Politics

Sellers says police reform starts by voting to change Congress

Published

1 year ago

May 17, 2024

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It will be four years on May 25 since a white police officer killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, and it will be 10 years this August since Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson police officer, shot and killed Michael Brown Jr., an unarmed Black 18-year-old.These moments sparked a movement to save Black lives with large-scale protests across the St. Louis region and other parts of the country. Brown’s death kindled tensions between police and African American communities around the region, especially in St. Louis and north St. Louis County.As unarmed Black people continue to die at the hands of police, some civil rights organizations and lawmakers keep pushing for police reform on the national level to help keep Black people alive. Bakari Sellers, a civil rights attorney, CNN political commentator and former South Carolina state lawmaker, said federal reform is dead, but there is hope through voting.“First thing you have to do … is to get off the sideline, because so many people are exhausted, so many people are tired,” Sellers said “And so, I want people to think about ways in which we can change the world together.”St. Louis Public Radio’s Andrea Henderson spoke with Sellers about his latest book “The Moment: Thoughts on the Race Reckoning That Wasn’t and How We All Can Move Forward Now,” the lack of national criminal justice reform and the difference between the deaths of George Floyd and Michael Brown Jr.This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.Andrea Henderson: In your book, you spoke about the day you were asked to talk about the killing of George Floyd on national television and how emotional you were right before and during the interview. Can you recall the day you found out about Michael Brown Jr.’s death, and what were your thoughts before or during any interviews?

‘St. Louis on the Air’: Listen to reporter Andrea Henderson’s conversation with Bakari Sellers

Bakari Sellers: Michael Brown was different for me. In 2014, I was still in a different place in my life, because of the fact that I was in the legislature in South Carolina, and my daily tasks were all-consuming. Not only that, but I wasn’t a father yet, either, and so when these things happen, and you’re a father, as the kids say, it hits differently. I saw them in the streets, and it was for the first time that I saw young people really take back their destiny and take control and take power of a situation, and that situation was Ferguson. It was different from George Floyd for a number of reasons, but I don’t think you could have had the response to George Floyd if you did not first have the response to Michael Brown.Henderson: What makes you say that things were different for George Floyd versus Michael Brown Jr.’s death?Sellers: There were a couple of things. I think the first thing is Darnella Frazier, she was the young 17-year-old girl who had the audacity to film. It was the words of George echoing out for his mother. It was the situation in the context whereby you have that imagery of a knee on the neck and just violently for nine minutes, losing your breath until you die. And then last, but not least, people don’t take this into account, but COVID is one of the largest reasons that the response to George Floyd was what it was because people couldn’t turn away. You had to stare at the screen. You had to watch this over and over again, because there was nowhere to go, and people were looking for things to do. So, they came out into the streets. You saw the protests that were more diverse than what they were in Ferguson. I mean, a lot of that had to do with the city – it was in Minneapolis versus Ferguson – and a lot of that had to do with leadership at the time. But again, you have to realize that Michael Brown did not die in vain, because if we did not learn those lessons, if we did not take back that power in 2014, then I’m not sure we would have been able to do the same in 2020.Henderson: August 2014 was near the end of your South Carolina House of Representative term, what was going on in Congress around the time of the Ferguson uprisings? Do you remember congressmen talking about it, were they trying to fast-track any bills?Sellers: No, no you didn’t have the level of activism around Ferguson that you had around Minneapolis. For whatever reason, that was but, you saw the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, you didn’t see anything about Michael Brown. What we did learn though, was the tactics that they would use, which is the first thing they did was bastardize Michael Brown and he was dead and they did not allow him to rest in peace. Instead of talking about him being murdered, they talked about who he was and what he was doing, etc. And unfortunately, young folk have had to learn a lot about death and Black blood flowing through the streets from Emmett Till the way through to George including Michael Brown. And it’s unfortunate that after you’re murdered at the hands of police, you’re persecuted again.

Tristen Rouse

St. Louis Public RadioMichael Brown Sr., right; Anthony Shahid, center; and others raise their fists in memory of Michael Brown Jr. during a memorial commemorating his death outside Canfield Apartments in Ferguson. The family of Micheal Brown Jr., local elected officials and various civil rights and community activists gathered for the ninth anniversary of his killing by a police officer on Aug. 9, 2023. Community members said little has changed to stop police shootings of Black people since Brown’s death, and they want lawmakers to make stronger laws against police officers who kill people during incidents.

Tristen Rouse

St. Louis Public RadioBobbiAnn Atkins, 5, attends a memorial commemorating the ninth anniversary of Michael Brown Jr.’s killing by a white police officer on Aug. 9, 2023, outside Canfield Apartments in Ferguson.

Henderson: Many people thought after Mike Brown’s death that we would see a reckoning for federal police reform, did you think that would happen? And did you feel like we were on the cusp of change for the Black community?Sellers: Not after Michael Brown. I did believe we were on the cusp of change after George Floyd. I thought we were on the cusp of a third Reconstruction, and we missed that as well. For Michael Brown, there was no impetus to move, there was no groundswell to change. This was another Black boy who shouldn’t have been doing what he was doing, and so the police who are almighty did what they were supposed to do and killed him, and he deserved the death penalty right there. And that’s what you saw. That’s unfortunate, because I think that there should have been a greater response to Michael Brown’s death. I think that if the Missouri state legislature or the federal government would have responded appropriately, maybe you wouldn’t have had George.Henderson: What laws should have been implemented by the Missouri legislature or the federal government?Sellers: I outlined some of the things [in my book] you can do along the lines of policing, banning chokeholds, banning no-knock warrants between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m., a database for bad officers, so no longer can you get fired from the Clayton Police Department and go down and work in the St. Louis or Ferguson Police Department. I think officers need psychological examinations. It’s a very tough job. There are a lot of things that we can do, and a lot of things that should have been done. And the problem is that those things still have not been done on a large scale.Henderson: After Ferguson protests, many people thought police reform legislation would naturally occur in Missouri, and the St. Louis area, it did in some ways, we saw elections of local and state officials and lawmakers. However, police reforms have kind of stalled. Why do we see that and we are seeing that on a national level as well?Sellers: It’s a difficult task to change the way that we’ve been policing in this country. There are a lot of people who want to articulate that the criminal justice system is broken, and it’s not. Systems in this country aren’t broken, they work as intended, engineers design systems to work as they work. So, you cannot be surprised by the outcome. We have to deconstruct those systems and reimagine them, so that they look like us. And it takes people like those individuals who won those races, those district attorneys, those local mayors. It takes Mayor [Tishaura] Jones and many others to be within these systems and try to peel back the layers of decades of challenges to African Americans. And it’s hard to do that in four years. It’s hard to do that in eight years.Henderson: So what can people do to get police reform on a national level?Sellers: First thing you have to do … is to get off the sideline, because so many people are exhausted, so many people are tired. Politics today, local state, federal politics is like watching a car crash. And so, I want people to think about ways in which we can change the world together. We often do a great job of identifying problems, but very rarely do we identify solutions, and I want us to be solution oriented going forward.Henderson: Democratic New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott tried proposing police reform legislation, but it died in 2021. What do you think needs to happen on both the left and the right to be able to bring about federal police reform?Sellers: That is unfortunately dead. I actually sat in a room with Ben Crump. I sat in a room with the families of victims of police violence. Eric Garner’s mom, Philonise Floyd, was there, and Terence Crutcher’s people were there. Tim Scott was there, and so was Lindsey Graham. We even tried to codify what Donald Trump did on criminal justice, and they refuse to. The police unions won, and there is an unwillingness to do what’s right by the people of this country. And that’s unfortunate.

Carolina Hildalgo

St. Louis Public RadioSupporters congratulate Fran Griffin at her election watch party on April 2, 2019. That month, Griffin became Ferguson’s newest city council member.

Henderson: So, where does that leave us?Sellers: Having to utilize our voice. Elect better people to Congress, start over, try again, but keep pushing.Henderson: The City of Ferguson entered a consent decree in 2016. Although this measure is in place, there are still instances of racial profiling and disparities in Ferguson as well as in the St. Louis area. The Missouri attorney general puts out a vehicle stops report, and over the years it reflects that Black drivers are more likely to be stopped and arrested than white drivers. Like many other municipalities in the area, some Ferguson drivers have not felt any relief from discriminatory practices. Why do we still see this institutionalized racism play out, even though there are these criminal justice policies and procedures that are in place to try to protect people, especially Black people?Sellers: Not only do we have to have the policies, but we have to have people who are willing to implement those policies. In Missouri, you have elected officials who could care less about what happens in St. Louis County, because you are Black folk, and so it’s hard to get that level of accountability. And so that’s what makes the district attorney’s job tough, and that’s what makes Mayor Jones’ job so tough. What we have to do is rise above moments of bickering amongst ourselves and be willing to bring the relief necessary and the accountability necessary, something that hasn’t been brought to this area.Henderson: There are too many Black people that have been killed by the police in the past few years to even remember every name, every year, every instance. One would think that over the years of continued police brutality toward Black people — that happened to be captured on social media — that they would have some type of reprieve from police brutality. Why do we still have these moments?Sellers: Well, we have one level of accountability that was only in George Floyd, but it took so much for us to get that accountability. The price is really high to get accountability. We just haven’t fundamentally done anything to change the value of Black lives in this country. When you don’t see the humanity in individuals and when you’re able to see them as less than, then you’re able to treat them anyway. Black folk in a lot of people’s eyes are treated as less than human, and we don’t get the benefit of our humanity. Therefore, when we’re on the side of the road, we’re deemed to be either hyper-criminalized and violent, and many times we’re just trying to get home.Henderson: How do you find hope?Sellers: Yeah, I find hope. We are going to need to. We are in the darkest period of time right now, but only when it is the darkest, can you see the stars. I find hope in this new generation, I find hope in my children. It’s hard, but you have to be willing to cling on to some hope.Henderson: Speaking about finding hope in this new generation, we are seeing young people rising up, using their voices. Right now, many students are protesting on college campuses across the country, including some here in St. Louis, for colleges to divest from companies that support Israel. I know you stated on Oct. 7, that you condemn the Hamas attacks and you support Israel, given what has occurred over the past seven months, have your opinions and thoughts changed?Sellers: I think it’s a very complicated and nuanced issue. I don’t think that it’s not whether or not you’re pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian, you got to be pro-peace. You have to look at what happened on Oct. 7 and acknowledge that was one of the most violent and brutal days we’ve ever seen in our lives, and we have to acknowledge that we need to make sure those hostages are returned safely. So, that’s first.The other thing is you can also say that the response from Israel was disproportionate and that we don’t want any more innocent women, children, food service workers or hospitals blown up. We don’t want any more of that. There have been too many innocent lives lost. You can also acknowledge that just as Benjamin Netanyahu is a fundamental impediment to peace, who has adopted these kinds of strictly conservative MAGA ways — even in Israel — that is very hard to negotiate with the people who don’t believe you have the right to exist in Hamas. So, I don’t like having conversations with people when I bring up Hamas, they say, “But you need to recognize what’s happening here.” Now we need to have a conversation about how we create an atmosphere and an environment where Palestinian children can grow, can live full and healthy lives and where Jews in Israel can live free, safe and secure and have that right to defend themselves as a sovereign country.

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Poll: Support for Missouri abortion rights amendment growing

Published

1 year ago

August 29, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A proposed constitutional amendment legalizing abortion in Missouri received support from more than half of respondents in a new poll from St. Louis University and YouGov.That’s a boost from a poll earlier this year, which could mean what’s known as Amendment 3 is in a solid position to pass in November.SLU/YouGov’s poll of 900 likely Missouri voters from Aug. 8-16 found that 52% of respondents would vote for Amendment 3, which would place constitutional protections for abortion up to fetal viability. Thirty-four percent would vote against the measure, while 14% aren’t sure.By comparison, the SLU/YouGov poll from February found that 44% of voters would back the abortion legalization amendment.St. Louis University political science professor Steven Rogers said 32% of Republicans and 53% of independents would vote for the amendment. That’s in addition to nearly 80% of Democratic respondents who would approve the measure. In the previous poll, 24% of Republicans supported the amendment.Rogers noted that neither Amendment 3 nor a separate ballot item raising the state’s minimum wage is helping Democratic candidates. GOP contenders for U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer and secretary of state all hold comfortable leads.“We are seeing this kind of crossover voting, a little bit, where there are voters who are basically saying, ‘I am going to the polls and I’m going to support a Republican candidate, but I’m also going to go to the polls and then I’m also going to try to expand abortion access and then raise the minimum wage,’” Rogers said.Republican gubernatorial nominee Mike Kehoe has a 51%-41% lead over Democrat Crystal Quade. And U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley is leading Democrat Lucas Kunce by 53% to 42%. Some GOP candidates for attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer have even larger leads over their Democratic rivals.

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioHundreds of demonstrators pack into a parking lot at Planned Parenthood of St. Louis and Southwest Missouri on June 24, 2022, during a demonstration following the Supreme Court’s reversal of a case that guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion.

One of the biggest challenges for foes of Amendment 3 could be financial.Typically, Missouri ballot initiatives with well-funded and well-organized campaigns have a better chance of passing — especially if the opposition is underfunded and disorganized. Since the end of July, the campaign committee formed to pass Amendment 3 received more than $3 million in donations of $5,000 or more.That money could be used for television advertisements to improve the proposal’s standing further, Rogers said, as well as point out that Missouri’s current abortion ban doesn’t allow the procedure in the case of rape or incest.“Meanwhile, the anti side won’t have those resources to kind of try to make that counter argument as strongly, and they don’t have public opinion as strongly on their side,” Rogers said.There is precedent of a well-funded initiative almost failing due to opposition from socially conservative voters.In 2006, a measure providing constitutional protections for embryonic stem cell research nearly failed — even though a campaign committee aimed at passing it had a commanding financial advantage.Former state Sen. Bob Onder was part of the opposition campaign to that measure. He said earlier this month it is possible to create a similar dynamic in 2024 against Amendment 3, if social conservatives who oppose abortion rights can band together.“This is not about reproductive rights or care for miscarriages or IVF or anything else,” said Onder, the GOP nominee for Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District seat. “Missourians will learn that out-of-state special interests and dark money from out of state is lying to them and they will reject this amendment.”Quade said earlier this month that Missourians of all political ideologies are ready to roll back the state’s abortion ban.“Regardless of political party, we hear from folks who are tired of politicians being in their doctor’s offices,” Quade said. “They want politicians to mind their own business. So this is going to excite folks all across the political spectrum.”

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Democrat Mark Osmack makes his case for Missouri treasurer

Published

1 year ago

August 29, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Mark Osmack has been out of the electoral fray for awhile, but he never completely abandoned his passion for Missouri politics.Osmack, a Valley Park native and U.S. Army veteran, previously ran for Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District seat and for state Senate. Now he’s the Democratic nominee for state treasurer after receiving a phone call from Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Russ Carnahan asking him to run.“There’s a lot of decision making and processing and evaluation that goes into it, which is something I am very passionate and interested in,” Osmack said this week on an episode of Politically Speaking.Osmack is squaring off against state Treasurer Vivek Malek, who was able to easily win a crowded GOP primary against several veteran lawmakers including House Budget Chairman Cody Smith and state Sen. Andrew Koenig.While Malek was able to attract big donations to his political action committee and pour his own money into the campaign, Osmack isn’t worried that he won’t be able to compete in November. Since Malek was appointed to his post, Osmack contends he hasn’t proven that he’s a formidable opponent in a general election.“His actions and his decision making so far in his roughly two year tenure in that office have been questionable,” Osmack said.Among other things, Osmack was critical of Malek for placing unclaimed property notices on video gaming machines which are usually found in gas stations or convenience stores. The legality of the machines has been questioned for some time.As Malek explained on his own episode of Politically Speaking, he wanted to make sure the unclaimed property program was as widely advertised as possible. But he acknowledged it was a mistake to put the decals close to the machines and ultimately decided to remove them.Osmack said: “This doesn’t even pass the common sense sniff test of, ‘Hey, should I put state stickers claiming you might have a billion dollars on a gambling machine that is not registered with the state of Missouri?’ If we’re gonna give kudos for him acknowledging the wrong thing, it never should have been done in the first place.”Osmack’s platform includes supporting programs providing school meals using Missouri agriculture products and making child care more accessible for the working class.He said the fact that Missouri has such a large surplus shows that it’s possible to create programs to make child care within reach for parents.“It is quite audacious for [Republicans] to brag about $8 billion, with a B, dollars in state surplus, while we offer next to no social services to include pre-K, daycare, or child care,” Osmack said.Here’s are some other topics Osmack discussed on the show:How he would handle managing the state’s pension systems and approving low-income housing tax credits. The state treasurer’s office is on boards overseeing both of those programs.Malek’s decision to cut off investments from Chinese companies. Osmack said that Missouri needs to be cautious about abandoning China as a business partner, especially since they’re a major consumer of the state’s agriculture products. “There’s a way to make this work where we are not supporting communist nations to the detriment of the United States or our allies, while also maintaining strong economic ties that benefit Missouri farmers,” he said.What it was like to witness the skirmish at the Missouri State Fair between U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and Democratic challenger Lucas Kunce.Whether Kunce can get the support of influential groups like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which often channels money and staff to states with competitive Senate elections.

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As Illinois receives praise for its cannabis equity efforts, stakeholders work on system’s flaws

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1 year ago

August 29, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Medical marijuana patients can now purchase cannabis grown by small businesses as part of their allotment, Illinois’ top cannabis regulator said, but smaller, newly licensed cannabis growers are still seeking greater access to the state’s medical marijuana customers.Illinois legalized medicinal marijuana beginning in 2014, then legalized it for recreational use in 2020. While the 2020 law legalized cannabis use for any adult age 21 or older, it did not expand licensing for medical dispensaries.Patients can purchase marijuana as part of the medical cannabis program at dual-purpose dispensaries, which are licensed to serve both medical and recreational customers. But dual-purpose dispensaries are greatly outnumbered by dispensaries only licensed to sell recreationally, and there are no medical-only dispensaries in the state.As another part of the adult-use legalization law, lawmakers created a “craft grow” license category that was designed to give more opportunities to Illinoisans hoping to legally grow and sell marijuana. The smaller-scale grow operations were part of the 2020 law’s efforts to diversify the cannabis industry in Illinois.Prior to that, all cultivation centers in Illinois were large-scale operations dominated by large multi-state operators. The existing cultivators, mostly in operation since 2014, were allowed to grow recreational cannabis beginning in 2019.Until recently, dual-purpose dispensaries have been unsure as to whether craft-grown products, made by social equity licensees — those who have lived in a disproportionately impacted area or have been historically impacted by the war on drugs — can be sold medicinally as part of a patient’s medical allotment.Erin Johnson, the state’s cannabis regulation oversight officer, told Capitol News Illinois last month that her office has “been telling dispensaries, as they have been asking us” they can now sell craft-grown products to medical patients.“There was just a track and trace issue on our end, but never anything statutorily,” she said.

Dilpreet Raju

Capitol News IllinoisThe graphic shows how cannabis grown in Illinois gets from cultivation centers to customers.

No notice has been posted, but Johnson’s verbal guidance comes almost two years after the first craft grow business went online in Illinois.It allows roughly 150,000 medical patients, who dispensary owners say are the most consistent purchasers of marijuana, to buy products made by social equity businesses without paying recreational taxes. However — even as more dispensaries open — the number available to medical patients has not increased since 2018, something the Cannabis Regulation Oversight Office “desperately” wants to see changed. Johnson said Illinois is a limited license state, meaning “there are caps on everything” to help control the relatively new market.Berwyn Thompkins, who operates two cannabis businesses, said the rules limited options for patients and small businesses.“It’s about access,” Thompkins said. “Why wouldn’t we want all the patients — which the (adult-use) program was initially built around — why wouldn’t we want them to have access? They should have access to any dispensary.”Customers with a medical marijuana card pay a 1% tax on all marijuana products, whereas recreational customers pay retail taxes between roughly 20 and 40% on a given cannabis product, when accounting for local taxes.While Illinois has received praise for its equity-focused cannabis law, including through an independent study that showed more people of color own cannabis licenses than in any other state, some industry operators say they’ve experienced many unnecessary hurdles getting their businesses up and running.The state, in fact, announced last month that it had opened its 100th social equity dispensary.But Steve Olson, purchasing manager at a pair of dispensaries (including one dual-purpose dispensary) near Rockford, said small specialty license holders have been left in the lurch since the first craft grower opened in October 2022.“You would think that this would be something they’re (the government) trying to help out these social equity companies with, but they’re putting handcuffs on them in so many different spots,” he said. “One of them being this medical thing.”Olson said he contacted state agencies, including the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, months ago about whether craft products can be sold to medical patients at their retail tax rate, but only heard one response: “They all say it was an oversight.”This potentially hurt social equity companies because they sell wholesale to dispensaries and may have been missing out on a consistent customer base through those medical dispensaries.Olson said the state’s attempts to provide licensees with a path to a successful business over the years, such as with corrective lotteries that granted more social equity licenses, have come up short.“It’s like they almost set up the social equity thing to fail so the big guys could come in and swoop up all these licenses,” Olson said. “I hate to feel like that but, if you look at it, it’s pretty black and white.”Olson said craft companies benefit from any type of retail sale.“If we sell it to medical patients or not, it’s a matter of, ‘Are we collecting the proper taxes?’ That’s all it is,” he said.State revenue from cannabis taxes, licensing costs and other fees goes into the Cannabis Regulation Fund, which is used to fund a host of programs, including cannabis offense expungement, the general revenue fund, and the R3 campaign aiming to uplift disinvested communities.For fiscal year 2024, nearly $256 million was paid out from Cannabis Regulation Fund for related initiatives, which includes almost $89 million transferred to the state’s general revenue fund and more than $20 million distributed to local governments, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue.Medical access still limitedThe state’s 55 medical dispensaries that predate the 2020 legalization law, mostly owned by publicly traded multistate operators that had been operating in Illinois since 2014 under the state’s medical marijuana program, were automatically granted a right to licenses to sell recreationally in January 2020. That gave them a dual-purpose license that no new entrants into the market can receive under current law.Since expanding their clientele in 2020, Illinois dispensaries have sold more than $6 billion worth of cannabis products through recreational transactions alone.Nearly two-thirds of dispensaries licensed to sell to medical patients are in the northeast counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will. Dual-purpose dispensaries only represent about 20 percent of the state’s dispensaries.While the state began offering recreational dispensary licenses since the adult-use legalization law passed, it has not granted a new medical dispensary license since 2018. That has allowed the established players to continue to corner the market on the state’s nearly 150,000 medical marijuana patients.But social equity licensees and advocates say there are more ways to level the playing field, including expanding access to medical sales.Johnson, who became the state’s top cannabis regulator in late 2022, expressed hope for movement during the fall veto session on House Bill 2911, which would expand medical access to all Illinois dispensaries.“We would like every single dispensary in Illinois to be able to serve medical patients,” Johnson said. “It’s something that medical patients have been asking for, for years.”Johnson said the bill would benefit patients and small businesses.“It’s something we desperately want to happen as a state system, because we want to make sure that medical patients are able to easily access what they need,” she said. “We also think it’s good for our social equity dispensaries, as they’re opening, to be able to serve medical patients.”Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, who was the first statewide project coordinator for Illinois’ medical cannabis program prior to joining the legislature, wrote in an email to Capitol News Illinois that the state needs to be doing more for its patients.“Illinois is failing the state’s 150,000 medical cannabis patients with debilitating conditions. Too many are still denied the patient protections they deserve, including access to their medicine,” Morgan wrote, adding he would continue to work with stakeholders on further legislation.Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.

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