The shooting of unarmed African-American Stephon Clark by police was condemned Monday by California state senators on both sides who denounced the shooter and proposed law changes about how police can use force.
Democrat Sen. Steven Bradford said Clark was refused his day in court "because the police chose to be judge, jury, and executioner," the Los Angeles Times reported. He also said the shooting showed a pattern of "brutalization of African-Americans by law enforcement."
“We clearly have a big problem here in America,” Democrat Sen. Richard Pan said, the LA Times reported.
Republican Sen. Ted Gaines agreed that “clearly something went wrong” in the police action that led to the shooting.
Clark, 22, was shot fatally by police in his grandparents’ backyard on March 18 as police responded to reports of vandalism in the neighborhood. An autopsy showed Clark was hit eight times, mostly in the back, according to The Washington Post. Police said they thought Clark had a gun, but only a cell phone was found on him after the shooting.
Some California lawmakers are in the process of introducing legislation to change the current “reasonable force” standard to one of “necessary force.”
A “necessary force” standard would mean officers would not be allowed to shoot someone unless “there were no other reasonable alternatives to the use of deadly force” to stop the person from causing serious injury or death to another person, ACLU legislative advocate Lizzie Buchen said, KCRA reported.
Assemblyman Kevin McCarty of Sacramento and Assemblywoman Shirley Weber of San Diego are co-authoring the bill.
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