ATLANTA — Community members who live around the Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks was killed want action from elected officials.
Friday night, members of the Neighborhood Planning Unit (NPU) put together a town hall and solidarity march.
NPUs are citizen advisory councils that make recommendations to the mayor and city council on zoning, land use, and other community-related concerns.
Representatives from NPU-V, which makes up Adair Park, Mechanicsville, Peoplestown, Pittsburgh, and Summerhill/Capitol Homes, came together to create a list of demand following the shooting of Brooks.
The Wendy’s where Brooks was killed is located in Peoplestown. Community leaders say they sent the list of demand to city officials two weeks ago and have yet to receive a response. While the list was created and sent after Brook’s death, community members said many of the concerns were outstanding for years.
The list of demands includes:
- Community members on the hiring committee for the next police chief.
- Adopt a formal community policing program.
- Impose intervention requirement for officers in presence of officer interacting with a suspect in a manner that violates protocols.
- Eliminate qualified immunity for police officers sued by the families of decedents.
- Limit police use of deadly force and require reasonable force standard and unnecessary force standard
- Prohibit the use of chokeholds by police.
- Require release of body cam footage within a prescribed period.
- Officer pensions should be forfeited if they are found guilty of misconduct.
- Defund police weaponry to reinvest in social community programs.
- Transform APD policing policies, procedures, and training to support community policing efforts.
- Support community efforts to end voter suppression.
- Support to end "Stand Your Ground" and citizen’s arrest laws.
- Remove qualified immunity status for police officers.
- Implement mandatory psychological testing, racial bias training, and lie detector testing to prevent racialized arrests and killings.
- Independent review of all APD police shootings shall be mandatory, findings and results shall be given to communities and District Attorney.
- 120-day moratorium on the use of all military-grade equipment in the City of Atlanta.
- Mandate community input on new hiring of officers.
- Demand Prosecutor accountability via the Community Review Board.
- Community and Officials shall appoint a citizen review board with a paid position.
- Elected officials must support, advocate, legislate for the interests of the communities they represent.
- Put a limit on the number of terms an elected position can be held, reduced to eight consecutive years, not more.
- Impose a Cease of fire from all APD officers via a 90-day moratorium in the City of Atlanta, only if the life of the officer is imperiled.
Community members said they’ll continue to meet- and continue to ask for elected officials to respond to their concerns.
Saturday morning, some plan to head back to the Wendy’s restaurant to start cleaning up around the area.
Read the detailed list of demands here.
MORE HEADLINES