(note, this is a non-partisan petition, and your name will not be added to any list unless you indicate so below, by ticking the box below.)
Hon. John F. Walsh
United States Attorney for District of Colorado
1225 17th Street
Suite 700
Denver, CO 80202
Dear Mr. Walsh:
We are writing to urge you, our local legal representative of the United States Department of Justice, to carry forward to U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, our demand to bring federal indictments against the killers of Michael Brown of Missouri, John Crawford of Ohio, Eric Garner of New York for violation of the civil rights of these men. We recognize that policing is first a local matter, but because we believe that the rights of these fellow Americans have been so grossly violated as to create injustice for all Americans, we call for swift action.
Additionally, we urge the Department of Justice to make affirmative strides to protect the civil rights of all Americans who face law enforcement interactions by doing the following:
Assignment of a special federal prosecutor to investigate the cases of the individuals named above as well as the cases of any police killings of unarmed individuals, with particular focus on unarmed Black Americans, as well as the foundation of a special task force in each US Attorney district to receive public complaints of judicial/prosecutorial misconduct for consideration of action by the US Attorney’s Office.
Creation of a requirement for law enforcement agencies to demonstrate effective implementation of Quality Policing Initiatives as spelled out by the Organization of Black Struggle of Missouri, as a pre-condition of any funding or grant awards from the Department of Justice. The Quality Policing Initiative is hinged on the following:
(1) Recruitment: who is on the force;
(2) Training: what non-violent skillsets do officers possess;
(3) Deployment: how officers interact with the communities whose rights they protect;
(4) Accountability: what happens to an officer who abuses their power or makes a mistake in the course of their duties and;
(5) Advancement: how an officer is rewarded for protecting rights and not advanced for failing to do so.
Use of the full authority of the Department of Justice to stop the unjust application among working class communities of color of policing policies such as stop-and-frisk, Broken Windows, use of lethal force and chokeholds or similar techniques, as well as the use of ticketing quotas, fees and fines to fund the operation of municipal governments. We urge the Department of Justice to launch a fully transparent, publicly-searchable database of the rates of stops, frisks, searches, summonses and arrests by race, age, and gender and to actively facilitate the fulfillment of any pending open records searches initiated by the public of such data.
The immediate termination of the Excess Property Program (DoD 1033), which supplies military hardware to local law enforcement agencies, as well as the destruction of all such materiel so that it can no longer be used against human beings.
We, the undersigned citizens of the state of Colorado, urge you to carry forth our wishes to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for immediate action on these points. We look forward to working with the Department of Justice toward an America that is safe and equitable for all, regardless of race, gender identity, immigration status or socioeconomic status.
Attachment: “Enough is Enough: We Demand Quality Policing Now,” Organization of Black Struggle, available here.
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