Essential California

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Tuesday, Aug. 20, and I’m writing from Modesto. On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that will change the standards for when police in the state can use lethal force. The signing of Assembly Bill 392 capped the end of an emotional legislative battle that “laid bare the chasm between California’s communities of color and police,” as my colleague state politics and policy reporter Anita Chabria wrote. (Chabria covered AB 392 extensively throughout the legislative process.) The legislation, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, was prompted by police killings of unarmed black men, and the death of Stephon Clark in particular. Clark — an unarmed black man holding a cellphone — was fatally shot by Sacramento police in March 2018, sparking widespread protests and outrage. Clark’s brother Stevante Clark stood by Newsom’s side at the bill’s signing. “The bill is watered down, everybody knows that,” Stevante Clark told Chabria. “But at least we are getting something done. At least we are having the conversation now.” The law will give California some of the toughest police use-of-force standards in the nation. But a compromise that pacified law enforcement opposition earlier this year also led some of the bill’s earliest champions to drop their support, including Black Lives Matter Los Angeles. “For 400 years, people of color have often had a different kind of justice than others in this nation,” Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), the law’s author, said. “And after 400 years of demonstrating our commitment and our humanity to this nation, we deserve fairness and justice.” Weber also said that the law could stand as a model for other states. Here’s a quick primer written by Chabria: What does the law do? The new language will require that law enforcement use deadly force only when “necessary,” instead of the current wording of when it is “reasonable.” In large urban law enforcement departments that already train for deescalation and crisis intervention, day-to-day policing will probably not noticeably change. The law also prohibits police from firing on fleeing felons who don’t pose an immediate danger, an update from California’s original code that dates back to 1872. How will it help curb the use of lethal force? Under current law, prosecutors can only consider the moment lethal force was used when determining if an officer acted within the law. Did an officer reasonably believe his or her life or bystanders’ lives were in danger in those seconds? Under the new standard, prosecutors can also consider the actions both of officers and of the victim leading up to a deadly encounter, to determine whether the officer acted within the scope of law, policy and training. Opening up those tactics to scrutiny, supporters believe, will encourage departments to train officers in deescalation and other strategies that could decrease the use of lethal force and provide a potential path to accountability when it is used. Weber, the bill’s author, said recently that AB 392 will be an “aggressive effort to retrain our officers and change the culture of police.”