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New Report: How Police Associations Prevent California From Addressing Police Violence

5/25/2018

From our friends at staywoke.org:

We just released a Report revealing how Police Unions and Associations prevent California lawmakers from addressing police violence.
Read the Report here.

Here are some of the major findings:

Police unions and associations have given $5.5 million to candidates for California’s state legislature since 2011.
Police unions and associations have helped fund the campaigns of 118 of the 120 current California state legislators.
California legislators in either party who do not support police reform bills receive substantially more money from police unions and associations than those who support reform – especially Democrats who do not support police reform bills.
Once they help elect California’s state legislators, police association lobbyists spend substantial amounts of time and money to convince them to oppose police reform – spending nine times as much as the NRA to lobby California state legislators.

It will take all of us to convince legislators to stand up to the police associations and pass bills that address police violence and accountability.
Here’s how you can make a difference today:

Go here to find your California state legislators, then call them and tell them to support four important bills:

AB 931, a bill that would make police deadly force a last resort;
AB 3131, which would restrict police militarization and;
SB 1421, which would make records of police misconduct public.
SB 1186, which would create limits on the acquisition of police surveillance technologies

And if you’re interested in joining a group of researchers, students and activists working on projects to address police violence in California, reply to this email.

StayWoke.

-Samuel Sinyangwe

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Challenge the state Budget: Make room from our surplus to RAISE the cash grant!

5/25/2018

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Dear Friends,

As you may remember, Senator Holly Mitchell is calling for California to raise the cash grant for families on CalWORKs, our state welfare-to-work program. To alleviate the deep poverty of nearly 1 in 12 families, she is asking that we make the cash grant - the money for rent, utilities, supplies - 50% of the Federal Poverty Level family income. SB 982 would raise the cash from $741 to $1,046 for a family of three. That's still a hardship, but it would go a long way toward helping make ends meet in pricey California rental and cost of living communities.

We just learned the state has $9 billion more than the Governor's projection. Yes, anti tax people say it means we're "overtaxed", but what it means in fact is that we are doing well.

Why should the poor, whose cash grants we cut to balance the budget in lean times, not do well, too? If not now, when?

The state Senate has approved this as part of the May Revision, and now we need the Assembly to do the same.

The Budget Committee members are:

Philip Ting - Chair (D-San Francisco)
Jay Obernolte - Vice Chair (R-Big Bear Lake)
Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach)
Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno)
Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica)
Anna Caballero (D-Salinas)
Rocky Chavez (R-Oceanside)
David Chiu (D-San Francisco)
Steven Choi (R-Irvine)
Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove)
Fong (R-Bakersfield)
Matthew Harper (R-Huntington Beach)
Reginald Jones-Sawyer, Sr. (D-Los Angeles)
Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale)
Monique Limon (D-Santa Barbara)
Devon Mathis (R-Visalia)
Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento)
Jose Medina (D-Riverside)
Melissa Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore)
Kevin Mullin (D-South San Francisco)
Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance)
Patrick O'Donnell (D-Long Beach)
Jim Patterson (R-Fresno)
Blanca Rubio (D-Baldwin Park)
Mark Stone (D-Scotts Valley)
Randy Voepel (R-Santee)
Shirley Weber (D-San Diego)
Jim Wood (D-Santa Rosa-Humboldt)

To write them as a constituent or to your non-Budget Committee Assembly Member who will ultimately take a floor vote, please go to:

http://www.churchimpact.org/take-action.html

You will find the local as well as Capitol connections by which to contact them. Phone, write a FAX, or email to them now.

To send email or FAX letters to the Budget Committee staff to pass on, please FAX Chief Consultant Nicole Vazquez at 916-319-2199 or email her at Nicole.Vazquez@asm.ca.gov

Our message is simple: Raise the California cash grant to help pull our families from dire poverty. Protect our state's children from the dire harm of unmet needs. Share the state's bounty with those in want and assure a better future for the children we cherish.

We have the money. We need to make restitution to those, the poorest of the poor, whose income was sacrificed in the lean years. Now we need to take care of our children and families in need. There is no better investment in our future.

Thank you!

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New Report: How Police Associations Prevent California From Addressing Police Violence

Challenge the state Budget: Make room from our surplus to RAISE the cash grant!

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