National Policies and Initiatives
■Vigorous investigation and monitoring of the police killing of Michael Brown so that justice is done through the prosecution of Officer Darren Wilson by local authorities or via a federal civil rights lawsuit.
■By Executive Order President Obama should end the “War on Drugs” as a racially biased, ineffective and inflammatory approach to promoting public safety.
■The Justice Department must end grants to local police departments for the purchase of military equipment. The militarization of the police with federal tax dollars must stop.
■President Obama should convene an Emergency Summit on Policing Policy and Public Safety to identify and share best practices for building effective police/community relations, including examples of Community-Policing.
■The enactment of a Domestic Marshall Plan (what IBW terms a Martin Luther King-Malcolm X Community Revitalization Initiative) with massive investment in economic development, housing, health and education to repair the damages of decades of neglect and racially-biased criminal justice policies.
■President Obama should appoint a Kerner Commission type body to examine the root causes of the persistent crises of joblessness, economic underdevelopment, police killings and misconduct, crime, violence, fratricide/murders, mass incarceration, the State of Emergency in America’s “dark ghettos.”
Local Policies and Initiatives
■Demand an end to flawed “broken windows” and “zero tolerance” policing strategies that insult the intelligence of and infuriate Black people. Paramilitary sweeps, “stop-and-frisk” and similar practices must be banned in favor of effective Community-Policing methods.
■Demand the establishment of well funded Independent Civilian Police Complaint Review Boards with subpoena, investigatory and prosecutorial powers.
■Demand the video recording of all police stops via car, body and weapon cameras as a more fail-safe method of collecting data of arrests and use of force.
Mobilizing/Organizing for Change
■Utilize all forms of struggle to end the “War on Drugs,” police misconduct and killings of Black people: voter registration, education and mobilization; protest marches, demonstrations, civil disobedience; and, economic sanctions/boycotts.
■Build permanent collaborative/coalitional structures (IBW is working to create Justice Collaboratives in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C and Baltimore) to consistently wage struggle to end police violence against Black people and heal Black families and communities.
■Identify and assist young leaders to take the lead in articulating policies and implementing action agendas to end the killing of Black people and to heal Black families and communities.
