California lawmakers filed legislation this week to ban the “racist” use of police canines for arrests and crowd control, sparking some backlash from law enforcement.
Assemblyman Corey Jackson, who represents part of Riverside County, and Assemblyman Ash Kaldra, of South San Jose, introduced AB 742 Feb. 13, to end what they said was deeply racialized and harmful practice of using police dogs against Black Americans and people of color.
“If Black and Brown people are continuously being the victims of use of force, then we must make sure that any use of force is reigned in,” Jackson told The Epoch Times.
The bill also addresses the historic implications of police dogs. Canines were used to “track down my ancestors to put them back into slavery,” he said. They were also used in the 1950s and 1960s during the Civil Rights movement to “stop black people from voting and registering to vote.”…