In the aftermath of police officers killing two unarmed black men in 2014 – Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York – and the failure of secret grand juries to indict these officers – the new generation of those demanding social change arose. Young people are now engaged in protests that are calling attention to a new civil rights movement centered on how police treat communities of color and how justice is meted out for victims of police violence.
More than a half a century ago, a young preacher called a generation to action and forever changed the course of history.
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. devoted his life to justice and equality, sowing seeds of hope for a day when all people might claim “the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”
On Monday, we celebrated the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This has been the one of the most meaningful celebrations of Dr. King for me since 1986 when his birthday was made a national holiday because the civil rights movement has been given new life.
Today, instead of fighting for voting rights and equal access to employment, we are fighting for the right to live and walk freely without threat of being killed by the police. Police shootings of innocent Americans have occurred since the founding of our nation but it was in 2014, with the rise of social media, that the targeting of black males by the police has come to everyone’s attention. Social media has allowed people to report what is happening through their own eyes, not the whitewashed eyes of the media. What my generation once considered a lost generation is a lost generation no more.
In the aftermath of police officers killing two unarmed black men in 2014 – Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York – and the failure of secret grand juries to indict these officers – the new generation of those demanding social change arose. Young people are now engaged in protests that are calling attention to a new civil rights movement centered on how police treat communities of color and how justice is meted out for victims of police violence.
We, who are the beneficiaries of Dr. King’s legacy, must face our challenges with the same strength, persistence, and resolve embodied by the great Movement leaders — Dr. King, Coretta Scott King, Rev. C. T. Vivian, Dr. Joseph Lowery and my friend and colleague, Congressman John Lewis.
That’s why I’m standing on the shoulders of these giants by offering critical legislative solutions to some of our most pressing civil rights battles of today -- the militarization of our local police and reforming the broken grand jury system. The “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” and “Black Lives Matter” movements find their voice in my bills: The Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act and The Grand Jury Reform Act.
When law enforcement fails us, the only thing we have left is the criminal justice system. We rely on our peers to decide whether or not someone has violated the social norms of our society to the extent that they should be put behind bars. But it appears that the irrational fear of black men has become so ingrained in our society that it taints the view of even our most powerful.
The legislation I have introduced this week, the Grand Jury Reform Act, seeks to add another layer of accountability in cases involving police officers that kill civilians. The Act requires the appointment of a special prosecutor to conduct an investigation and present the results to a judge in a probable cause hearing, open to the public, whenever a police officer kills an individual while acting in the line of duty. It would also require state law enforcement agencies to investigate the cases instead of local law enforcement agencies, further removing the case from potential bias by law enforcement or prosecutors.
Our Declaration of Independence states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” More than 50 years after the Civil Rights Movement, we still have a lot of work to do to ensure all Americans are treated equally. My legislation is a step in that direction. All lives matter and we must ensure our criminal justice system reflects that, too.