California liberal lawmakers are at it again, implementing policies that are hurting their citizens and creating chaos on the streets. Yesterday Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 392, which changes standards for police officers to use deadly force The law “redefines when police can resort to deadly force ‘based on the totality of the circumstances’ and encourages the use of de-escalation techniques and crisis-intervention methods” reported USA Today.
Activist groups such as Black Lives Matter demanded the change to the law. In an attempt to minimize shootings by law enforcement agents, the Bill changes the standard for police officers’ “justified use of deadly force from instances when it’s ‘reasonable’ to when it’s ‘necessary.”
Governor Newsom said, “the new law will reduce the number of lives lost and begin to heal communities.” Newsom is referencing an incident that led to the policy change, the accidental shooting and killing of Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man gunned down in Sacramento when police mistook his cell phone for a gun.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the group that proposed the bill and negotiated the changes, said California still contains the “strongest language of any state” when it comes to law enforcement policy. While the measure “initially met fierce resistance from law enforcement organizations” it “made it through the state Legislature with bipartisan support after it was amended to address police concerns.”
