THE PROBLEM

In times of crisis, whether Katrina or the uprisings in Ferguson, often state and federal governments misuse resources and militarize response against our communities. Crisis becomes an excuse for criminalization.

THE SOLUTION

In national disasters, protecting the people and the broader public health and safety is priority.  We must ensure that public protection is not abused or militarized.

FEDERAL ACTION

• Immediate Amendment of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act) to be mandatory based on independent criteria that prioritizes the preservation of life and no longer at the President’s discretion.
• Engage in a robust process to replace our disaster response and planning laws in order to ensure our communities are built back more resilient and protected from militarized policing.
• Include an immediate halt to all energy and petrochemical infrastructure building as part of any declaration of a state of emergency. 
• Ensure emergency powers of a formal disaster declaration do not result in the heightened surveillance, policing, criminalization of individuals or communities, militarization, and abuse of power in marginalized communities and protected classes of people.
  • Redirect federal policing and military dollars to agencies and groups providing medical, emotional, and other types of support. 
  • Forbid the police, national guard and others to detain or arrest people for breaking curfews, stay at home orders, shelter in place orders or other provisions enacted as part of state of emergency. 
  • Suspend arrest for all poverty-related offenses, including sex work and drug trade as well as and crimes of petty theft that may occur during this pandemic as supplies are scarce and people are losing money.
  • Implement and enforce a zero tolerance policy for police abuse of authority or abusive policing. 
  • Federal requirement for transparent and robust emergency planning that safeguards human and civil rights and ensures communities are built back more resilient to future disasters.
  • Include the immediate cessation of all petrochemical, toxic, and polluting industry construction as part of any declaration of a state of emergency. 
  • Declare access to the internet as an essential public utility in all disaster declarations.

STATE ACTION

• Ensure emergency powers of a formal disaster declaration do not result in the heightened surveillance, policing, criminalization of individuals or communities, militarization and abuse of power in marginalized communities and protected classes of people.
• Suspend arrest for all minor offenses as well as for all poverty-related offenses, including sex work and drug trade.
• Limit the ability of police to arrest or detain people for breaking curfews, stay at home, shelter in place or or other provisions enacted as part of public health efforts or pursuant to a state of emergency. 
• Zero tolerance for police abuse of authority of abusive policing. 
• Reframe from rhetoric, policies, or practices that criminalize entire communities.
• Transparent emergency planning that prioritizes safeguarding human and civil rights. 
• Include an immediate halt to permits for all energy and petrochemical infrastructure building as part of any declaration of a state of emergency.