June 16, 2020

We, the Live Oak Friends Meeting of Salinas, are grieved and outraged by the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor; the racially motivated killing of Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others.  As Quakers, we are guided by the values of equality, peace and community.

We issue you a Call to Action to peoples of all faiths for substantial reforms to policing, to include the following:

Unjustified police violence and homicides, most recently Mr. George Floyd’s senseless murder by four members of the Minneapolis Police, must end.

We must return to Community-Oriented Policing. Serving and protecting the people must be based on the philosophy of  "full service personalized policing, where the same officer patrols and works in the same area on a permanent basis, from a decentralized place, working in a proactive partnership with citizens to identify and solve problems.” (Bertus Ferreira). 

 We encourage establishment of citizen-police review panels to assist departments’ adherence to policy by using modern tools of data collection and analysis (e.g., use-of-force incidents), effective communications and accountability. Police departments’ commitment to such oversight panels will ensure safe and satisfying policing in our neighborhoods.

 We encourage the creation of a national database of individual police abuse, so that abusive officers cannot be rehired by another police jurisdiction.

 We must demilitarize police forces by divesting military-grade equipment assets (armored troop carriers, sound cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets, etc.) that have been supplied by the Pentagon, with Federal monetary incentives to use.

 We must immediately discontinue “police exchanges,” for the purpose of training, with Israel, China and other countries that use brutal means to suppress peaceful demonstration.

We must increase police training in skills to de-escalate volatile situations, use alternatives to lethal force, and eliminate racist policing.

 It is time to review Police Department budgets, to allocate more monies to retraining of police, and to consider moving some of police funds to programs for social services, education, healthcare, and youth.

 Please join us in taking effective action by contacting your local, state and national officials to ask for these reforms.

 Sincerely,

 Jeffrey Richman, Clerk

 Live Oak Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)                                                                                 

 Salinas, California