NAACP statement on candidates’ response to the NAACP Pledge to Protect and Preserve Our Lives
BALTIMORE, MD — NAACP President and CEO Cornell William Brooks recently issued the following statement after the NAACP Convention and RNC Convention in Ohio this week:
“Amidst both ongoing police–involved shootings in our streets and the recent slaying of police officers in the line of duty, the NAACP has called upon presidential candidates, other candidates and officeholders to take our Pledge to Protect and Preserve Our Lives. This five-point pledge calls upon candidates for the highest office in the land to take affirmative steps within 100 days of assuming office to reduce and eliminate unlawful police violence against civilians.
“Having declined to speak at the NAACP’s 107th Annual Convention, Mr. Trump has also declined to speak so much as a whisper of substance on this issue of concern to the millions of supporters and members of the NAACP – before and during the Republican National Convention. We are calling upon Mr. Trump to formally accept the Pledge and describe his undergirding policy positions in depth and detail. To the best of our knowledge and research, his campaign has yet to detail those positions.
“A few days ago, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, addressed the NAACP’s 107th Annual Convention in Cincinnati. Secretary Clinton substantively addressed the Pledge, as well as pledging to take action from day one upon assuming office. She has not as yet formally accepted the Protect and Preserve Our Lives Pledge. We call upon her to do so.
“With one horrific video after another, one hashtag tragedy after another, and at least 533 deaths at the hands of the police thus far this year, it’s long past time for those seeking our vote to take the NAACP’s Pledge to Protect and Preserve Our Lives. To ignore this pledge is to ignore police-perpetuated violence and to turn a blind eye to the street realities of 2016. No presidential candidate can credibly run and not take the pledge. No president can credibly govern without honoring the pledge.
“As a nonpartisan organization, the NAACP will neither offer a coronation nor a pass to any presidential candidate. You have to consistently show up and speak up between now and November.”
The NAACP Protect and Preserve Our Lives Pledge:
The NAACP is asking candidates in the November 8 election to partner with us in changing policing in our communities by taking the following pledge:
“In the first 100 days of my term, I commit to working with the White House, executive agencies and Congress to implement the following reforms via regulation, legislation, or executive order:
(1) Cut off all federal funding to law enforcement agencies that have been found to undertake a pattern or practice of discrimination. This funding restriction should continue until these agencies are in compliance with constitutional standards.
(2) Provide the United States Department of Justice subpoena power so that it can require the release of internal documents from local law enforcement agencies under investigation for discrimination.
(3) Create regulations that give detailed guidance to local law enforcement agencies about the data required to comply with the Death in Custody Reporting Act. These regulations should make clear that unless there are compelling reasons for an exception, the Act’s penalties on federal funding for non-reporting will be imposed.
(4) Create a federal code of conduct to provide local law enforcement agencies minimum standards on the use of force.
(5) Establish a federal independent review board to investigate police shootings of unarmed individuals.”
