WABE asked the same question of all Senate candidates on the primary ballot June 9, including the Democrats and Republican incumbent Sen. David Perdue. These are the responses we received.
What policies should or could the U.S. Senate enact to address protesters’ demands?
Sarah Riggs Amico
The US Senate has the power to affect real change, but not with people like David Perdue. The Senate needs to take action to terminate programs that provide military weapons to local law enforcement. They can also take steps to ensure the Department of Justice returns to Obama-era policies of investigations of police misconduct and violence, and to enact the recommendations of the Obama White House Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Additionally, the US Senate needs to address qualified immunity, which protects officers from being sued for official actions – an idea the Supreme Court is currently reviewing. At the end of the day, we need legislation and action that addresses behavior, training, access to weapons, and accountability for any taxpayer-funded official whose job it is to serve the public.
Maya Dillard-Smith
Policing is a state function, thus the federal government can guide policing via the billions of dollars it earmarks to state and local law enforcement agencies.
1) Legislate to remove “qualified immunity” for police in exchange for the billions of dollars state and local law enforcement receive from the U.S. Department of Defense so that police can not act above the law and can be held accountable for actions of excessive force.
2) Legislate to require state and local justifications that receive federal funding to pass state and local legislation that requires officers to intervene and report excessive force they witness or be fired taking away their pensions as a consequence.
3) Demilitarize local and state law enforcement agencies by ending the practice of selling federal military equipment to state and local law enforcement agencies.
4) Legislate that all officer-involved shootings be independently investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice to ensure no conflicts and protect the public’s trust and confidence in the system.
James Knox
Today, more than ever we need leaders with courage, character and integrity. I am a veteran and servant leader that has served my nation and my community for over 30 years. On Saturday, May 30, 2020, I participated in a nonviolent protest/march in Augusta, GA.
On May 31, 2020, I reached out to VP Biden, the Senate GOP, Senate Democrats, House Democrats and House Republicans to adopt and support an Accountability Bill for police officers similar to the Uniform Code of Military Justice that I served under.
As Georgia’s next United States Senator you have my total commitment to championing and/or supporting an Abuse of Force legislation that holds rogue police accountable for their actions. We do not need another toothless oversight committee with nebulous language and many loopholes.
As an U.S. Senator I will sponsor and/or support an Accountability Law that holds Police accountable for breaking the law! Serving and protecting is a privilege and not a right and those that violate the privilege of trust that we place in them must be removed and prosecuted immediately. No exceptions. We are a nation of laws; and those laws must equally apply to every citizen! Additionally, all police departments nationally must undergo the same training and must have a minimum of a quarterly outreach to develop partnerships with the communities that they police.
Jon Ossoff
I will champion and fight tirelessly to pass a New Civil Rights Act that strengthens civil rights laws and advances comprehensive criminal justice reform. Race and class disparities in policing, prosecution, and sentencing must be ended nationwide. I will work to reverse the militarization of local police forces, enhance due process and human rights protections for all citizens, ban private prisons, end cash bail, raise conditions of incarceration to humane standards, abolish the death penalty, legalize cannabis, end incarceration for nonviolent drug offenses, and redirect resources toward fighting organized crime, fraud, money laundering, human trafficking, and corruption.
Teresa Tomlinson
As an attorney, and former Mayor and Public Safety Director, Teresa Tomlinson will:
- Lead federal legislative efforts to revise the 1967 judicial doctrine of “qualified immunity” which severely and unreasonably limits all civil liability of law enforcement agencies and officers in incidents of brutal killings, such as the most recent killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (See Statement regarding modifying qualified immunity);
- Urge thorough Senate oversight and funding of the Department of Justice (DOJ) program to facilitate the full implementation of President Barack Obama’s Task Force Recommendations on 21st Century Policing in all twenty thousand law enforcement agencies throughout this country and the full restoration of the DOJ’s Community Oriented Policing Services program.
- Support the Emmett Till anti-lynching law, amend the federal hate crimes legislation to close a loophole, and tie funding and federal programs to the absence of so-called Stand Your Ground and citizen arrest laws that encourage the type of vigilantism that killed Ahmaud Arbery.
As a Mayor and Public Safety Director, Teresa proposed the following statewide requirement for all law enforcement agencies in GA:
- Require all law enforcement agencies within the State of Georgia to meet best practices of the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA.)
- Require any future fatal officer-involved shooting within the State of Georgia to be investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
- Require any future fatal officer-involved shooting within the State of Georgia to be reviewed and/or prosecuted by a District Attorney outside the jurisdiction of the shooting.
- Require the compilation and maintenance of data on officer-involved shootings in all Georgia jurisdictions.
- Require all incident video footage of any officer-involved shootings to be subject to the Georgia Open Records Act regardless of pending review or investigation, absent court order protection.
- Convene a bi-partisan legislative commission to review and report on law enforcement immunity statutes in Georgia and the need for any legislative amendments or adjustments. (This item may be accomplished by any appropriate Resolution of the Georgia General Assembly.)
Mayor Tomlinson is not new to these real solutions to policing brutality and vigilantism that are shaking the public confidence in our justice system. She looks forward to implementing these changes in the US Senate.
For a deeper exploration of Ahmaud Arbery’s story, listen to WABE’s podcast, “Buried Truths.” Hosted by journalist, professor, and Pulitzer-prize-winning author Hank Klibanoff, season three of “Buried Truths” explores the Arbery murder and its direct ties to racially motivated murders of the past in Georgia.
