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Over the last four years, I have been investigating the role my family has played in the history and status quo of our white supremacist nation. And as I have been investigating, I have been working to make structural change--through flipping State Legislatures.
Along with many, many friends, I worked hard to help the VA legislature flip to blue in 2017 and 2019. Now this is just part of their agenda for their current special session:
Reforming Virginia’s laws related to expungement of police and court records.
Increasing good behavior sentence credits.
Strengthening prosecutorial ability to dismiss charges.
Eliminating qualified immunity for law enforcement officers.
Prohibiting no-knock warrants.
Banning the use of chokeholds and other lethal restraints used by law enforcement.
Creating a statewide Marcus Alert system.
Strengthening laws related to Citizen Review Panels.
Eliminating certain pretextual police stops.
Demilitarizing police departments by prohibiting the acquisition and use of certain weapons by law enforcement agencies.
Empowering the Attorney General to conduct “pattern or practice” investigations of police forces that appear to be violating constitutional rights, including unlawful discrimination. (Office of Attorney General bill)
Expanding the definition of hate crimes to include false 911 calls made on the basis of race.
Standardizing and enhancing training for all police academies.
Mandating the duty of one officer to report and intervene during the misconduct of another officer.
Requiring decertification of law enforcement officers who fail to properly perform their duties.
Strengthening the assessments and vetting required before hiring law enforcement officers.
Diversify the Department of Criminal Justice Services’ Committee on Training.
And for good measure: Codifying Juneteenth as an official holiday of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
(Please let me know if you want to learn more about how you can get involved in flipping state legislatures. They have so much power, and they are so neglected, that any work you do has an outsized impact.)
And thank you, @JoshuaCole, @HalaAyala and all the brilliant young members of the VA House of Delegates for your incredible leadership not only of your state, but of the whole nation.
