As more systems begin to recognize the public health implications of police violence, California makes a landmark decision to curb this violence through the passing of Stephon Clark's law on Monday. The broader context of this move helps highlight its significance:
- The American Public Health Association named law enforcement violence as a public health issue in a November 2018 statement.
- A research study published in The Lancet found that African Americans experience measurable mental health distress in the wake of high profile police shootings of black men.
- And in August 2019, a research study was published in the journal of the National Academy of Sciences, identifying police as the sixth leading cause of mortality for young black men.
With the passage of Stephon Clark's law, California has taken steps to address this mental and physical health risk for its residents.
Writes Anita Chabria in The Los Angeles Times:
After an emotional fight that laid bare the chasm between California’s communities of color and police, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed Assembly Bill 392, creating what some have described as one of the toughest standards in the nation for when law enforcement officers can kill. [Read full article here.]
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