Black Lives Matter activists uses confrontational tactics to protest racialized police violence. But group members have also formed Campaign Zero, which outlines objectives, issues reports, and devises strategies to influence the legislative process. Take a look around the Campaign Zero website. What are some features of its program for ending police violence in the United States? How does Campaign Zero complement the street protests that are also a crucial feature of the Black Lives Matter movement?
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The Campaign Zero website is very well organized. The website has 7 tabs that divides it up. These tabs are: Campaign Zero, The Problem, Solutions, Reports, Research, Feedback, and Planning Team. Each of these 7 parts of the website give very detailed information on the current issue and helps explain why Campaign Zero was formed and its purpose. Under the tab, The Problem, it gives statistics and specific numbers that represent the amount of people killed by police a year, the percent of victims that were truly innocent in the event of being murdered, and the amount of days in the past year that no one was killed by a police. This website also gives specific studies on the issue along with 10 well explained ways to bring an end to this issue of police murdering innocent people.
Campaign Zero goes in hand with the street protests that are also a crucial feature of the Black Lives Matter movement. The street protests are a more direct and aggressive way in trying to get their point across and reach their goal of no more violence. On the other hand, although Campaign Zero has the same views, beliefs, and goals as the street protests, it approaches the situation differently. Campaign Zero is more explanatory in why they want to change what is happening, how they are going to change it, they give evidence that supports their views, and tries to get people involved in a more civil way.
The 10 ways that Campaign Zero says will bring an end to the violence of policemen are: end broken windows policing, community oversight, limit use of force, independently investigating and prosecute, community representation, body cams/film the police, training, end for-profit policing, demilitarization, and fair police union contracts. These policy solutions are then explained in depth on the website and support why it would bring an end to the violence. Although progress has been made in the United States in the past few years through laws being enacted and new legislation being enacted addressing Campaign Zero policies in certain states, the Campaign Zero website makes it clear that in order to continue the progress of the Black Lives Matter movement, “the next president (Donald Trump) needs to tell the truth about police violence and urgently enact a comprehensive agenda to address it.”
Black Lives Matter is not celebrated by everyone. I believe that this is because of 2 reasons: 1) their personal beliefs or 2) they don’t fully comprehend what BLM is working and striving for. Campaign Zero works to shed light on the issues they want to improve and the clear, non violent solutions they want to implement.
A few of these solutions are to end Broken Windows Policing, involve the community more and to implement Body Cams to reduce the use of force. The website provides a graph explaining the percentage of deaths by police forces. Almost 60% of those deaths were in incidents that should not have required police intervention. They also provide a calendar, which clearly displays that there have only been 15 days in 2016 that no one has been killed by an officer. Campaign Zero is attacking these issues with facts, not by smearing any officers. This provides a solid, fact-base platform for the street protests. This website gives protestors something to fall back on. Their efforts are validated by Campaign Zero.
I believe that if this website was more well known that protestors would be more welcomed by communities. I did not know about Campaign Zero but I wish I had. Every person in this country should view this website so a major issue we have can be solved, or at least we can take steps to begin to resolve the issue.
Campaign Zero has a comprehensive website with loads of detailed information regarding the movement, our nation’s problems, and their goals and solutions to those problems. There is a lot of focus on community-wide supervision of the police department, most of which involve the community being addressed publicly whenever an officer is found guilty of violating policing laws. Making the public aware of these instances will deter officers from making poor decisions and will allow the community to hold them accountable for their actions. Another demand of the Campaign Zero is that civilians and investigators that aren’t affiliated with the police should be allowed to interview all officers involved in a fatal shooting within 48 hours of the altercation; this is to get the detailed account before they have time to skew their statements or conveniently “forget” important details of the shooting.
Much of the information on the site focuses on limiting the power of police officers by possibly giving them less lethal weapons, eliminating the use of chokeholds and hogties, and making excessive force an illegitimate reason to apprehend someone who merely talked back or ran away. Other countries like Germany and England police their citizens for the same reason America does, to serve and protect, however the U.S. has far more deaths than most countries combined. Reducing deaths also has to do with deescalating situations before they become violent. Campaign Zero focuses on decriminalizing minor offenses such as possession of marijuana, trespassing, sleeping in public, etc. By decriminalizing minor crimes, police officers will have less motivation to act dangerously or put anyone’s life at risk because they would be taught to handle such situations much more calmly. One of the main components of the movement focuses on a civilian complaint system which would make complaints about officers much more accessible for everyone. These complaints would be published on the internet for all civilians to see which would deter officers from behaving inappropriately, especially if they are wearing body cameras (another recommendation of the campaign). It was actually alarming how isolated our countries policing problems are when compared to other countries around the world. Campaign Zero paired can help the Black Lives Matter movement drastically with its great focus on changing state legislature to create a system of accountability for all officers who have been reported to have violated their rights as police figures. Hopefully their goals can be reached in order to lower our countries unacceptable number of policing deaths, especially for unarmed civilians.
Black Lives Matter is no miniscule movement or stranger to the spotlight. The actions and protest s of BLM, especially after the death of Michael Brown have changed the rhetoric and attention surrounding the issue of police brutality. However, the protests have been criticized for the often violent nature and atmosphere. Personally, I did not know that there was a policy and action counterpart to BLM and I believe the fact that this aspect is quite unknown could attest to much of the scrutiny and push back the movement receives. Campaign Zero, a counterpart of the outright Black Lives Matter movement takes a more comprehensive approach to the fight to stop police brutality. Its main goals are to take steps in “limiting police interventions, improving community interactions and ensuring accountability” through several policy initiatives.
Some of the specific features of this program include the goal to end the “Broken Windows Policing” that often targets communities of color for minor crimes and otherwise non-violent situations. Campaign zero states that “these activities are often symptoms of underlying issues of drug addiction, homelessness, and mental illness which should be treated by healthcare professionals and social workers rather than the police”. Another initiative they advocate for is the implementation of body cameras on the police force. Much of the pull behind the Black Live Matters movement has come from reactions to cell phone videos and body cam images of police brutality. Firsthand accounts and live footage are the only way we can get a thorough and full account of the actions leading up to a situation of brutality. Campaign Zero suggests not only that all police officers should be mandated to wear body cams but that they should be banned from taking cell phones or recording devices from witnesses without consent and if so these actions should result in a lawsuit.
While I have only listed a view of the initiatives Campaign Zero suggests, the website is detailed in proposed actions and steps everyone can take to reduce police brutality. Campaign Zero complements BLM in a way that is less confrontational and more politicized, to cater to an audience that is still interested in social advocacy but is not participating in live riots or protests. I feel as though Campaign Zero offers the insight and plan that many critics of Black Lives Matter thinks it lacks. Overall, I believe the website offers very insightful and powerful information and think that with more publicity could be just as powerful as its counterpart in exposing police brutality.
The Campaign Zero website provides an extremely in depth analysis, discussion, and solution relating to police brutality. The website has six dropdown menus: THE PROBLEM, SOLUTIONS REPORTS, RESEARCH FEEDBACK, and PLANNING TEAM. The main moto or slogan of the website reads, “We can live in a world where the police don’t kill people by limiting police interventions, improving community interactions, and ensuring accountability”.
At a first glance the Campaign Zero website is exceptionally user friendly and exceedingly insightful. Some major features it lists for ending police violence in the United States are ending broken window policies, end profiling, establish alternative approaches to mental health crises, establish effective civilian oversight structures, and many more. Broken window policy is policemen and policewomen using excessive force for minor activities such as, sleeping in parks, possessing drugs, looking “suspicious” or having a mental health crisis. Harmless people are being prosecuted for meaningless activities for simply because of the color of their skin. Campaign Zero preaches that there needs to be a complete halt in frisking simply due to profiling.
The most shocking piece of information that the Campaign Zero website displays is the facts concerning the number of people killed in America each year by the police force. More than one thousand people were killed by police last year and 60% of them did not have a gun or were not even involved in the situation. This number was astonishing to me and most definitely left me thinking what can we do to lower or completely diminish this number.
Overall, Campaign Zero has a great website and it is something everyone living in America should explore to bring light to the major problem we have in this country.