"They are responding to the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. And the murder of Breonna Taylor by police in Louisville. They are responding to the excessive use of force by police in cities across the country where protests of these murders are taking place.

"[P]olice brutality and the use of excessive and militarized force are among the most serious ongoing human rights and civil liberties violations in the United States and have led to community destabilization, a decrease in public safety, and the exacerbation of structural inequities," the resolution reads, laying out a condemnation of the system racism in law enforcement in three pages of legislative text. "Whereas the House of Representatives has a moral and constitutional obligation to protect the civil rights and liberties of all people from police abuses," the resolution continues, "be it resolved that the House of Representatives" answers.

They call for "'he adoption of sound and unbiased law enforcement policies at all levels of government that reduce the disparate impact of police brutality and use of force on Black and Brown people and other historically marginalized communities."

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DAILYKOS

Democratic lawmakers, all women of color, introduce resolution condemning police brutality

VIDEOS OF COMMUNITY - POLICE FORUM IN COATESVILLE PA ARE BELOW

We had a meeting in a tent about drugs in Coatesville. Our then Republican PA State Rep. Harry Lewis was invited. But was not there. He told my friend Elwood Dixon it was “anti-police.” I think what Harry meant was the “Community Policing” practiced by our Coatesville PD was counter to the military style policing then endorsed by the Philly PD Union, supported by the Republican Party and some Democrats on the take.

Our Coatesville PD is deeply involved in "Community Policing."

"The intensive militarization of America’s police forces is a serious menace about which a small number of people have been loudly warning for years, with little attention or traction. In a 2007 paper on “the blurring distinctions between the police and military institutions and between war and law enforcement,” the criminal justice professor Peter Kraska defined “police militarization” as “the process whereby civilian police increasingly draw from, and pattern themselves around, the tenets of militarism and the military model.”

The harrowing events of the last week in Ferguson, Missouri – the fatal police shooting of an unarmed African-American teenager, Mike Brown, and the blatantly excessive and thuggish response to ensuing community protests from a police force that resembles an occupying army – have shocked the U.S. media class and millions of Americans. But none of this is aberrational.

It is the destructive by-product of several decades of deliberate militarization of American policing, a trend that received a sustained (and ongoing) steroid injection in the form of a still-flowing, post-9/11 federal funding bonanza, all justified in the name of “homeland security.” This has resulted in a domestic police force that looks, thinks, and acts more like an invading and occupying military than a community-based force to protect the public."

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The Intercept

The Militarization of U.S. Police: Finally Dragged Into the Light by the Horrors of Ferguson

Glenn Greenwald

August 14 2014, 8:40 a.m.

"Community Policing

Acceptance of constructive change by police and the community is central to the purpose of the Police Foundation. From its inception, the foundation has understood that to flourish, police innovation requires an atmosphere of trust, a willingness to experiment and exchange ideas both within and outside the police structure, and, perhaps most importantly, a recognition of the common stake of the entire community in better police services.

The Police Foundation has done much of the research that has led to a questioning of the traditional model of professional law enforcement and toward a new view of policing–one emphasizing a community orientation–that is widely embraced today.

It was in Kansas City that the foundation learned, in a practical test, that random preventive patrol may not be the best way to deter crime. It was the foundation that was among the first to learn that shortening police response time may have little effect on the chances of a burglar or robber being caught. It was also the foundation, working jointly with the police in Houston and Newark, that began to see the advantages of foot patrol and door-to-door surveys as a way of dealing with the public’s fear of crime and disorder. It is from the foundation’s Newark Foot Patrol experiment that the “broken windows” theory is derived.

What this, and other, research revealed is that there are strategies–several of them new, some of them used in the past but discarded–that can reduce levels of perceived crime and disorder, reduce fear and concern about crime, improve satisfaction with police service, increase satisfaction with neighborhoods, and, in some cases, reduce crime itself. By staying in close contact with neighborhoods they serve, the police can identify problems at the local level, and, working with residents, respond to them.

The name for the model of policing that has emerged varies: in some places it is called community or community-oriented policing, in other places, problem-oriented policing. However it is labeled, it tends to be based on some commonly shared beliefs:

It is the job of the police to cope with problems, not just respond to incidents.

Among the problems with which the police should be concerned are those involving disorder and incivility as well as those involving serious crime.

Reducing crime and disorder requires that the police work cooperatively with people in neighborhoods to

As the most visible local agency of government on duty 24-hours a day, the police must be willing to serve as catalysts to mobilize other city agencies and services.

The movement toward community policing has escalated dramatically in recent years, due in large part to the Federal government’s commitment of billions of dollars to hire and train 100,000 community policing officers. With assistance from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services of the U.S. Department of Justice and the national Community Policing Consortium, thousands of America’s police departments–large, medium, and small–are working to develop organizational philosophies and strategies for the implementation of community policing.

The Police Foundation is one of five leading national law enforcement organizations that joined in an unprecedented cooperative effort through the creation of the national Community Policing Consortium (CPC). Under a cooperative agreement with the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, these five organizations–the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the National Sheriffs’ Association, the Police Foundation, and the Police Executive Research Forum–played a principal role in the development of community policing research, training, and technical assistance.

Since 1993, the foundation has provided community policing education, training, and technical assistance to more than 1,000 law enforcement agencies and communities on issues such as internal changes and shifting paradigms, partnerships and diversity, strategic planning, ethics, and integrity.

Community policing research conducted by the Police Foundation are listed below."

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Community Policing

This is community policing, the type of policing OPPOSED by our PA State Rep. Harry Lewis:

“Coatesville Police Chief John ‘Jack’ Laufer also praised law enforcement officials for their ‘good investigative work and utilizing a joint team approach.’ He said the city’s Vice Unit was able to ‘remove a sizable quantity of dangerous drugs and firearms from the streets of Coatesville.’

The fight against violent crime most often associated with the illicit drug trade requires a team approach not only within law enforcement, but also with the community we serve,’ Laufer said. “Together we can bring about positive change within the City of Coatesville.”