Issue Position: Addressing Racism & Inequality

Issue Position

In 2018 I was proud to help craft the systemic racism bill that created a Director of Racial Equity in the Governor's administration. This role is charged with collecting data to help us understand and address policies in Vermont that maintain racial inequality.

I have also pushed for a greater transparency in law enforcement oversight. When a police officer has their conduct reviewed citizens need to be at the table. As it stands now, the review is conducted solely by other law enforcement agencies. Our bill in 2018 got stalled on this point but in June 2020 we managed to put 5 citizen seats on the state's law enforcement oversight board.

In 2020 we banned choke holds and made it clear state funding will be cut for law enforcement agencies that don't comply with our race data collection mandate. We also look forward to passing the full 2021 budget so that mental health and social workers augment law enforcement responses while money for officers is trimmed back.

We are doing more than I've covered here and we have a long way to go but the grassroots call for racial equity has prompted significant action in Montpelier.

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