SAN DIEGO — Shane Harris, president/founder of The People's Alliance for Justice, held a media briefing Monday at 1 p.m. to denounce San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher's proposal to create a county Office of Equity and Racial Justice.
On Friday, Supervisor Nathan Fletcher stood with trusted leaders from the Black community and announced three bold policies to create more transparency and start to change the systemic and structural racism that has caused pain and harm to generations of Black people. The supervisor also launched a petition drive to support this effort.
The Racial Justice and Law Enforcement Realignment Policy Package was developed in partnership with the community to:
Harris said Supervisor Fletcher did not get enough community input. Harris said the proposal does not include "recommendations for the Office of Racial Equity to analyze policies and procedures at the County level that create and maintain systemic racism within the institution."
Harris has sent a different proposal to District Attorney Summer Stephan, calling for her office to open an independent unit to investigate police misconduct and excessive force cases in San Diego County.
"We are making this recommendation to your office in light of many of the egregious police killings that have happened right here in our own backyard. The killings of Alfred Olango (2016), James Lacy (2017), and Jonathon Coronel (2017) are clear examples where officers overstepped their position of simply enforcing the law," Harris said.
A spokesperson for Stephan says she has received the letter but has not responded. On June 1, in a news release she wrote, "as a first step, I'm committed to working with our law enforcement leaders to increase transparency and support a culture in police departments of reporting bad actors."
Watch the full press conference:
Harris, along with other civil rights organizations in San Diego made the following recommendations below to DA Stephan regarding what a new independent unit within her office could do:
- The unit could provide an independent bilingual complaint hotline for citizens to place complaints separate from the local police agency or the County Law Enforcement Review Board (C.L.E.R.B.). This would be a hotline created through the unit and could also be placed on the District Attorney’s website for people to place complaints of police misconduct online.
- The unit should be led by specially appointed prosecutors who would solely investigate police misconduct reported on the hotline and excessive force cases including police shootings in the County of San Diego.
- The unit should be an independent arm of the District Attorney’s office and would be led by prosecutors who are capable of making full recommendations on cases of police misconduct, excessive force, or police shootings and even give final rulings on charges following the full review of cases.
- This unit could also review past convictions where defendants claimed innocence.
Supervisor Fletcher's office issued the following statement on Harris's proposal Monday afternoon:
“We are grateful to the tremendous outpouring of community support for our reform proposals and while we only heard from this group shortly before their press conference, we are always open to, and welcome, constructive suggestions to strengthen our policies.”
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors meets on Tuesday at 9 a.m. to vote on Fletcher's three proposals.
The full letter from Harris to DA Stephan can be found below: