Advocating for Racial Justice in Maryland

A Message from the Racial Justice Circle, 2/19/2022:

CCC is a part of two coalitions working toward racial justice in Maryland. The Maryland Alliance for Judicial Reform (MAJR) is promoting about a dozen bills in the Maryland State Legislature. As announced in the 19 January eNewsNotes, you can become a participant in advocating for these bills by clicking on https://www.ma4jr.org/individuals/ and signing up to contact your legislators. MAJR will contact you when it is a good time to do this by sending you an email. You can see a listing of these bills by clicking on https://www.ma4jr.org/legislation-2022/.

The other coalition to which CCC belongs is the Silver Spring Justice Coalition (SSJC). The CCC Racial Justice Circle has chosen two bills supported by SSJC for our priority concern here at CCC.

– HB429, Kwam’s Law: Expanding Police Body Worn Camera. This is a bill that SSJC has been working closely on in partnership with Melody Cooper, whose son, Kwamena Ocran, was killed by plainclothes Gaithersburg City Police who were not wearing bodyworn cameras.

– HB129/SB12, Behavioral Health Crisis Response Services and Public Safety, limits law enforcement Interactions with people in mental health crisis. Provides funding to minimize law enforcement interaction with individuals experiencing mental health crisis

If you agree, contact your senators and delegates and let them know you want them to vote in favor of these bills. If you do not know who your legislators are, you can find out at the following link: http://mdelect.net.