Police Violence: Activists Launch ‘Campaign Zero’ To End Police Brutalities In The United States

In the United States, groups of activists campaigning against police violence have come together to launch a new project, known as Campaign Zero, in a bid to end the numerous police brutalities that have gripped the country for over a year.

The four activists, identified as Samuel Sinyangwe, Brittany Packnett, Johnetta Elzie, and DeRay McKesson, are said to be prominent members of the Black Lives Matter movement, and are also said to be the co-founders of We The Protesters.

Campaign Zero’s main objective is to end police violence, bridging protester demands with data and policy to create structural solutions that will create a fear-free environment in the country, especially for people of color.

The project is also said to have been launched as an online manifesto with an interactive website. The released manifesto proposes new federal, state, and local laws that would address police violence and reform the criminal justice system. This also includes demilitarizing law enforcement, increasing community oversight, limiting use-of-force, and requiring independent investigations and prosecution in cases related to police violence.

In Campaign Zero’s recently launched first report, the lack of training and culture of aggression that permeates law enforcement agencies throughout the US was specifically highlighted. Campaign Zero recommended in the report that, “An intensive training regime is needed to help police officers learn the behaviors and skills to interact appropriately with communities.”

The VICE News reports, that since 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot dead by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, police have killed at least 1,083 Americans. From this figure, it has been calculated that on average police have killed nearly three people per day. Unfortunately, as police have continued to ruthlessly kill innocent citizens across the country, this astounding figure has likely become outdated.

“More than one thousand people are killed by police every year in America. Nearly sixty percent of victims did not have a gun or were involved in activities that should not require police intervention such as harmless ‘quality of life’ behaviors or mental health crises,” the group stated.

According to the Common Dreams, the project also includes an action plan that will incorporate recommendations by the president’s task force on 21st century policing , as well as those of research organizations like the Center for Popular Democracy.

Campaign Zero is also urging leaders of the country to emulate the shining example of Richmond, a city in California which has reduced its crime rate by 33 percent through community policing. The group also outlined a detailed plan that will lobby politicians to make the country’s policing and criminal justice system a major policy priority.

“Right now, the country is awake. We must continue to leverage this awakening for substantive change. We have an opportunity to change the way that issues in blackness are prioritized in political spaces and an opportunity to redefine how the political process interacts with our communities. America is finally waking up to this very necessary and critical conversation about race, equality, and preserving the life and dignity of all citizens,” Packnett, one of the founders of the Campaign Zero project, told the Guardian in an interview.

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