M.O.B.B. United for Social Change, Inc.
A VOICE for Moms of Black sons
M.O.B.B. United for Social Change, Inc. (MUSC) focuses on influencing policy that impacts how Black boys and men are treated and perceived by law enforcement and in society. Our focus covers a variety of areas plagued by racial disparities as it relates to their interaction with law enforcement and persons in authority. From the school‐to‐prison pipeline to the broader criminal justice system, we aim to break down these walls and change the trajectory of racial injustice to ensure that our sons survive and thrive.
MUSC’s legislative platform outlines key policy areas that we plan to focus on over this year, across all states. Additionally, as they are introduced in state assemblies or opportunities arise, our legislative agenda will also include support for or opposition against key legislation and initiatives that are aligned with our mission.
Legislative Platform
Training
De-Escalation ‐ De-escalation is essential to reducing police involved shooting and incidents involving excessive use of force by equipping police officers with options and strategies to more effectively deal with members of the public who are in mental and emotional distress; and equip officers to discern when to appropriately use lethal versus non-lethal methods to protect themselves. Nationwide, the use of force standard for federal and state law enforcement officers should be to use lethal use of force only when necessary to prevent death or serious bodily injury. This would require that deadly force be used only as a last resort after employing de-escalation techniques. If enacted federally, MUSC would support grants to state and local agencies on establishment of the same use of force standard.
MUSC has been advocating for and supports adoption of these requirements.
Institutional Racism/Racial Bias ‐ Conscious and unconscious stereotypes, such as the stereotype that all young Black men are criminals, allow racism to perpetuate within policing. Nationwide, federal, state, and local law enforcement should prohibit any form of racial, religious and discriminatory profiling and create a cause of action for declaratory or injunctive relief. To achieve compliance, law enforcement should regularly collect this data and submit to the DOJ in a standardized format to foster adoption of policies to combat discriminatory profiling and establishment of best practices to discourage profiling. Training should be established at the federal level and state and local funding should be conditioned on establishment of training.
MUSC supports these measures but would like the training to be standardized across state and local agencies.
Policy
Use of Force ‐ Coupled with de-escalation training, policies limiting use of force are crucial to decrease the numbers of deaths in custody. Some of the most high-profile deaths in custody are due to the use of chokeholds. MUSC supports banning the chokeholds at the federal, state, and local level. Deadly force should be used only as a last resort and only when “necessary.” MUSC also supports bans of federal no knock warrants for drug cases. Officers should be required to intervene and stop excessive use of force by other officers. Additionally, we support requiring warnings before shooting and would support bans on shooting at moving vehicles. The policy transferring military weapons to local police should be limited.
Accountability and Oversight
Body-worn and Dash Cameras ‐ All federal, state and local uniformed officers should be required to wear body-worn cameras and use dashboard cameras on all marked vehicles. MUSC sees this as only part of the equation. MUSC would also advocate for increased and uniform access to camera footage across states and municipalities.
These policies should address storage of the footage, privacy issues and means of requesting access to the footage.
Comprehensive Reporting ‐ MUSC advocates for comprehensive reporting of any incident involving use of force. This should be attorney general level data collection on investigatory actions and detentions, racial distribution of drug charges, use of deadly force and traffic and pedestrian stops and detentions. MUSC also supports federal reporting requirements any time law enforcement threaten or use force against civilians.
Overall, an important component of comprehensive reporting is establishment of a National Police Misconduct Registry. The registry would include all misconduct complaints (pending, sustained and exonerated), discipline records, termination records and records of certification. Any officer hired would have to be certified within the state they are hired into.
MUSC believes these requirements serve to root out bias in policing and will combat racial profiling and would prevent problematic officers being hired by another agency without any accountability.
Independent Investigations ‐ MUSC supports independent investigation processes for any incident involving law enforcement misconduct or excessive use of force, and federal subpoena power to facilitate these investigations.
Accountability ‐ Nationwide, the standard for prosecuting officers who use excessive force should shift from “willful” intention to “knowingly or with reckless disregard” and should further define “death resulting” as any act that was a “substantial factor contributing to the death”. Impacted individuals should be able to recover damages in civil court when officers violate their constitutional rights by eliminating qualified immunity for law enforcement.
These changes in investigations and accountability represent a major shift in the ability to prosecute police misconduct and overuse of force.
Summary
Since inception MUSC has been advocating for the establishment of national standards and federal mandates for training and operation of police departments at the state and local level. Systematic racism and bias affects how our Black boys and men are treated by law enforcement. These changes would put in place substantive measures for better data collection and clearer guidelines for effective prosecution.
MUSC also advocates for improved funding, training and requirements to support effective crisis intervention. The safety of both law enforcement officers and citizens is compromised when police are untrained and respond to crises involving people with significant mental health issues. Outcomes are better when responding officers are fully trained in the Memphis method/Crisis Intervention Training and there is a system of community support to redirect individuals from the judicial system to the health care system.
M.O.B.B. United for Social Change, Inc. is the sister organization and advocacy arm of Moms of Black Boys United, Inc. It is a nationwide coalition of moms who are dedicated to making the world a safer place for Black boys and men by eradicating harassment, brutality, and unjustified use of deadly force by law enforcement against our sons.