Legislative District 34

We all deserve to be safe from violence. I believe true public safety begins with upstream, proactive community investment, particularly in communities of color that have suffered from sustained public disinvestment. We need to invest in housing, health care, including behavioral health care, education and childcare, economic opportunity, and civic infrastructure. When people have their needs met in stable, supportive communities, there is less violence. I also support investments in mental health crisis responders and social workers, and other efforts that connect people in crisis with resources. Community-driven violence prevention and restorative justice programs, which reduce violence and incarceration, are essential. Part of public safety is rebuilding trust through strong police accountability. Racial bias and over- policing needs to be addressed; and we need to listen to impacted communities. We also need stronger gun laws that remove guns from our communities– bans on assault style weapons, longer waiting periods, tougher background checks and stronger “extreme risk” laws so we can reduce gun violence.

As a legislator, we need to approach public safety beyond the scope it is defined as now. With a rise in hate crimes, we need to address how we can create safety for community members beyond policing. We must understand that community members can feel unsafe or wary of police interactions therefore we must create a safer environment for people to report hate crimes. I also support investment in mental health counselors for victims of hate crimes, conflict resolution, and other efforts that connect people in crisis with the resources they need.

Public safety is more than policing. We must work together on prevention to address the uptick in hate crimes. Culturally appropriate and community-led community safety is the way forward.

We need meaningful police accountability. We should not water down legislative attempts to eradicate excessive force and racial targeting. I will support deep investments in BIPOC communities and criminal legal reforms that address the policies that lead to the overrepresentation of Black community members in our carceral system. The negative impacts of the carceral system do not end the minute someone leaves prison– we must invest in measures that actively undo harm from this system. I will fight hard to ensure that formerly incarcerated people have access to housing, education, and employment including through expanding conviction clearance and expungement. If elected, I will follow the lead of the Black caucus on how to make continued, meaningful progress.

In 2014, I was raped by a man in my neighborhood and entered into a series of broken systems. I’ve worked with incredible lawmakers to pass multiple laws, both at the state and federal level, to fundamentally reform how survivors interact with the systems which failed me.

Over the course of my activism and healing from the trauma of being the victim of a violent crime, I have confronted an upsetting truth: our approach to public safety both fails to hold perpetrators of crime accountable and fails to help victims of crime, particularly victims of hate crimes. I had to plead with the police and other authorities to even investigate my assault. In the legislature, I will build off my and many others’ work to create a more modern, effective criminal justice and public safety system which centers accountability and rehabilitation and combats the systemic racism within its institutions. For imprisonment to be effective, it must return people to the community who are better than when they went in and must provide access to behavioral health services and job training.

Far too often, survivors of crimes are lost in the process, and they never receive the support they need. I want to create systems that provide survivors with access to emotional and supportive healing so that they can move past their experience and be made whole.

We will know that we have made progress to achieve these goals once we have crafted and implemented legislation which establishes reforms such as an Independent Prosecutor, ends qualified immunity, tests all of our rape kits, and requires the oversight of the AG’s Civil Rights Division within departments and sheriff’s offices statewide. We must make sure that the goals listed above are not only implemented in Washington, but we will know that progress has been made when these policies are successfully enforced. If elected, I will make sure that the implementation of these policies is carried out and maintained throughout our state.

Police accountability must be a priority in our legislature, and if elected I will work to craft policies like the appointment of an independent prosecutor in cases of police use of deadly force, creation of standards for police contracts, and formation of a civil right of action by victims for excessive use of force. We must implement policies which address implicit racial bias within all criminal justice officials, strike down laws and policies which maintain inherent racial impacts and biases, and redistribute resources and wealth to Black and Indigenous communities statewide. We must also fund mental and behavioral health specialists who can be called to situations that don’t require armed police officers.

We currently ask too much of law enforcement. They are expected to serve too many roles in which they don’t have the specialized training to deal with, so we must work together to build support systems that allow police to maintain public safety and that ensure greater equity and safety for the public. I have worked for years to build better support systems for victims of violent crime, and have worked with police to ensure they have the training they need to support survivors. While representing survivors on the Sexual Assault Forensic Examination (SAFE) Task Force, I passed bills that require rape kits be tested, tracked, and stored. By the end of this year, we will have tested the entire 10,000 rape kit backlog. We redefined rape in the 3rd degree to hold rapists accountable, and required training in trauma informed interviewing techniques for police investigators, and developed new protocals for hospitals. As a result of my work with Senator Patty Murray on the Survivor’s Access to Supportive Care Act, $150 million federal funds have been allocated to train sexual assault nurse examiners. I know how our legislative system works, and I have seen first hand the continued failures of our public safety system. I cannot wait to begin work to dramatically reshape the way our public safety institutions interact with our communities, and I know that reform must begin immediately. Our communities deserve victim-centered services, access to behavioral healthcare, and a public safety system which they can trust.

Beyond the policies listed above which I will prioritize if elected, recent reports of Seattle Police failing to take timely sexual assault reports have been extremley disappointing and discouraging especially as my work on the Sexual Assault Forensic Examinaton Taskforce sought to end just that in Washington. Legislation, once passed, must be enforced. We must make sure that not only we are passing legislation which establishes Independent Prosecutors, ends traffic stops, and abolishes qualified immunity, but it is crucial that we ensure that legislation is enforced within the institutions we seek to hold accountable.

If elected, I will work tirelessly to not only pass the reforms and programs above- but I will ensure that they are enforced and maintained throughout our public safety system.