After drawing a colossal crowd of over 20,000 supporters in Portland on Sunday (Aug. 9), Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is taking an even larger step towards police reform and social justice with the proposal of his “Racial Justice” campaign policy.
On the newly instated platform, Sanders describes “four central types of violence waged against black and brown Americans: physical, political, legal and economic.” During his Portland stop, he announced to his supporters that he is bound on police reform, which includes but is not limited to the demilitarization of police forces, a program that would provide body cameras to all citizen-interacting authorities and the increase of police accountability. In the policy that was posted on his website, he also emphasizes the labeling of white supremacism as “racist terrorism,” citing Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and several others.
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“We are far from eradicating racism in this country,” the proposition reads. “In June, nine of our fellow Americans were murdered while praying in a historic church because of the color of their skin. This violence fills us with outrage, disgust, and a deep, deep sadness. Today in America, if you are black, you can be killed for getting a pack of Skittles during a basketball game. These hateful acts of violence amount to acts of terror. They are perpetrated by extremists who want to intimidate and terrorize black and brown people in this country.”
After recent scrutinization from Black Lives Matter advocates for failure to address social activism concerns, Sanders seeks to redeem himself with the urgent proposal. According the Huffington Post, he swore to dedicate his reform and justice efforts to the black community and intersect those issues with other political concerns, such as income inequality. He’s even enlisted Symone Sanders, a black criminal justice advocate, for his national press secretary.
Keep up with more of Bernie Sanders campaign and appearances through his Twitter.