For more than a year, Assemblywoman Shirley Weber has been working on a bill meant to curb police shootings by limiting when police can use deadly force. The San Diego Democrat persevered through political setbacks and failed attempts at compromise before landing on a version that now appears likely to become law.
A sharecropper’s daughter who was born in Arkansas, Weber came of age in Los Angeles during the rise of the black power movement in the 1960s. She went on to study history and spent decades as a scholar of African-American social movements that foreshadowed today’s push for greater police accountability. But other lawmakers don’t share her radical background, and Weber needs their support for her bill to pass.
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Force of Law
- Part 1 Force of Law
- Part 2 Cycles The first episode looks back at the decade since police shot and killed Oscar Grant and the momentum created by last year’s death of Stephon Clark.
- Part 3 Split Lobbying is under way in California's Capitol for two vastly different approaches to reduce police shootings across the state.
- Part 4 The Deciders
- Next: Part 5 The Line This episode focuses on the risks police officers face and explains why many say the final version of a bill no longer puts them in greater danger.
- Part 6 From Bill to Law
- Part 7 Breakdowns How will California's new laws meant to reduce police shootings affect how officers respond to calls to help people in mental crisis?
- Part 8 Looking North As California debated a new law limiting when police can use deadly force, advocates pointed to Seattle as a place that's benefited from a similar policy.