Act now! Take the fight for police accountability to the California Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:00:53 -0400 (EDT) PLEASE FORWARD ** PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY ** PLEASE FORWARD Dear roger, As you may have heard, last summer the California Supreme Court decided that police officer privacy carried more weight than public police accountability. This has been a disaster across the state, as citizen review boards have shut down or are now holding hearings behind closed doors. Learn more: http://www.ellabakercenter.org/page.php?pageid=24&contentid=212 Bay Area PoliceWatch has been working with the ACLU and others on a legislative fix to this problem, known as SB 1019. As a result of this collaboration, the California State Senate passed this bill and made a resounding statement about our right to public police accountability. This crucial bill has moved on to the Assembly Public Safety Committee, with a vote coming TOMORROW. Assemblymembers Fiona Ma and Greg Aghazarian are two key votes on the committee. Both have been getting a lot of pressure from opponents of this legislation. They need to hear from people like you who support the bill. California has a long and proud tradition of civilian oversight of police conduct and transparency in government. Unless the bill passes, all records and hearings of police misconduct will remain closed to the public. Take action now! Tell Assemblymembers Ma and Aghazarian that restoring public oversight and reopening records of police misconduct are simply good public policy and good governance. Urge them to support the public interest and police transparency. Send a fax to Assemblymember Fiona Ma urging her to support SB 1019: https://secure.npsite.org/aclunc/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=179 Send a fax to Assemblymember Greg Aghazarian urging him to support SB 1019: https://secure.npsite.org/aclunc/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=181 This legislation is supported by: :: San Francisco Board of Supervisors :: The Libertarian Party of California :: San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey :: Assembly member Mark Leno :: Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton :: Senators Leland Yee (D) :: Carole Migden (D) :: Tom McClintock (R) :: Bob Margett (R) :: Many others like you! Thank you for helping bring back police accountability in California. We're grateful for your support. Sincerely, Dawn Edwards Ella Baker Center for Human Rights * * * * * * The Ella Baker Center can't survive without the support of people like you. Please take a moment to support us today: http://www.ellabakercenter.org/donate * Not on our list-serve yet? (Maybe this message was forwarded to you.) Sign up to get e-mail updates directly by going to http://www.ellabakercenter.org/subscribe * To unsubscribe from this list, follow this link: http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/EBC/unsubscribe.jsp?unsubscribe * Update your preferences or contact information here: http://www.demaction.org/EBC/profile (Note: The first time you go to update your preferences, you must first create a login and password.) /*Your email ID. --*/