After numerous police slayings and other acts of brutality and excessive force, Humboldt County residents are coming together to get police review implemented (not just discussed) in their communities.
To this end, the Coalition for Police Review is now raising money to file police review initiatives in Eureka and Arcata, as well as working with Blue Lake residents to get their City Council to implement independent civilian review of their respective law enforcement agencies.
Some might ask, why aren’t we trying to get the City Councilmembers in Eureka and Arcata to do this without the effort of a ballot initiative campaign? Well, CPR did, and four years later, there’s been no substantive action to reign in the abusive activities several officers from each agency continue to exhibit. In Arcata, police review is only supported by one of the currently serving Councilmembers, despite repeated incidents of physical brutality especially targeted against students and homeless people, including the tasering of a comatose man in an alley behind the Plaza. In Eureka, the well-publicized slayings of several men and women over the last three years (which have given the city the dubious honor of the highest rate of police slayings per person in California) continue to be defended by lame justifications by the new police chief, whose new administration bears many hallmarks of the scandal-ridden one which he replaced. In both cases, elected officials have demonstrated paralysis, blame-shifting and a general lack of concern for the well-being of their constituents.
While the City Council in Blue Lake, given the unprecedented level of disrepute their police department has sunk to, is showing interest in civilian review, this is not the case in Arcata or Eureka. Those governments have not acted, despite these outrages, and clearly will not act without an act of the people to make accountability a reality for EPD and APD. That’s why the police review initiatives, which have been exhaustively researched, rewritten and vetted for legality, are ready to roll out in front of voters.
But that’s where CPR supporters are needed, and needed now. We need to raise the $200 filing fee for both the Arcata and the Eureka proposals this week. Thus far, thanks to three generous donations, we are $71 closer to that goal for Eureka – but $129 more for Eureka is needed, as well as the full $200 for Arcata. Any amount to help achieve this goal is vitally needed, and needed now. Please drop your cash donations by the Coalition for Police Review office at 917 3rd Street, Eureka (shared with the Redwood ACLU) as soon as you can.
