California considers the strictest use of police force in the country after Stephon Clark's shooting

SACRAMENTO – Sequita Thompson opened the sliding glbad door leading from her living room to a crowd of hand-made protesters Signs and photographs of his dead grandson in a narrow back yard. She would not cross the threshold.

A rectangle of red candles was marked with a cement marker. A football helmet with the number "23" was engraved in a corner. "Stephon Clark", reads the highest letters of the center, "August 10, 1995 – March 18, 2018."

"I will never go there again," said Thompson, Clark's grandmother, watching the memorial from inside the house. "It's there that they executed my grandson."

Unarmed and on his family's property, Clark was shot eight times in the evening darkness by two police officers in Sacramento, who mistook the glow of his mobile phone as a shootout. Last month, the District Attorney and Attorney General refused to prosecute the police, bringing hundreds of protesters to the streets for protest days.

In the aftermath of the city's raging anger, usually as littered as its bureaucratic nature, California began debating the adoption of the country's most restrictive law governing the use of lethal force by the police.

This is the offset of a word.

Over the past 147 years, law enforcement officials in California have been subject to a law on the use of force adopted while the state was still a weakly governed border. It allows police officers to use lethal force when they "arrest people accused of crime, who are fleeing justice or oppose such an arrest."

This was effectively replaced in 1989 when the US Supreme Court ruled that lethal force is justified against a suspect if a "reasonable" officer would have acted in the same way in the same way.

A bill currently before the State Assembly would increase this threshold. Under the pending legislation, a police officer would have the right to use a deadly force that it was deemed "necessary" to defend against imminent death or serious injury.

Stevante Clark, center, Stephon Clark's brother, raises his fist while Reverend Al Sharpton calls on California to change the way it responds to the killing of civilians by police at a conference of press at the Capitol on March 18 in Sacramento. (Rich Pedroncelli / AP)

California's law enforcement badociations, which are among the most powerful lobby groups in the state, are opposed to this bill, which could serve as a national precedent. Police chiefs to line officers supported another bill, currently in the Senate, that would formally formalize the "reasonable" officer law and would require a significant increase in funding for police training.

The most unstable question of the Black Lives Matter era is perhaps at the center of the debate: perceived impunity for police involved in fatal shootings. This is also part of a larger campaign being conducted in California – under the impulse of an overwhelmingly overwhelming state government – to tackle criminal justice practices that hit people of color hardest.

Last year, the legislature voted in favor of the abolition of the pecuniary bond, a feature of the pre-trial justice system, which often meant that the poor remained behind bars simply because they were not allowed to pay. they could not pay to leave. More recently, Governor Gavin Newsom (D) challenged an election initiative launched two years ago by suspending the state's death sentence, granting the 737 death row inmates California a stay of execution. # 39; execution.

Police rules on the use of force are even more politicized. At one of the Capitol's main public entrances, a memorial to the flag of officers killed in the performance of his duty bears witness to the emotional and political dominance exercised by the police.

"We are also losing loved ones and we understand the tragedy and the loss," said Citrus Heights Police Chief Ronald Lawrence, the new president of the California Police Chiefs Association, who said 144 police officers had been killed in the performance of their duties last year. , including 11 in California.

Lawrence, whose members oppose the idea of ​​changing the standard in the use of force, said that "what many of us need to do, is to reduce speeches and understand that police forces are a reflection of our communities. " His message is that the suspects "cooperate and then complain" of alleged misconduct on the part of an officer.

"This is the mantra we hope the community will adopt," he said.

Stephon Clark, who according to police, did not respond to his orders to "show me your hands" in response to a call about vehicle break-ins, was one of 115 people killed by bullet by police in California last year, according to the Washington Post Database "Fatal Force". More than half were black or Latino.

Protesters from Black Lives Matter march to Sacramento during a demonstration on March 30, 2018 to demand justice for Stephon Clark, shot and killed by police on March 18 (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images).

"They are very worried about a change of standard and, you know how the clocks are moving, the pendulum will go up to give the impression to the officers that they can not do it." their job, "said state president, Toni Atkins (D-San Diego). "There is a reality to that."

Atkins said that negotiations between police badociations and legislators before the start of the legislative session were not compromised. She said the parties "must reach an agreement, and I think the race will be difficult."

"Something needs to happen this year and it will require a better balance between the two," said Atkins, who, like Rendon, has not officially taken a stand on the bill. "I clearly think that the law enforcement is going to have to be moved."

In recent years, several cities, including San Francisco and Seattle, have tightened the use of force regulations in a manner similar to that contemplated by the state.

San Francisco, for example, changed the "reasonable" agent standard in 2016 to indicate that "sworn law enforcement officers" will never use "useless force", among other rules. aimed at reducing clashes. In the year following the coming into force of the new regulations, the city recorded a decrease of almost 20% in use of force incidents.

"There is a better way to achieve positive results, not only for the public, but also for the forces of order," said Assembly member Shirley Weber (D- San Diego), which proposes to change the use of force.

Weber said that too many people complied with police orders to be killed by a fearful policeman. She also asked why some suspects who had "nothing to lose," including the Charleston, S.C., Dylann Roof church shooter, are apprehended alive.

"We are beginning to examine the lethal force and realize that it is often not considered the last option because it establishes a" reasonableness "versus a" necessity, "Weber said. it really necessary to make use of deadly force when one is not facing one's own life and death situation? "

According to Weber, the path of the legislation will be difficult given the power of the lobby of the forces of the order which, in his opinion, has only equaled the interest groups in the matter. d & # 39; education.

"They are a vital part of California, no doubt, and we give them tremendous respect and responsibility," said Weber. "But we are also waiting for a responsibility."

How a new standard of use of force would be applied is a question of argumentation. Lawrence, the head of the Association of Chiefs of Police, said that would equate to a "quarterback Monday morning" by allowing investigators to use a highly subjective term to judge a shootout after the facts.

"My goal is not to go back and look at what happened under the new language," said Senator Anna Caballero (D-Salinas Valley), who is sponsoring the bill to expand police training. "My goal is to create an environment where lethal force is no longer needed."

Three binders contain the final report of the California Attorney General's investigation into the deadly murder of police last year against Stephon Clark. On March 5, Attorney General Xavier Becerra said that after an investigation of nearly a year, his office would not file a criminal complaint against both officers. (Rich Pedroncelli / AP)

Last year, the legislature set aside $ 30 million for police training. Caballero, a lawyer by profession, claims about four times this amount in his proposal, which would have the effect of recycling all the officers of more than 500 state security forces into "de-escalation" tactics. The bill would also formally replace the lax 1872 law on the use of force by the "reasonable" agent standard.

"What you want is a linguistic certainty for police officers and their superiors to know what is expected of them," Caballero said.

Daniel Hahn was born and raised in the neighborhood of this city, Oak Park, which, like the Meadowview community where Stephon Clark was killed, is a notoriously rugged place on the south side of Highway 50. At age 16, he is arrested for badaulting a police officer.

"Our community needs the police department and our police department needs the community," Hahn said. "We need to find real solutions that really make the difference and quit, like nibbling at the edges and just doing things that could make us feel a little bit better."

Hahn places body cameras in this category, an alleged panacea for the excessive use of force. He wears one and believes that all officers should. But he said that that was not enough – just as, in his view, the change in standards for the use of force would not be enough and would create more confusion than clarity.

Over the last year, Hahn has launched the "Walk in My Shoes" program, in which a new police academy graduate joins a community leader in an unfamiliar neighborhood.

He invited Stanford University to study the Department's policy on digital cameras and the Department of Justice to recommend changes to the use of force regulations. He ensured that all documents and video footage from the Stephon Clark case went online.

"It has to be an open relationship with the community, and when we're wrong, we have to say we're wrong," Hahn said. "And when we're right, we'll say we're right."