Demand Justice for Jasmine Darwin

Act To Fire Officer De Los Santos Now!

Last week, 15-year-old Jasmine Darwin was was recorded being body slammed by a police officer who works at Rolesville High School in Rolesville, North Carolina.¹ The video captures Officer Ruben De Los Santos picking Jasmine up over his head and throwing her body to the ground. Jasmine is suffering from a concussion and Officer De Los Santos has been put on paid administrative leave, meaning he still has a job and will come back and continue working with children. That is unacceptable, Officer De Los Santos has to go!

Demand that Ruben De Los Santos be terminated as an officer at Rolesville High School.

This comes just over a year after the Spring Valley High incident where another young Black girl was body slammed by a school police officer in South Carolina.²These two situations are disturbingly similar young Black girls are literally being thrown to the ground by adult men who, ironically, are being paid to provide safety in the classroom. These officers must be held accountable in order to set a precedent that Black children deserve to be treated with dignity. Over 100,000 of you signed our petition to get the officer fired in SC and we won. We can make that happen at #RolesvilleHigh with your help.

Officer De Los Santos is not fit to work with young people. Demand that he get fired as “resource officer”.

The Rolesville Police Department’s failure to immediately fire Officer De Los Santos perpetuates the harmful narrative that Black children deserve to be harshly reprimanded by execution of physically violence. The presence of law enforcement in schools and neighborhoods normalizes the criminalization and patrolling of Black children in areas are supposed to be “safe zones”.³

Instead of school staff working with young people to address behavioral issues, police criminalize and abuse them –doing everything but being a resource of safety.

Tell Wake County Police department to get rid of Ruben De Los Santos at Rolesville High School.

Sincerely,

Scott, Rashad, Arisha, Scott, Malaya, Enchanta, and the rest of the Color Of Change team

References:

“Disturbing video shows NC police officer slaming high school to teh gorund,” the root, 01.03.2017. http://act.colorofchange.org/go/7227?t=7&akid=6692.1174326.Ku1Nr9
“Video Shows Cop Body Slamming High School girl in SC,” nbc, 10.27.2017http://act.colorofchange.org/go/7229?t=9&akid=6692.1174326.Ku1Nr9
“DO cops in schools do more harm than good,” time, 10.29.2015 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/7230?t=11&akid=6692.1174326.Ku1Nr9

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Working Washington … Washington State V Matt Manweller?

01/13/2017 Nativegrl77

We are Working Washington

Did you have about the WA State Representative who recently wrote that the minimum wage should be $0 and that eliminating zero as a minimum wage was one of the “mistakes” of the Civil War? (Seriously.) He owes us all an explanation of his remarks — but he hasn’t offered one yet. In two clicks you can add your name to our letter asking him to tell us what exactly he was talking about when he wrote this email. >>>

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#rextillerson has a track record of putting corporate interests ahead of American interests

Image 01/13/2017 Nativegrl77

Tell your Senators: Reject Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State.

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FDA Encourages More Participation, Diversity in Clinical Trials

01/13/2017 Nativegrl77

Clinical trials are voluntary human research studies designed to answer specific questions about the safety and effectiveness of drugs, vaccines, devices, and other therapies—or to study new ways of using existing treatments.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is encouraging more people—including members of diverse racial and ethnic groups, women, and older adults—to participate in clinical trials. Read the Consumer Update to learn why.

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Confirmations 101

01/12/2017 Nativegrl77

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and co. have hit the ground running in the new year. This week, they’re working to pack in as many of Trump’s cabinet nominees’ confirmation hearings as possible. Like many congressional procedures, the cabinet confirmation process is not totally clear. And unlike many congressional proceedings there isn’t a Schoolhouse Rock video explaining the confirmation process. So we’ve been forced to take this explanation on ourselves.

Here’s what you need to know:

All cabinet-level officials, as well as hundreds of other agency heads and senior positions, require senate confirmation. The first step of the confirmation process is the vetting and disclosure process, which the vast majority of Trump’s nominees have not completed. Then, the nominee is given to the Senate committee with jurisdiction over the appointed position, the Senate Judiciary committee, for example, oversees the Attorney General. Full list of committee jurisdictions here. That committee then can hold hearings (happening this week) and either vote to move the nominee to the Senate floor for a full vote or refuse to do so, killing the nomination. The committee can report the nomination favorably, unfavorably, or without recommendation to the rest of the Senate. Once a nomination gets out of the committee, it goes to a full Senate vote, where it needs a simple majority vote.