Items tagged civilian oversight

Forever Rooted: Leadership, Storytelling, and Skill-Building

Forever Rooted is a program for formerly incarcerated people where we meet once a week for seven weeks and go over a curriculum that consists of leadership building, storytelling, and facilitation skill-building and encourages folks to become active in their own communities.

We understand that fresh out of prison people are waiting on that first call to say that they’re hired, which makes participating in a voluntary program like Forever Rooted challenging. Our recent cohort began with a nice number of participants and ended with around the same number of people, finishing strong. Through perseverance and dedication every person that graduated this year didn’t miss a single day! Shoutout to our previous graduates, Todd and Al, for showing up and supporting our most recent group.

Forever Rooted Spring 2018 Graduation

This last Forever Rooted cohort was active in our signature gathering events where we gathered signatures to put the Reform L.A. Jails and Community Reinvestment Initiative on the ballot in 2020. Among other things, the initiative if passed would grant subpoena power to the L.A. Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission. Forever Rooted participants were also active at our monthly Member Engagement Meetings and our Freedom Harvest summer pop-up arts and wellness events that take place outside the county jails. This group of folks was great and I was also blessed with a great intern. Grateful for everyone that helped my work and the program flourish!

T.E.A.M. work! (Together Everyone Achieves More)

If you have recently gotten out of prison and want to participate in our next free Forever Rooted program please contact me here.

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#300Problematic Deputies the Sheriff Wants to Expose but the Unions are Hiding

Court is blocking Sheriff McDonnell from handing over list of 300 problematic personnel to the DA. #saywhat? #civilianpower

Posted by Mark-Anthony Clayton-Johnson on Monday, February 20, 2017

Hey y’all. Mark-Anthony Johnson, Dignity and Power Now.

So LA Times put out an article today written by Maya Lau.

A court is blocking LA County Sheriff, Sheriff McDonnell, from handing over a list of 300 problematic deputies.

300. So, let’s talk about this. Right, so, his own Internal Affairs Bureau has identified 300 personnel, actually some of them are ranking officers, whose conduct within the department has included theft, bribery, brutality, the gamut. And he wants to give this list over to the district attorney.

I think it’s timely, right, you know, we’ve got the Tanaka trial, the Baca trial is happening. And given the history of law enforcement abusing folks, lying, making up testimony. Perfectly valid. That the DA should be able to look at this list of officers, who may be called to testify, and question whether their history of misconduct actually calls into question their testimony. Perfectly fair.

But what’s happening? The district attorney is rejecting the list. Just doesn’t want the list. The sheriffs’ union is making a whole stink about it, saying that it’s violating their officers’ privacy and they don’t want to demonize their deputies that may have done something a long time ago. And three, they got an appellate judge to block any names, to just put a hold on any names period being given to the DA right now.

1. DA’s rejecting the list
2. Sheriffs’ union blocking
3. Court judge is putting a hold

So what does that mean? If the sheriff himself, Sheriff Top Dog McDonnell, can’t even make a list of people in his own department that he’s identified as problematic, he can’t even make that list useful for the sake of transparency and accountability, then the people need to have the power to make misconduct reports, and documents, and records useful. For transparency and accountability. That means changing state law. Right? Just like in 25 other states around the country police misconduct reports are public. Ten of which you don’t even need a ruling, there doesn’t even need to be a ruling that police misconduct was even determined! But in California we can’t do that.

So, change the state law to make police misconduct reports public. And then make sure the civilian oversight of the sheriff’s department has the power to subpoena the sheriff’s department. For times like this. Exactly these type of moments. When the DA is rejecting the misconduct records, when the sheriffs’ union is blocking them, and when a court judge is putting a hold on them. Where do they go? They belong in the hands of the community. So we can expose it, so we can make them useful, for accountability and transparency.

Just sayin’.

Get at us Thursday 9:30 AM, Civilian Oversight Commission meeting, Bob Hope Patriotic Hall. Be there.

Transcribed from a video originally posted via Facebook Live February 20th, 4:24 PM.

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Civilian Oversight Commissioners Announced! (Where’s Patrisse?)

On November 1st the Los Angeles County Supervisors officially announced the nine people who will be serving on the Civilian Oversight Commission.

Appointed individually by Solis, Ridley-Thomas, Kuehl, Knabe, and Antonovich, in that order:

Hernan Vera

Attorney
Former President and CEO of Public Counsel

Xavier Thompson

President of Baptist Ministers’ Conference
Senior Pastor of the Southern Saint Paul Church

Patti Giggans

Executive Director of Peace Over Violence

JP Harris

Former LA Sheriff’s Lieutenant
Board Member and Former President of ALADS

Robert C. Bonner

Attorney
Former DEA Administrator

Appointed by the Board of Supervisors from the community applications:

Sean Kennedy

Executive Director of Center for Juvenile Law & Policy at Loyola Law School
Former Federal Public Defender

Heather Miller

C2ESV NOMINEE
Rabbi at Beth Chayim Chadashim

Priscilla Ocen

C2ESV NOMINEE
Loyola Law School Associate Professor

Lael Rubin

Former Deputy District Attorney

DPN and the C2ESV implemented and shaped much of the commission through our 2014 report “A Civilian Review Board for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department” and our persistent campaigning and organizing efforts that spanned 3 years. Even though the county’s commission on jail violence rejected the idea of civilian oversight, we took on this fight to end state violence in the county jails and in our neighborhoods. After being invited to speak at a press conference held by the county supervisors, we decided to both claim our victory and pose important criticisms of the process. Check out the footage on Patrisse Cullors’ live Facebook video:

Civilian Oversight Commission Press Conference- Mark-Anthony Johnson from Dignity and Power Now. DPN was the main organization fighting for this Commission. #ClaimYourVictory

Posted by Patrisse Khan-Cullors on Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Patrisse Cullors, DPN’s founder and co-founder of Black Lives Matter, was instrumental in making the commission. She brought the idea to the table and organized local communities to demand it. And although she was nominated by us and made it to the final round of the interview process, the supervisors said her affiliation to BLM was a conflict of interest. However, they did not think that Robert C. Bonner being former administrator of the DEA and commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection was a conflict of interest. And even more shockingly, they didn’t think that JP Harris being a former sheriff’s department lieutenant for the very department this commission is overseeing was a conflict of interest.

Moving forward there is much to be done to ensure that this commission is effective and we are confident in the presence and fortitude of our C2ESV nominees who have been appointed. Stay tuned for more in depth profiles on all of the commissioners. In the meantime we will continue to be vigilant in pushing for subpoena power and to ensure that each commissioner is holding the LASD accountable and serving the people most affected by sheriff violence.

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Through and To the Criminal Judicial System

My personal experience brought me through and to the criminal judicial system. I was found guilty at trial for something that I did not do and was sentenced to one year in county jail. While incarcerated for 6 months in 2011 at the Century Regional Detention Facility (CRDF), I was sexually abused by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies and by medical staff.

When I filed complaints in my first month at CRDF they all fell on deaf ears.

This experience brought me to my role as a Dignity and Power Now campaign lead for support of a Civilian Oversight Commission over the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

As campaign lead I researched for one year civilian oversight commissions and review boards all across the US, Canada, and Europe. My research included budgets, size of police and sheriff’s departments, salaries, staffing, litigation costs, subpoena power, how many commission members, policy, and protocol. I consistently brought forth pertinent information to share with the working group members like what was working for oversight/review boards across the US and what is necessary for future effective civilian oversight commissions.

My research was to sharpen our knowledge of our 5 non-negotiable demands. Subpoena power, no former or current law enforcement, direct the work of the Office of Inspector General, a nine seat panel, and independent counsel. After one year here is what we won: 1. no current law enforcement, 2. nine seat member commission. Now we are in a fight for the Civilian Oversight Commission to obtain subpoena power by changing County Charter.

The purpose of subpoena power is to have access to police personnel files for more transparency and accountability within the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department during investigations regarding police misconduct and excessive use of force. Without subpoena power we simply have an incomplete investigation.

This type of thorough investigation would have helped my personal experience at Century Regional Detention Facility. A civilian oversight commission with subpoena power increases transparency and accountability within the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department during police misconduct investigations.

My personal experience with advocacy is hands-on education and learning with the American Civil Liberties Union in April 2016. I went to the capital in Sacramento and learned how to lobby senators, assemblymen, and assemblywomen with an ACLU constitutional attorney in support of SB-1286. SB-1286 (or the Police Officer Misconduct Bill) is a bill that would grant subpoena power to all civilian oversight/review boards in the state of California. Although currently waiting to be brought up again in the next bill cycle, SB-1286 is another viable route to make sure Los Angeles County’s Civilian Oversight Commission has the power it needs to be effective.

Stay tuned to our blog or subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date with my work as civilian oversight campaign lead and the fight to change County Charter and pass SB-1286!

civilian oversight Archives - Dignity and Power Now