Civil Rights/Criminal Justice Reform
SOS members at Roundhouse in support of our legislative initiative
Civil rights are rights guaranteed by constitutions (federal and state) and laws authorized by those constitutions. Women, people of color, those who identify with ethnic, cultural and religious groups, LGBTQ, and people with disabilities are represented by advocacy organizations that work to assure equal treatment under law and protect civil rights when they are threatened. Recent events, including police violence and domestic terrorism, as well as recent decisions by the Supreme Court, have threatened the civil rights of many people in this country.
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What We Are Doing
Public safety is a
community concern. Through our partnerships with state and local law
enforcement leaders, we have developed a bill that creates a system to
modernize the training of all law enforcement professionals and hold them
accountable for their performance.
The legislation fills gaps in existing
statues and requires a complete, comprehensive update of all training, from
basic through advanced. It requires reporting of data for individual law
enforcement professionals with consequences for failure to report. We are
actively seeking candidates for the new policy and oversight bodies, which are
described in our legislation; these will be appointed by the governor.
We are advocating for worthy civil rights
and criminal justice reforms introduced by others throughout the 2023 NM
legislative session. Following the session, we will facilitate discussion and planning among law
enforcement leaders in the state to increase collaboration in order to improve
safety for all.
We support the efforts of Somos
Un Pueblo Unido, an organization working to build communities that
do not discriminate based on national origin or immigration status and achieve
better representation for immigrant and mixed status families in southeast New
Mexico.
In 2022, we successfully supported
Somos’s efforts to appropriate $10 million
in cash assistance and tax rebates to low-income workers who were unable to
benefit from COVID relief funds.
SOS meeting with Law Enforcement leaders, led by SOS Committee Chair Rachel Feldman and Public Safety Deputy Secretary Ben Baker
