WEST PARK, FL – Recently, West Park Vice Mayor Brian C. Johnson announced that he will not be seeking or accepting any endorsements or contributions from police unions.
“Protecting bad cops and using influence to create a fertile ground of misconduct without consequences has resulted in deadly consequences for too many unarmed citizens, especially Black women and men. We are currently in the midst of a global rebuke of racism and incidents of police brutality, and people all over the world are demanding lasting change. Yet, we have seen police union heads stay silent or essentially taunt protestors with open invitations to support and protect officers who are hurting and killing people that they have sworn to protect and serve. I, for one, desire no part of such blatant disregard and dangerous in-difference to the damaging effects of police misconduct. I am now drawing my line in the sand and challenging police unions to either join our efforts or continue to be a target of our efforts to bring long overdue changes to police culture.
With that being said, I will continue to be an advocate for rewarding good police who honor the profession by protecting and serving – not hurting and hating, and I will continue to support police reforms that balance support for public safety with a reduced dependence upon police through advocating for more support of social solutions to solve social problems. I will continue to strongly advocate for police reforms, including but not limited to the following:
- Make affiliation with racism/white nationalism a permanent disqualifier for a career in law enforcement
- End Broken Windows Policing
- Community Oversight of Police Departments
- Limit Use of Force
- Independent Investigation and Prosecution of Police Misconduct
- Increase the number of police officers who reflect the communities they serve
- Require the use of body cameras and ban police officers from taking cell phones or recording devices
- Invest in Rigorous and Sustained Training – including implicit bias training
- End qualified immunity and require police departments to bear the cost of misconduct
- Keep officers’ disciplinary history accessible to police departments and the public.
These reforms are both reasonable and right. I encourage all candidates to join me in this stance to promote these changes and refuse partnerships with police unions until they join us in making these changes. I challenge any entity who opposes these reasonable and right changes to declare your objections now, and thereby make it clearer who our adversaries are in this fight.”
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