We the constituents of the Congressional Black Caucus, in view of the ongoing violence against blacks by police all over this country, demand that the Caucus place before the United States Congress, Executive Branch, and Judicial Branch of the Federal Government an immediate action to pass Civil Rights Legislation to protect the citizens of this country from unfair treatment by its Law Enforcement Agencies. This legislation should take the form of progressive action in support of supplying local police departments and communities with funding to attain the following:

1. For Police, Non-lethal tranquilizing weaponry which provides the same expedience and release in impact time, without the deadly effect of firearms. It is obvious that the current taser programs have proven inadequate fostering a belief in police officers that their best and safest option is the use of firearms. The use of firearms as a first option must stop if we are to assure that the citizens of this country are to not have their constitutional right to a fair trial violated by premature death and to end the senseless killing of innocent people.
2. For Police and the Community: Affirmative Action Policy which has been mandated on federal contracts and Universities must be expanded to police agencies. Currently the employee rosters of police agencies do not reflect the demographics of the citizens that they serve. This disparity is in part responsible for the distrust and lack of understanding evident between police and the communities that they serve. Every police agency should strive to assure that their staffing and recruiting activities appropriately target their demographic deficiencies and create greater representations of their constituents in the communities that they serve.
3. Community Engagement Initiatives should be mandated by legislation and funded by the Federal Government. Police Officers like a number of other employees of organizations and leagues who serve as role models of the community, should spend a minimum number of hours engaging the community in an effort to absorb the cultural and social norms embodied in the community. Like those who serve in the political realm, no one can be a servant of a community in which they are socially and emotionally separated.

The signatures herein found upon this document demand that those who represent us having been congealed in so a great an organization respond to the outcry of their constituents who are not simply categorized as such by census tracts but the shared oppression that they witness in the streets which may at any point escalate beyond their moral fiber and patience to the point of no return.