Latino and African American leaders in the field of public safety announced the formation of the call Southern California / LA Peacekeeping Personnel Collective (SCLAPC).
One of the group’s goals is to monitor every incident of police brutality and demand justice as occurred in the case of George Floyd, who was killed by now-convicted Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer Derek Chauvin.
The initiative – which includes a diverse group of gang intervention organizations and professionals trained to work in urban communities – will be implemented through a “proactive plan of action,” said Dr. Aquil Basheer, founder and CEO. of the Unified Brotherhood Independent Leadership Through Discipline Program (BUILD).
This plan identifies the specific geographic areas where it is intended to lead, develop and train high-risk non-police critical response teams and includes professionals called leading navigators.
Other elements are the expansion of geographic security centers and restoration centers in specific areas, in addition to the saturation of credible and involved messengers in the identified areas; training and increasing the number of violence interrupters in all areas to solidify the National Training and Certification Institute.
“As the initiative progresses, additional components may be added,” said Dr. Basheer, an expert on gang intervention. “The first inclusive step will be to gain the endorsement of the Los Angeles City Council, the Board of Supervisors, followed by a petition to Governor Gavin Newsom” to implement all six components.
The Southern California / LAPeacemakers Collaborative (SCLAPC) would help promote community policing and the implementation of criminal justice system reform nationwide.
The revival of the peace initiative coincided with the increase in gun violence in the United States, the involvement of the police in numerous shootings that have taken the lives of many Latinos and African Americans, the unprovoked racist attacks against Asian Americans, and the guilty verdict of ex-cop Derek Chauvin.
“The verdict is just a grain in the sand,” Dr. Aquil Basheer told La Opinion. “Until we take care of the problems [de racismo] broader systemic, people will think that they can do what they do without consequences.
If so, “he added,” then we have not made any progress.
And he made it clear that no one should be in a celebratory attitude.
“We have too much work to do and the root causes of what makes an officer or someone within the public safety system think that he or she can value or devalue someone’s life like they did George Floyd.”
‘Racism will never end’
However, the murder conviction of ex-cop Derek Chauvin itself is an extremely rare event.
According a report by Philip Stinson, Professor of Criminal Justice on the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, from the beginning of 2005 to June 14, 2019, there have been only 104 local, state or federal agents or police in the United States who have been arrested for murder or manslaughter as a result of a shooting while on duty.
Of those 104 officers, to date only 35 have been convicted of a crime resulting from the on-duty shooting (15 for a guilty plea, 20 convicted in a jury trial, and none convicted by a court trial). That suggests that the chances of a murder by the police leading to a conviction for that crime are roughly one in 2,000.
However, a jury in Minneapolis on Tuesday convicted Derek Chauvin of second-degree murder (as well as two other charges) for killing George Floyd in May 2020. A typical sentence for that crime is 12 and a half years in prison. , although prosecutors have asked for more and the maximum is 40 years. A judge will sentence Chauvin in two months.
“Systemic racism is never going to end; Let’s remember that the police were born in the United States to capture slaves and racism has been there since the country was born. It’s only going to end when the country ends, ”said Gerardo Arellano, a member of Inner City Vissions, a youth development and gang prevention and intervention organization in the Florence-Firestone geographic area, in Los Angeles County.
“The verdict against the policeman was fair, but that is only the beginning and there is a long way to go; there are thousands of lawsuits that have not yet been resolved and justice is lacking for thousands of families ”, he declared.
Alex Sánchez, executive director of Homies Unidos, whose anti-gang programs offer multiple avenues to help youth make better decisions and get them off the streets, said they have also organized to be present when there are incidents of police brutality, but in their effort, he stressed, they have suffered police persecution.
“We need to sit at the table where decisions are made and we do not need to go around begging for crumbs, because we have fought for years to try to help solve the violence,” Sánchez told La Opinion, who, on the other hand, considered that the guilty verdict Against the white cop Derek Chauvin was fair.
“We will have to wait and see if this act is not just a grain in the sand,” he said. “… This system has taken advantage of our communities and California realized that having a mass incarceration system has been of no use. We believe that this system has to change with a new mentality and philosophy of understanding public safety ”.
The Southern California / LA Peacekeeping Personnel Collective (SCLAPC) will also collaborate with organizations such as BUILD Program, Outreach 360, Stop the violence, Revolve Impact, United Hood Nation, the Revenve Project, South Bureau Ministerial Alliance, Confidential Matters Inc, Project Kingship, Young Visionaries, New Ground of Santa Ana, Homies Unidos and Communities in Schools in North Hills.
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