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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, Police use of force is among the leading causes of
3death for young men of color; and
 
4    WHEREAS, Black people, including Black women and girls,
5Native Americans, and Latinos are killed by police at
6disproportionately higher rates than their White peers; and
 
7    WHEREAS, Police brutality and the use of excessive force
8have robbed countless communities of precious lives, inflicted
9intergenerational harm and trauma to families, and intensified
10our nation's mental health crisis; and
 
11    WHEREAS, The killings of hundreds each year and the
12demonstrations that followed have brought sustained national
13attention to racially biased police violence against people;
14and
 
15    WHEREAS, The conduct of police officers who engage in
16racial profiling and excessive force, which can include
17shootings, brutal beatings, fatal chokings, and any other
18excessive treatment, is a violation of federal and State
19constitutional law; and
 
20    WHEREAS, The rule of law within our nation is undermined

 

 

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1when police officers engage in conduct that is inconsistent
2with federal and State constitutional law; and
 
3    WHEREAS, As elected officials, we have a moral and
4constitutional obligation to protect the civil rights and
5liberties of all people within our State from police abuses;
6therefore, be it
 
7    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
8HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
9we support strengthening efforts to eliminate instances of
10excessive use of force, to conduct stringent oversight and
11independent investigations into instances of police brutality,
12racial profiling, and excessive use of force, and to hold
13individual law enforcement officers and police departments
14accountable by doing the following:
15        (1) Calling on the United States Department of Justice
16    to reinstitute its role in investigating police
17    departments that violate civil rights and individual
18    instances of police brutality, violence, and racial
19    profiling and to assume a role in filing briefs urging
20    courts to reconsider decisions that permit unreasonable
21    and excessive police practices and establish meaningful
22    oversight of consent decrees; and
23        (2) Establishing independent all-civilian review
24    boards with the authority to effectively investigate

 

 

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1    incidents of police misconduct to ensure meaningful
2    community-level oversight, transparency, accountability,
3    and discipline of police officers; and be it further
 
4    RESOLVED, That we call for the adoption of sound and
5unbiased law enforcement policies at all levels of government
6that reduce the disparate impact of police brutality and use of
7force on Black and Brown people and other historically
8marginalized communities; and be it further
 
9    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
10delivered to the President of the United States, the U.S.
11Senate Majority Leader, the U.S. Senate Minority Leader, the
12U.S. Speaker of the House, the U.S. House of Representatives
13Minority Leader, and all members of the Illinois Congressional
14Delegation.