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A sea of gloved fists 鈥� white with knuckles painted blood red 鈥� floated above bowed heads outside the State House Thursday evening as advocates read the names of Marylanders who had died during interactions with the police.
Albert Denton
Allen Harvey
Angel Chiwengo
Angela Randolph
Anthony Anderson
Anthony Hammond
Anthony Howard
Anthony Stoakley
Anthony Trice
Anton Black
And the list went on.
Advocates from the Maryland Coalition for Police Accountability and Justice gathered to make another push for lawmakers to meet their demands for meaningful reform following a year that put police violence against Black and Brown people on aggressive and inescapable display.
Their asks: Remove police officers from public school campuses; re-establish local control of the Baltimore Police Department; create a constitutional statewide use of force statute; pass the Public Information Act Reform without weakening it with amendments; and fully repeal the Law Enforcement Officers鈥� Bill of Rights 鈥� 鈥淣othing less!鈥� read a flier advertising the rally.
The coalition鈥檚 timing was prescient.
After weeks of voting, the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee had聽聽all nine bills included in the Maryland Police Accountability Act of 2021 over to the House, including legislation to:
- Mandate that all law enforcement agencies use聽聽statewide by 2025;
- Require all police departments to provide聽聽for all of their officers;
- Limit the use of聽;
- Restrict law enforcements鈥� ability to procure聽;
- Establish that police incidents resulting in civilian fatalities undergo聽;
- 搁别-别蝉迟补产濒颈蝉丑听聽of the Baltimore Police Department;
- Make certain officer misconduct and disciplinary聽;
- Establish a聽; and
- 聽the Law Enforcement Officers鈥� Bill of Rights.
And the House Judiciary Committee was to hold its first, full-body voting session on House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones鈥櫬犅爅ust moments after the rally ended.
Led largely by women of color, the coalition took issue with the way both chambers have pursued reform.
Yanet Amanuel, a public policy advocate at the ACLU of Maryland, said Jones鈥� bill has聽. But much of the conversation revolved around the聽聽in the amended legislation that moved out of the Senate the day before.
While several of the bills that moved through the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee were lightly amended, advocates looked on in disgust as some of their prioritized legislation, notably聽聽to repeal and replace the聽, was聽.
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Only one of the bills included an amendment, which was considered friendly, on the Senate floor before the package was voted out in full.
鈥楢m I right?鈥�
Nikki Owens, police reform advocate and directly impacted family member, fought through tears as she remembered her cousin William Green.
Green was fatally shot in January 2020 while handcuffed in the front of a police car by a law enforcement officer in Prince George鈥檚 County.
Owens said that she deliberately chooses not to talk to lawmakers about her cousin, who she affectionately referred to as 鈥淏oo Boo.鈥� She said that 鈥渢hey don鈥檛 deserve to know his story.鈥�
鈥淭hey can read it in the paper,鈥� Owens said. 鈥淎ll I care about is why you feel like it was OK for him to be murdered in that fashion.鈥�
鈥淵ou have the opportunity to change these laws and you don鈥檛,鈥� she insisted.
Advocates made it clear that they are ready to take dramatic action for the sake of their lives and safety, and have grown tired of the Annapolis status quo.
鈥淲e have to remember that right in this moment is where they want us to stop,鈥� said PG Change Makers Coalition Co-founder Krystal Oriadha. 鈥淎ll they want is for us to come to their doorstep, ask and go home.鈥�
鈥淲ell, we know better than that.鈥�
She said that it鈥檚 time to remove lawmakers who don鈥檛 take policing seriously from office.
鈥淕o ahead 鈥� rip apart our legislation if you want to. Go ahead and say you鈥檙e not gonna call it for a vote, keep it in the drawer if you want to,鈥� Oriadha said. 鈥淏ut ask [former House Judiciary Chairman Joseph F.] Vallario (D-Prince George鈥檚)] what happened to him, 鈥榗ause he ain鈥檛 here no more.鈥�
While no senators from the Judicial Proceedings Committee made an appearance, Del. Gabriel Acevero (D-Montgomery) spoke, and Del. J. Sandra Bartlett (D-Anne Arundel) came by briefly.
鈥淚鈥檓 also proud to stand with you all in this fight for justice, for accountability and for a transformation in the way that we do public safety in this country,鈥� Acevero said during his impassioned speech.
Acevero acknowledged the Senate鈥檚 鈥渨atered down鈥� reform package, and said that the public should be paying attention to Anton鈥檚 Law, a bill he co-sponsored with Carter that would make police misconduct records available for public inspection.
The bill is one of the coalition鈥檚 priorities and received minimal amendments in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.
鈥淲e need to bend government to our will,鈥� he said.
鈥淵ou see, you can hold us accountable for what watering down bills and our positions on bills because you know what we鈥檙e doing. But we don鈥檛 know what law enforcement agencies are doing in our communities and, as a result, we can鈥檛 hold them accountable,鈥� Acevero explained. 鈥淎s a result, we don鈥檛 have trust; and as a result, this racist system of policing continues to perpetuate and the only people who are impacted are people that look like me.鈥�
鈥淏ut that changed today,鈥� he continued. 鈥淚t changes today because we鈥檙e not just going to get Anton鈥檚 Law passed on the House side, we鈥檙e gonna repeal the Law Enforcement Officers鈥� Bill of Rights; we鈥檙e gonna pass a strong use of force; we鈥檙e gonna ensure independent prosecution; we鈥檙e gonna ensure community oversight of police and sheriffs and every single law enforcement entity that patrols our streets.鈥�
鈥淎m I right?鈥�
hgaskill@marylandmatters.org
