How to Take Policy Action for Police Reform and Move Beyond the News Cycle
Many of us are feeling anger and grief over the recent murders of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade by the police. Especially for those of us who want to support our Black siblings, here are some concrete policy steps to take to channel your emotions that go beyond sharing the same social media graphics again and again. It’s simple: Call your representatives, ask for them to vote for X bill or take Y action. It takes no more than a few minutes per call.
We discussed this during last Sunday’s service, but here they are in blogpost-form. It’s important that we build a regular habit of political engagement so that our commitment, for those of us who aren’t directly impacted by police brutality, lasts beyond the emotions of news cycle, because the truth is that this violence has been going on for a long time. If you can get in the habit of calling them even monthly, on whatever issue it is, that will go a long way.
This is what you can say:
“Hi I’m ____ and I’m a constituent of yours, a registered voter, living in zip code ____. I would like you to vote for ____ OR can you tell me what you are doing on ____ issue. This is important to me because _____. You can reach me at this number ______.”
All these steps took me no more than 15min.
I. Get important national legislation passed
Look up your congressional representatives and senators at Ballotpedia and save their numbers in your phone (ie “Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez”).
Action 1: Call your reps and senators and ask them vote for the H.R.4408 - Eric Garner Excessive Use of Force Prevention Act of 2019, introduced by Congressman Hakeem Jeffries who oversees neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy, Fort Greene, and Coney Island in New York State.
Action 2: Call your reps and senators and ask them to vote for the H.R.582 - Raise the Minimum Wage Act.
II. Get important NY State legislation passed
Now look up your NY state assembly person and state senator at Ballotpedia and save their numbers in your phone.
Action 1: Go to Communities United for Police Reform and subscribe for updates. The Safer NY Act includes: the PoliceSTAT Act (A-Lentol/S1830A-Hoylman) requiring statewide reporting on policing of minor offenses and deaths from police interactions; reducing unnecessary arrests (A4053-Aubry/S2571-Bailey) by banning custodial arrests for non-criminal violations; and passing the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (A1617-Peoples-Stokes/S1527-Krueger) to legalize marijuana under a marijuana justice framework.
Action 2: Ask your state reps and senators to vote for the Safer NY Act package and apply pressure on the mayor to not defund critical social services (which creates a bigger burden in police) and to— all posted in the website above.
In your phone call to your state senator ask them to vote for the The New York Health Act [A.5248a, S.3577a] (it has passed the assembly, now waiting Senate), which is so crucial during this pandemic. Visit this website Campaign for New York Health for further information.
III. Get NYC Mayor to re-prioritize budget
Follow this “Defund NYPD” script to call your council person to lobby for an emergency meeting to get the mayor to not go through with his current budget, set to be implemented on July 1st, which keeps NYPD budget intact and makes major cuts to social services.
Plan to repeat these actions weekly or monthly on other issues and bills, or the same ones!
There you go! Please share this blogpost.