like that. I think when youth see police officers arresting their friends, that hurts their trust with police. I think law enforcement needs to get involved more in the community, go out there more and see what it’s like.
Discussions of police misconduct in mainstream and social media outlets have reduced it to a black and white, and decidedly urban issue – African Americans on one side, white officers on the other. New America Media asked youth reporters in rural, and predominantly Latino, areas of California to survey people in their community about how they perceive local law enforcement.
Translate
