Fifty weeks! Fifty weeks since we decided that chronicling injustice cannot be enough. Fifty weeks since we decided that in addition to protests, and popular appeal, and voting we also needed to use the law as a weapon to fight back. "Heck," we thought, "ALEC is using the law to push their agenda, why can't we?"
The Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act (MBOPRA), and the #LetOurPoorPeopleLive Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) campaign came out of our determination to fight back with more than just words and outrage.
The Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act
There is no legislation that can change the hearts of evil, racist men and women. No legislation that will force Darren Wilson, George Zimmerman, Ray Tensing, Michael Slager, or Brian Encinia to respect the black body; to see black people of deserving to live, even. No legislation that will allows us to predict which cop will feel threatened by the flailing elbow of an eight year-old boy, or the toy gun of a 12 year-old playing in a park. No, it is impossible to legislate empathy, or compassion, or bravery.
But we can force people who put on the uniform of law enforcement to adhere to certain minimum rules and regulations. We can work to change the culture that currently allows the police to kill 695 people since the beginning of 2015. We can, and indeed we must, enact legislation to police the police.
This is outrageous!
If you, like us, believe that the current state of affairs is unacceptable and unsustainable; then we ask that you join us in any or all of the following activities:
a) Print out the law and send it your representatives
b) Email the law to your representatives and to civil rights organizations
c) Tweet the law to your representatives and to the Democratic presidential candidates
d) Call your representatives and ask what are they doing about police brutality in general and implementing our law in particular.
The Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act Addresses:
- Racial prejudice in policing.
- Identification of problem areas like Ferguson, Missouri before they blow up.
- Violence in policing.
- Mass incarceration.
- Unfairness in policing (such as extraordinary numbers of alleged offenses per population).
- Allowing law enforcement officers to avoid answering for their mistakes.
- The current lack of reporting on policing statistics (especially regarding race and force, both lethal and non-lethal).
- Provision of body cameras to police officers.
- Elimination of weaponized police equipment in problem jurisdictions.
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#LetOurPoorPeopleLive FOIA Campaign
We have it! Kansas sent their full and unconditional surrender. Now we have all of the responses, and it only took about 32 certified letters, two lawsuits and one threatened lawsuit!
Kansas now joins all the other GOP Governors who have acceded to our requests or caved to our demands. Only Texas investigated to see how many poor people would suffer and die. None of these hardhearted Governors expanded Medicaid.
Not one.
They don't give a s$$t. They don't give a rat's a$$. They don't give a flying f$ck how many poor people die, how many suffer, how many lose their homes. From one side of their mouths they boast about being G-d fearing, Jesus-loving, holier-than-thou Christians, from the other side they talk death and suffering to our poor.
Sad shameful fact: Ebola killed two Americans. Republican Governors by their refusal to accept the Medicaid Expansion program are killing 63 Americans every single day!
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Where is the outrage?
If you, like us, believe that the current state of affairs is unacceptable and unsustainable; then we ask that you join us in any or all of the following activities:
a) Call, email, write the governors who have yet to accept the Medicaid Expansion Program
b) Write letters to the editor re governors not accepting the Medicaid Expansion Program
d) Contact progressive journalists (Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, Lawrence O'Donnell, ) and remind them of the numbers of people dying every day only because Republican Governors have refused to help them.
In addition, if you haven't already, please do sign these petition:
Here's a daily kos petition dealing with Florida Governor Rick Scott and Medicaid Expansion. Here's a moveon.org petition for Medicaid Expansion in Texas. And one for North Carolina. Here's a daily kos and CREDO petition for Medicaid Expansion sent to all Republican Governors. Here's another for Louisiana. And still another for Georgia. Would you please consider signing these petitions? If YOUR state has a petition that does not appear here, please let us know, and we will add it to our next list of petitions.
Charting Our FOIA Progress: #LetOurPoorPeopleLive #STDDs
(Dark green indicates we have heard back.)
|
State |
Sent |
Heard Back |
Recipient |
Deaths |
Alabama |
|
|
Gov R.J. Bentley-R |
215-562 |
Alaska |
|
|
Gov Bill Warner-I (Thanks!) |
0 |
Florida |
|
|
Gov Rick Scott-R |
1158-2221 |
Georgia |
|
|
Gov Nathan Deal-R |
561-1176 |
Idaho |
|
|
Gov Butch Otter-R |
76-179 |
Kansas |
|
|
Gov Sam Brownback-R |
113-330 |
Louisiana |
|
|
Gov Bobby Jindal-R |
249-542 |
Maine |
|
|
Gov Paul LePage-R |
31-157 |
Mississippi |
|
|
Gov Phil Bryant-R |
141-343 |
Missouri |
|
|
Sen Kurt Schaefer-R |
218-700 |
Montana |
|
|
Sen Art Wittich-R |
50-117 |
Nebraska |
|
|
Gov Pete Ricketts-R |
67-212 |
North Carolina |
|
|
Gov Pat McCrory-R |
455-1145 |
Oklahoma |
|
|
Gov Mary Fallin-R |
174-439 |
South Carolina |
|
|
Gov Nikki Haley-R |
209-551 |
South Dakota |
|
|
Gov Dennis Daugaard-R |
36-95 |
Tennessee |
|
|
Gov Bill Haslam-R |
284-759 |
Texas |
|
|
Gov Greg Abbott-R |
8000-9000 |
Utah |
|
|
Rep Gregory Hughes-R |
102-316 |
Virginia |
|
|
Sen Kathy J. Byron-R |
266-987 |
Wisconsin |
|
|
Gov Scott Walker-R |
139-671 |
Wyoming |
|
|
Gov Matt Mead-R |
22-69 |
|
|
|
Total per Year
(Lowest Estimate) |
23,000 |
Notes:
Abbreviations R Republican. D Democratic. I Independent. Gov Governor. Sen State Senator. Rep State Representative.
Alaska: Gov Bill Warner will sidestep the GOP-controlled legislature and expand Medicaid on his own as of July 16, 2015. Thank you, Gov Warner! Indiana: The Governor now supports the Medicaid expansion. Montana: Montana is waiting for federal approval of their version of Medicaid expansion. Utah: Gregory H. Hughes is the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Wisconsin: STDDs continue to support Citizen Action of Wisconsin; however, we filed our own FOIA request for Wisconsin.
Source: Health Affairs Blog: Opting Out Of Medicaid Expansion: The Health And Financial Impacts.
Next Action Steps:
1. Letters to the editor by readers, Kossacks, and followers and members of Support the Dream Defenders.
2. Press releases by readers, Kossacks, and followers and members of Support the Dream Defenders. |
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About Support the Dream Defenders
Members of the Daily Kos group Support the Dream Defenders invigorate three ongoing projects:
1. We coalesced to support the Dream Defenders in Florida and their mission, our first project and the origin of our name. The Dream Defenders defend the Dream of Martin Luther King Jr. by "develop(ing) the next generation of radical leaders to realize and exercise our independent collective power; building alternative systems and organizing to disrupt the structures that oppress our communities." Please donate here.
2. Our Michael Brown Over-Policed Rights Act, crowd-sourced at Daily Kos in the fall of 2014. This bill quickly gained the support of the NAACP and the ACLU. The NAACP forwarded our bill to members of Congress, and we distributed it to members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other progressive members of Congress. President Obama signed into a law a small piece of our bill in December 2014. Our state version of the MBOPRA is currently in committee in the Kansas legislature.
3. Our Freedom of Information Act project. Nineteen Republican governors chose to kill poor people by not expanding Medicaid. Ebola has killed about 9000 people in total; Republican governors kill 23,000 people PER YEAR by refusing federal support for Medicaid, a story ignored by traditional media. Our project forces those governors to out themselves, clapping them in a Catch 22. We will publicize our results through letters to the editor, press releases, and petitions.
More information about STTDs here.
You can receive all future stories of Support the Dream Defenders by clicking here. Then click "Follow," which will make all STDD stories show up in "My Stream" of your Daily Kos page.
This is a community diary.
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