Dear incoming president,

Police brutality has been a topic that's been talked a lot about but yet no real action has been taken against it. Lives being lost at the hands of people who are suppose to be protecting us and keeping us safe. Police brutality has become even worse lately, and has been targeted more towards the African american community. We can't have police abusing their power like they currently are, we need change and we need it now.

In 2016 alone, at least 865 have been killed at the hands of police and the year isn't even over yet. A majority of them were unarmed, people of color and mentally ill individuals. In 2015, police killed 990 people and not a single police was charged with murder or manslaughter. The killing has been on a rise and with few to none of the police involved being charged, not charging the police who are involved in taking innocent lives makes the issue seem small when police brutality is in fact a huge issue.

One way that you could drastically improve police brutality is to change the 911 system. When someone dials 911, no matter what the problem is the police are always the first to arrive at the scene. In the case of 66 year old Deborah Danner, an African American woman who suffered from various mental illnesses including schizophrenia, was recently shot and killed by police in NY; her death could've been completely avoided. When her neighbor called 911, the police was dispatched to her house. Social services or a medical team should have been sent to her house first instead. Police do not have the experience or necessary education people who deal with mentally ill individuals do. You need to change the 911 system so when someone calls 911 they get the help they really need. If you do this, cases like the one that happened with Deborah Danner can be completely avoided.

As the president I want you to work on changing police’s abuse of power. This dilemma is affecting hundreds of families all across America who have lost a loved one at the hands of police; but not just the ones who have lost someone but also the ones who feel they are at risk of losing someone. I'm talking about the African American population, there's about 46.3 million African Americans currently living in the united states. That's a lot of people that could be living in fear of something that you can change.

               Sincerely, Emily 

Sources:

https://thinkprogress.org

http://blackdemographics.com/

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/10/21/new_york_mayor_apologizes_for_police