BY TRACE WILLIAM COWEN
As the election spotlight remains firmly focused on
the troubling state of police brutality in the United States for many voters,
the issue is inspiring refreshingly direct responses from some candidates.
Bernie Sanders, a very public proponent of drastic police reform, told
theGuardian earlier this week that he not only supported such reform but also
the implementation of a mandatory national database for allpolice-related
deaths.
"When individuals die under police
apprehension or police custody, should [reporting that] be mandatory?"
Sanders posited during a press conference on Wednesday. "Yes. I do believe
that." Sanders added, after being questioned by the Guardian, that he
would also support any legislation seeking to make this a reality:
Of course, the Vermont Senator's stance on
combating the prevalence of American police brutality has been a crucial
component of his campaign platform since he first announced his White House
intentions. "At the federal level we need to establish a new model police
training program that reorients the way we do law enforcement in this
country," Sanders said in August when revealing his own plan for reform.
"With input from a broad segment of the community including activists and
leaders from organizations like Black Lives Matter, we will reinvent how we
police America."
Though this proposed national database has
continued to garner a baffling number of opponents, publications like the
Guardian have already implemented their own tracking method for police-related
deaths in America. At the time of publication, the Guardian's The Counted
project reports that 158 people have been killed by police in 2016 alone.
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