Peace Economy Project Supports St. Louis Division of Civilian Oversight
Say Their Names.
Eric Garner, John Crawford III, Tamir Rice, Tony Robinson, Freddie Gray, Samuel DuBose, Bettie Jones, Philando Castile, Jordan Edwards, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Andre Hill, Jayland Walker, Badi Ali Jabir
These are a few of the unarmed African-Americans who have been killed by law-enforcement in the last ten years.
According to the Washington Post, 1050 people have been shot and killed by the police in the past year.
Black Americans are shot at a disproportionate rate. They account for less than 13 percent of the U.S. population, but are killed by police at more than twice the rate of White Americans. Hispanic Americans are also disproportionately killed by police.
After the 2014, Ferguson, Missouri police murder of Michael Brown–an unarmed Black man–a civilian oversight board was established in St. Louis. Unfortunately, the board has not been as effective as hoped. Police killed more than two dozen people in St. Louis, from 2015 through 2020, but the board couldn’t investigate those deaths because the police department “withheld nearly all of the complaints” it received against the officers involved.
In August, St. Louis mayor Tishaura Jones signed into law a bill that strengthens the city’s two existing oversight agencies — the Civilian Oversight Board and the Detention Facility Oversight Board — and moves them into a Division of Civilian Oversight, a larger entity within the state’s Department of Public Safety. The new division allows oversight officials to access the use of force and misconduct complaints and independently investigate misconduct claims. It also has the power to discipline law enforcement officers.
“When we put the public back in public safety, we are creating an environment where all members of the community are working towards accountability and safer neighborhoods in the long run,” Jones said at a news conference.
We, at the Peace Economy Project, support the work of Mayor Tishaura Jones to make law enforcement more accountable and more transparent. Whenever our citizens are subject to the use of force, most especially when fatal, there must never be the opportunity for the “blue wall of silence” to be erected.
