Tell Your Senators To Approve George Floyd Bill

4 March 2021, Washington DC – The House passed a bill that may prevent deaths such as that which George Floyd suffered at the hands of police.

The legislation aims to combat police misconduct, excessive force, and racial bias in policing.

As NBC reports, “The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, H.R. 1280, passed 220-212.

“A version of the bill passed last year but stalled in the Senate, which was then under Republican control. The House bill passed Wednesday night still has to go to the Senate, where it will need at least 10 Republican votes for passage.

“The bill is named after Floyd, the Black man who died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for minutes.

“The officer, Derek Chauvin, was fired, and he faces charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter.

“His trial and jury selection are scheduled to begin Monday.

“The bill, among other things, would ban neck restraints and “no knock” warrants in drug cases at the federal level. It would also reform qualified immunity, which is a doctrine that makes it difficult to sue officers.

“Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., who introduced the bill, said she is confident that House members will be able to work with the Senate to get it passed. She said that after the last bill passed, “many of our Republican colleagues said they thought they could get to yes on this, but they had some difficulties.”

ACTION

Please tell your senators you want this bill passed!

Please contact your senators through one of the channels below and give them the following message, personalized to your liking:

 

I urge you to support the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in every way possible.  There is urgent need to reform the nation’s police forces. 

Naturally there will be opposition to this bill:  opponents want the status quo.  We cannot afford to allow innocent people, whether suspected of a crime or not, to continue to be fatally shot, suffocated,  injured.  I call on you to address the gun culture, violence, racial prejudice that is accepted by far too many police forces. No reasonable person can object to this bill, and I will be watching to see how you help it along and that you approve it.  If you do not intend to support it, I want to hear from you urgently with your reasoning. 

I am a member of gun law reform group One Pulse for America, and I will not tolerate the status quo.  There must never be another death like George Floyd’s or Breonna Taylor’s.  I am convinced the bill’s changes to the use of lethal force, no-knock raids, and mandatory bodycam use will absolutely save lives.  As the police are so keen to say when it suits them ‘if you aren’t doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to fear’:  a good police officer should welcome, not fear, the act.

 

Phone:   (202) 224-3121

Use this link to find your senators:  https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm?OrderBy=state&Sort=ASC

 

Once you have made contact, fill out the three fields below and click the orange banner to report taking action!

 

Show the press you support and value them

June 2020 – peaceful protests called in the wake of the murder of George Floyd have experienced attempts to hijack them by a number of extremists, racists, and police.  Over 100 members of the press have been attacked by police wholly against Constitutional rights:  journalists have been arrested, beaten, even shot with rubber/plastic bullets – designed not to kill but to inflict serious injury.  Several peaceful protesters have been assaulted by police; several have been shot.  These peoples’ constitutional rights have been unduly taken from them.  The reason we know about these grave assaults on people and on all of our liberties is because of journalists and the media.

It is not so long ago that crowds of anti-lockdown protestors, in many cases heavily-armed men in quasi-military garb held aggressive protests and  stormed a state capital.  They screamed at people trying to perform their jobs; they endangered public safety because they refuse to believe in the Covid-19 virus, and threatened violence if their rights were ‘removed’- which was only ever a temporary measure for the good of public health.  The vast majority of these people were never met with police brutality or arrests.

This is the most crucial turning point in our country’s and our society’s future many of us will ever see.  In order to stay informed, receive facts and avoid propaganda, we 100% need a free, unhampered press – as the Constitution guarantees.

There are those who have distorted the Second Amendment past all reason, morality and logic.  A ‘well-regulated militia’ for some means any disgruntled person can get a deadly, rapid-fire weapon – and kill innocent adults and children.  Yet the same people who will not brook any criticism of their interpretation of the 2nd Amendment do not remotely want to see other amendments upheld when these rights pertain to freedom of the press or indeed the basic human rights of equality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

While a nation mourns George Floyd and the many victims who have gone before him, for instance two innocent black people who were shot to death, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor (it is her birthday; she should be blowing out 27 candles as I write), we have a White House hostile to black people, women, ethnic minorities, LGBT people, veterans and asylum seekers.  The horrors this administration has created include caging asylum-seekers and taking their children, hampering LGBT people who had careers in the military, removing womens’ rights, the creation of ICE, and more.  These injustices are brought to our attention by a free press – and that is why, using language of dictators past, Donald Trump calls the press ‘the enemy of the people.’

We need every citizen to vote, however hard those opposed to this try to disenfranchise voters; votes should be informed with access to accurate, full, timely news reporting.

We need everyone to uphold the rights of the press – and by the press we mean those news outlets large and little that are looking to report and record the truth of what is going on so we may make informed choices: not those who bombard us with lies to support tyranny and their owners’ self-interests.

ACTION:

You can add your name, town and state to the post this Action Alert appears in, and your name will be added to our One Pulse letter which will be sent to various news outlets.  You can also contact one of the major news networks (I have only chosen a few – please find your own favourites)  and/or your regional news sources through one of the channels below  and give them the following message, personalized to your liking:

I am a member of One Pulse for America, a gun-law reform group started by George Takei.  I wanted to let you know that I greatly appreciate the news you bring us and the sacrifices and dangers your news crews increasingly face to bring us accurate reporting.  Only a dictator would call the responsible press ‘enemies of the people’; only a coward with much to hide would try to villify the press, and I am not buying it. 

I want to see any police officer who impedes the constitutionally-protected rights you have to report brought to justice.  No reporter should be arrested, threatened – let alone assaulted or shot. 

My respect to all who bring us the truth, and my contempt to those who want to stop you, or those who want to deliver propaganda as news.  Thank you.

MSNBC
Email:
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/msnbc/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/MSNBC

ABC
Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/ABCNews/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ABC

CBS
Facebook:
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/CBSNews

Once you have made contact, fill out the three fields below and click the orange banner to report taking action!

 

No Trump, you cannot threaten to shoot people

29 May 2020 – Following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, peaceful protests as well as riots have broken out.  Trump subsequently tweeted he wants to shoot looters.  So much for upholding the constitution as his oath binds him to do.

Police knelt on Mr Floyd’s neck, asphyxiating him.  The white officers at the scene gave him no help and did nothing stop their colleague’s fatal, illegal assault.  They lost their jobs – but no arrests were made and no charges brought.  Understandably this has caused outrage and protest.

Peaceful protests turned ugly – with vandalism, arson and allegedly looting.  In some video footage purporting to be from the scene, heavily-disguised white men are seen breaking windows and assembling materials that may have been used in arson.  There does not seem to be any record of police looking for, or arresting them.  It certainly looks at the moment as if they sought to discredit the peaceful protest and further inflame racial tensions:  they need to be found, identified, charged.

Police have today shockingly arrested CNN personnel who were legally, safely covering the scene.  In a video CNN’s crew repeatedly ask the police where they should stand.  Police say nothing to the reporters until for no discernible, legal reason they start arresting the team.  This was wholly illegal and is all embarrassingly for them caught on camera.

Our action concerns the president of the country calling for looters to be shot.

As much as Trump might like the country to become a rights-free dictatorship, we will not allow this to happen.

His hate speech has been proven to have inflamed racial tensions and led to violence since even before he took office.

We are drawing a line.

 

ACTION

Either add your name and home city to the Facebook post about this action alert and your details will be added to the message One Pulse sends to Trump and Governor Walz – or send your own message:

Please contact Donald Trump, cc Governor Walz   through one of the channels below and give them the following message, personalized to your liking:

 

The police in Minneapolis are out of control, witness the death of George Floyd.  We at One Pulse for America demand the arrest, charging and trial of all involved in this killing, and a comprehensive, independent investigation of what certainly looks like institutionalized racism in the force.  We expect to see resignations of those at the top too.

We understand why people are furious; we are too.  We have watched peaceful protests – and have seen proof that these have been hijacked by a tiny number of people who turned them violent:  people who are caught on video, some of whom are white males.  We demand that police find, arrest and charge these suspects. 

We believe that Trump’s tweet ‘when the looting starts the shooting starts’ violates his oath to uphold the constitution and is an attack on all our rights.  The shooting threat is designed to cow those who want to exercise their right to peaceful protest.  If white men can take automatic rifles into state capitals to protest life-saving measures, then those who want to protest peacefully  against injustice must see their rights upheld too.  By tweeting that it is OK to shoot looting suspects Trump is also by implication giving his permission for police to shoot/kill other crime suspects.  Of all the disgraceful things Trump has done or said in office, this is among the worst.

One Pulse for America campaigns on any and all gun-related issues.  As such, we are outraged that a sitting president of our country should take to Twitter to say ‘when the looting starts the shooting starts’.  This is still a democracy, despite the best efforts of Trump to inflame via hate speech, which has resulted in violence. We will not tolerate any threat of ex-judicial execution just as we will not tolerate the ex-judicial execution of George Floyd.  We will not tolerate the continuing epidemic of police executions across the country.  We will not tolerate the arrest of journalists who have a constitutionally-protected right  to report. 

No feeble excuses on any of these issues that have been offered will be entertained.  There is no excuse whatsoever for Mr Floyd’s death, for the president threatening to shoot any citizens whether breaking law or not, or for arresting news crews.

We expect to hear from Governor with  news that arrests are being made on the killing of Mr Floyd, confirmation the journalists have been released without charge, an independent investigation into the entire force is launched, and the police who arrested them to be charged with false arrest.  An apology from Trump is the least he should do, but we expect very little from him.

AND/OR Suggested tweet:
@GovTimWalz @realDonaldTrump Walz I demand arrest of those involved in #GeorgeFloydMurder : death demands action. Trump how dare u threaten to shoot any1 – your threats will not intimidate legal, just protests but they show you violated your oath to uphold constitution. Resign.

President Donald Trump
Phone:  202-456-1111
Email: (form) https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/POTUS/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump

Governor Tim Walz
Phone:  651-201-3400

Email:  HSEM.PPP@state.mn.us

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/GovTimWalz/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/GovTimWalz 

 

Once you have made contact, fill out the three fields below and click the orange banner to report taking action!