Pamela Price: "Too often, in Alameda County, a mental health crisis becomes a death sentence."
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1. Alameda County’s 51–50 Crisis
Alameda County’s 51–50 Crisis has exploded! Did you know that more people suffer from mental health crises in Alameda County than anywhere else in California? According to the State Dept. Of Health Services, Alameda County has the highest rate of involuntary psychiatric holds (51–50) in the entire state. And we are FAILING miserably to respond to people in crisis.
Pamela Price: "Too often, in Alameda County, a mental health crisis becomes a death sentence."
Article: https://www.davisvanguard.org/2021/05/guest-commentary-alameda-countys-51-50-crisis/
2. Wrongful Execution of Ledell Lee – New Forensic Evidence Casts Doubt of Guilt in Case
On April 20, 2017, Ledell Lee was executed for the murder of his neighbor, Debra Reese. But now, new forensic evidence casts doubt on Lee’s conviction.
Debra Reese died from strangulation and from being beaten by a baseball bat-like object in her home back in 1993. Aside from two specks of blood on Lee’s shoes and hair matching his ethnicity, there was very little tying Lee to the crime.
As of April 30, 2021, the ACLU and Innocence Project have released evidence that Lee may have been innocent all along. The newly analyzed murder weapon and blood-soaked shirt show DNA from an unidentified male, not Lee.
3. It’s Past Time to End the Federal Militarization of Police
Representative Nydia Velázquez will soon re-introduce legislation to repeal 1033. Our organizations have been on the front lines of the fight against militarized police, and ACLU researchers recently spent months analyzing the 1033 program. Our findings give rise to a straightforward recommendation: Congress should pass the Demilitarizing Local Law Enforcement Act of 2021 and President Joe Biden should sign it into law.
4. Police Unions Once Again on the Wrong Side of Reform
Orange County Register said while Democrats hold supermajorities in the legislature, they are paying only “ lip service to the need for police reform.” The blame - public-employee unions including “ law-enforcement unions that stifle accountability efforts and defend the current system that protects abusive cops.”
“ California is one of only four states — the others are the union-friendly Democratic bastions of Hawaii, New Jersey and Rhode Island — that do not have a decertification process for misbehaving officers,” they note.
“Allowing the police to police themselves has proven to be dangerous and leads to added distrust between communities of color and law enforcement,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Steven Bradford.
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