Page 8 - Sonoma County Gazette January 2016

1.5o to Stay Alive?
LAW cont’d from page 1
These topics were identified by the Board of Supervisors as specific topics to be analyzed by the Task Force. I will focus this article on the work of the sub- committee on Law Enforcement Accountability which I had the honor to chair.
Making Connections
By Tish Levee
A victory for all of us, the Paris Climate Conference COP21 was far
different than the meeting in Copenhagen in 2009. Driven by grassroots movements around the world, such as 350.org, the conference represented not just big developed countries, but also many small, especially vulnerable ones, already feeling the impacts of climate change—especially sea level rise. Unique, also, was the involvement of state and provincial governments and the mayors of 400 cities.
After 16 months of work by Task Force a report to the Board of Supervisors was submitted earlier this year. The report contains a wide array of recommendations aimed at improving relations between the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office and the community. Perhaps the most significant proposal contained in the report is the establishment of an independent office to monitor and review investigations of allegations of excessive use of force. This new office will also greatly expand community outreach efforts to close the gap, which some people report, between the Sheriff’s Office and especially minority communities. The full report and a list of task force members can be seen on- line at www.sonomacounty.ca.gov/Community-and-Local-Law-Enforcement- Task-Force/Final-Recommendations.
Heard throughout the conference and shared widely on social media, “1.5 to Stay Alive,” was the rallying cry of small island nations and other vulnerable countries. A victory for them, 1.5 Co became an aim of COP21, with an agreement to limit global warming to below 2o Celsius—3.6o Fahrenheit.
However, many detractors maintain that neither goal will be enough. Already the world is 1o C above pre-industrial levels, and the Arctic is warming twice as fast, which is important because as it heats up, more ice melts, raising sea levels. While all but ten of the 195 participating countries—the ones representing 98% of greenhouse gas emissions—submitted specific pledges by Dec. 10th, temperatures would still climb to 3.7o C, even if they’re all fulfilled.
Over the months which have passed since the Task Force recommendations were submitted to the Board of Supervisors the new office has been funded for start-up and the process to hire a director has been underway. On Friday, December 18, 2015, the Board of Supervisors interviewed a slate of finalists seeking to be the new director and to run the new office. It is likely a director will be on-board within a couple of months. Then the work will begin in earnest to implement the day to day operations of an oversight office.
Many climate leaders, including the “father of climate change,” James Hansen, who called it a “fraud” and Sonoma County’s Mike Sandler, co- founder of the Center for Climate Protection, felt the agreement did not go
far enough. Read more from Mike. Also saying COP21 is not enough was a coalition of Indigenous People, many of them islanders, whose very lives are threatened by sea level rise (SLR). Still, it’s the first significant progress that has been made to date.
The Task Force recommendations advised the Board of Supervisors to
create a new office which is completely independent of the Sheriff’s Office and which reports directly to the Board of Supervisors rather than be under the administrative thumb of the Office of the County Administrator. The Board of Supervisors accepted this advice and the new office will be independent. That said, the new office will have to develop a professional working relationship with the Sheriff’s Office since cooperation will be needed to ensure success
of the program wherein all investigations done by the Sheriff’s Office will be reviewed by the new accountability office to guarantee the investigations were done thoroughly and that each investigation succeeded in getting to the facts of an incident. This is a level of public oversight not currently present in our county.
Side events at COP21 made important contributions
Mike Sandler was part of www.capglobalcarbon.org. Another was the Pacific Coast Collaborative, including the Mayors of Oakland and Vancouver, B.C., the Minister for Environment for British Columbia, the governor of Washington, and our own Governor Jerry Brown. My friend Cate Kozak, a freelancer
from North Carolina,, was in Paris and attended this meeting; she said they discussed their success with carbon trading and how good it’s been for their economy. Governor Brown’s stressed that people against it don’t realize what a job creator it is! Cate was disappointed that there was “zilch” from the East Coast—the Carbon Reduction Collaborative was just among power plants.
A Cooperative Realtionship
She loved how really well organized the whole conference was; while there was lots of security, it all moved smoothly, and transit in Paris was free for the whole conference. Because it was held in Le Bourget, a suburb of Paris, Cate didn’t get to see many of the grassroots events that substituted for the planned 200,000 person climate march—canceled for security reasons. Iconic pictures of the 10,000 pairs of shoes, including the Pope’s and UN Secretary Gen. Ban Moon Ki’s, in an empty plaza the 1st morning; a circle of people holding a
red ribbon around Paris; and the large peace sign with solar rays and the words “100% Renewable” in front of the Eiffel Tower, swamped the internet. Meanwhile nearly 800,000 people took part in over 2300 climate actions in 175 countries.
Under the California Constitution the office of county sheriff is elected and it is completely within the Sheriff’s discretion to decide whether to engage in this new oversight regimen. It is for this reason that the new office must develop
a cooperative working relationship with the Sheriff. The Task Force believes that it is possible for legitimate oversight to take place within this framework so long as the process is transparent and the results are reported to the public in an annual report which will be presented in open session to the Board of Supervisors each year. It is important to note that Sheriff Freitas has stated his intention to help make this effort a success. This is a great place to start.
Like Cate, I’m really optimistic that this ground breaking agreement, while not legally binding, but essentially a guideline, holding everyone accountable, will begin to point us toward a reasonable goal. Congress would have had to approve a legally binding agreement, which is why Pres. Obama didn’t want one. However, this is such a big thing that national pride and the possibility
of shame will keep nations in line. Plus there are 5 year check-ins built into the program and the UN’s IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) was directed to do a special report in 2018.
A major task of the new office will be to conduct extensive outreach to
the community to open lines of communication and to learn of potential
“hot spots” of tension between law enforcement and the community. These efforts are designed to reduce tension and create a better working relationship between neighborhoods and those providing law enforcement services to them. Another task will be to track statistical trends to pin-point geographical problem areas or patterns of officer misconduct.
I don’t agree with some that we don’t have the science to get this below 2o C. I believe what we lack is the will. This is truly a renewable resource, as Al Gore stated. We must do everything we can to keep all fossil fuels in the ground and wean ourselves off them as quickly as possible, while moving forward on all fronts to use more renewable energy. I
The details contained in the final recommendations are worth reading for those who desire a complete picture of the tasks to be performed by the new office. I encourage you to go to the website noted above and review the actual recommendation to create the oversight function.
It can be done! Other countries already do it!
© Tish Levee 2015
8 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 1/16
In the end, the day to day work of the men and women who provide law enforcement services to our community is complex and can, of course, be very dangerous. We expect these public servants to be ready to come to our aid when called and we also expect that the work they perform will be consistent with the requirements of our federal constitution and community standards.
Working together in an open, transparent manner can help build the trust needed to encourage a close, friendly and constructive working relationship between law enforcement and each unique community these folks serve. The people of Sonoma County are taking a big step forward with the creation of this new office. It will take time for the full benefits to be apparent but I am certain that establishing more transparency and community engagement is always a good course to pursue.