ANGELICA DUEÑAS, MOTHER, WIFE, ACTIVIST AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZER. BORN AND RAISED IN THE SAN FERNANDO VALLEY. RAISING FIVE CHILDREN WHO ATTEND LAUSD SCHOOLS. BA, IN POLITICAL SCIENCE. MA, IN ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP. ACCEPTS ZERO CORPORATE MONEY SO SHE IS BEHOLDEN TO THE PEOPLE AND NOT SPECIAL INTERESTS.
From mass incarceration to police shootings and killings, and all the way to our court system of convicting officers' wrong doing, there is must needed room for criminal justice reform. Public trust on our police departments have deteriorated over the years, especially with the use of cell phone videos and body cameras. We know that police have always used excessive and deadly force disproportionately against Black and Brown citizens and our unhoused community members. We know that while Black and Latinx Americans comprise just 28% of our population, they are 56% of our incarcerated. Here in the state of California, we also subject our incarcerated to prison labor by having them on the frontlines of climate change fighting deadly wildfires at only $1 in pay per day. This public distrust is valid because many people, including the Native American, African American, Latinx, LGTBQIA+ and the Disabled community, have been unjustly targeted and sometimes end up dead for minor issues like traffic stops, disproportionately to Whites. We are outraged that when officers do get charged with murder or manslaughter, most often than not, they never get convicted.