Legislative District 22

I believe public safety is a term that has been used to achieve political goals and to instill fear. Obviously, we have law enforcement who ensure laws are being abided. As we have weakened our social safety net and continued to perpetuate policies that segregate and disenfranchise people, law enforcement has taken on a larger share of calls that are not enforcing of laws. First, we must ensure that law enforcement is accountable to build trust and ensure that officers are abiding by the same laws that they are responsible for enforcing. Having a database for police use of force, being able to decertify a bad officer, having an outside agency investigate police use of deadly force, defining force, etc. will help us reform our law enforcement system.

To reduce crime and interactions with law enforcement, we must build communities that can thrive where people have opportunity, security, justice, and resiliency. We need to provide affordable healthcare, living wage jobs, affordable housing and a justice system that is fair.

Applying these values to the larger principles of justice-- acknowledging and tackling the structural barriers to opportunity experienced by Black, Indigenous and Communities of Color (BIPOC) and LGBTQ residents, and residents of America is core to my priorities as a public servant and will inform my work as your legislator.

From our justice system that is inherently unjust, to the war on drugs, to structures that have been set up with the intent to discriminate, to exclusionary zoning restricting access to neighborhoods, opportunity and homeownership, to the racial wealth gap, to the inequities within our healthcare system, to Covid-19 related infections and mortality, and the maternal mortality rate of black mothers.

We must not only reform these systems, we must rebuild them with equity and racial justice.

We must continue shaping policies that not only address the need for equity and racial justice -- in our tax code, in how we fund schools, housing policy, our law enforcement and criminal legal systems, in climate mitigation and delivery of health care to name a few-- but also make sure we are doing so with a commitment to racial, social, and environmental justice, recognizing that the front line communities most impacted by threats ranging from corona virus to climate change, are those that have been historically marginalized or discriminated against.

I am committed to continue learning-- and acting -- to build a future of opportunity, security and justice for all Washingtonians.

Not at this time.